The Palladium in Worcester, Massachusetts was invaded by three heavyweights of progressive metal last night, as the Abstract Reality Tour featuring the Devin Townsend Project, Animals as Leaders and Monuments rolled into town. Unsurprisingly given the caliber of the lineup, the show (mostly) didn't fail to disappoint.
Monuments kicked off the festivities promptly at 8:00. These guys have been rapidly rising up the progressive metal ladder since ex-Periphery vocalist Chris Barretto joined the fold in 2013 and landing the opening slot on a high-profile tour like this, perfectly exemplifies the surge in popularity they've enjoyed over the past year. Just like on their excellent new album, The Amanuesis, Barretto is the driving force behind the quality of their live performance. His vocals that range from beautiful falsetto to powerful, almost guttural screams are excellent and have single-handedly elevated Monuments from middling djent band to one of the most exciting young acts in progressive metal. The setlist was perfect showcase of the versatility of his vocals and his work on the soaring yet crushing "Atlas" and gorgeous "Garden of Sankhara" was especially stirring. Not only is Barretto a top-tier vocalist, he is a phenomenal frontman that puts a ton of effort into getting the entire room involved in the performance. He made sure the crowd didn't forget who they were by inciting a wall-of-death, encouraging people to crowd surf and sing-a-long any opportunity he got and stage-diving numerous times during their far too short 30 minute set. Monuments packed the room full of energy right out of the gate and managed to successfully steal the show from both of the headliners in their brief but wholly memorable set.
Instrumental titans Animals as Leaders were up next. This marked my fifth seeing them and they once again managed to bowl me over in a live setting. You don't fully appreciate just how talented Animals as Leaders is as a band until you see them live. Tosin Abasi is every bit the guitar god he's made out to be. He makes even the most complex solos and riffs look routine. Audience members frequently were yelling about how of a machine he is between songs and I have to say I feel inclined to agree with that assessment. It's hard to fathom a human being being that effortlessly great at guitar. While Abasi's virtuoso guitar playing is clearly at forefront of the band, drummer Matt Gartska is every bit as talented behind the kit. The variety of beats and absolutely insane fills he pulls off has added another level of complexity to their music that they just didn't have in the past. It's no condience that their new album The Joy of Motion- the first of which Gartska has played on-is their finest work to-date. Gartska's inhuman and constantly unpredictable drumming has helped raise Animals as Leaders to another level as a band. As for the setlist, they played a majority of the prime cuts from The Joy of Motion ("Ka$cade", "Physical Education", "The Woven Web") dusted off some lesser-played tracks ("The Price of Everything and Value of Nothing", "Behaving Badly") off their self-titled debut and of course, played their set staples ("CAFO", "Tempting Time", "Wave of Babies") that haven't managed to lose even a little bit of their luster. I really wish Animals as Leaders headlined this show because there was just no way in hell Devin Townsend was going to top the crowd enthusiasm and awe-inspiring musicality that ran through their set.
After a bit of pause, Towsend hit the stage. I hadn't seen Townsend since he opened for Children of Bodom in 2011, so I was excited to get the chance to see him again. Even with my disdain for all of his post-Deconstruction material, I expected to at least be entertained by his typically hilarious and thoroughly enjoyable live performances. You could tell something was kind of off before he went on stage. The ridiculous dance-pop soundtrack Townsend plays when he's setting up was absent, there really wasn't much of a soundcheck and Townsend popped on stage without the lights even going down and immediately started talking about how miserable he was before he even started playing. He did crack a lot of the jokes once the set started, but they were often about how fucked up his current musical situation is and not a whole lot of them were particularly funny. It was really bizarre to see the typically cheery Townsend so bummed out and it definitely took away from some of the fun his live shows typically offer up. Not making things any better, was a setlist focused almost entirely on his new album Z2. Z2 was severely underwhelming to me and hearing these songs live didn't do much to change my mind. The Z2 songs aren't exactly awful from a songwriting standpoint, they just lack the soul and edge that his much of his early solo material had in spades. I will say, that I'm 100% in the minority on Z2. The Townsend faithful greeted the new material just as warmly as the older songs, if not more so. It also irked me that his set had such a narrow focus and ignored a majority of his catalog. He's got a seemingly endless number of songs, yet he focuses almost all of his attention on songs from records he's put out over the last three years. In my eyes, completely ignoring material from Deconstruction and Addicted! in an hour-long headlining set is an unforgivable sin. Townsend was able to offset his visibly disgruntled demeanor and poor song choices to an extent with his knack for showmanship, consistently excellent vocal performance and picking some solid non Z2 tracks to sprinkle into the set, but it still wasn't enough to save his set from being pretty disappointing on the whole. Unless he starts diversifying his setlists further and starts making enjoyable music again, I doubt I'll pay to see Devin Townsend live again.
Side Notes:
-This guy standing in front of me during Animals as Leader would not stop farting. Seriously take some Beano dude, you got some serious gas problems.
-Some guy standing in my vicinity brought a giant modified Dunkin Donuts sign that read "America runs on Devin". Sadly for him, I don't think Townsend noticed it.
-Chris Barretto of Monuments showed his saxophone chops during "Garden of Sankhara". He's a damn good player and for whatever reason, I forgot he played saxophone until he broke it out last night.
-Tosin Abasi has the best flat-top in music.
Scores:
Monuments 8.5/10
Animals as Leaders 8.5/10
Devin Townsend Project 7/10
Setlists:
Monuments:
Origin of Escape
Degenerate
Atlas
Garden of Sankhara
I, The Creator
Animals as Leaders:
Tooth & Claw
Tempting Time
Wave of Babies
Ka$Cade
Lippincott
Air Chrysalis
Point to Point
The Price of Everything and the Value of Nothing
Behaving Badly
Espera
Physical Education
The Woven Web
Weightless
CAFO
Devin Townsend Project:
Regulator
Rejoice
Midnight Sun
War
A New Reign
Z2
March of the Poozers
Ziltodian Empire
Bad Devil
Ziltoid Goes Home
Grace
Kingdom
No comments:
Post a Comment