Lineup: Coheed and Cambria/The Dear Hunter (Neverender: Good Apollo I'm Burning Star IV: From Fear Through the Eyes of Madness)
Venue: Blue Hills Bank Pavilion, Boston, MA
Date: May 9th, 2017
The Dear Hunter: My first exposure to The Dear Hunter came back in 2012 when they opened for Coheed and Cambria on The Afterman: Ascension tour, so it's only fitting that another set supporting Coheed brought them back onto to my radar. In keeping with the tradition of history repeating itself, I once again came away from The Dear Hunter's set in awe of their musicianship and the massive scope of their sound. With their largely experimental song structures, minimalist stage presence and constant instrumental breaks, The Dear Hunter are the type of super talented, legit prog weirdos that deserve every ounce of over-the-top praise they receive. This performance is the kick in the ass I needed to finally dive into their widely-beloved discography.
Coheed & Cambria: Every music enthusiast on the planet can point to a small number of albums that truly changed their lives. Coheed and Cambria's Good Apollo I'm Burning Star IV: From Fear Through the Eyes of Madness was one of those records for me. This record arrived at a time in my life where I was just starting to really get into music and as a 13-year old kid who had never heard anything like this before, it helped me foster an appreciation for concept albums, dramatic tempo shifts and massive, goofy guitar riffs that has stuck with me to this day.
When Coheed and Cambria announced in January that they were going to be playing From Fear Through the Eyes of Madness in its entirety on a tour this spring, I was instantly overwhelmed with joy. I had speculated that it was going to happen at some point in time since they have a history of playing full albums live (they played 2002's The Second Stage Turbine Blade and 2003's In Keeping Secrets of Silent Earth: 3 on North American tours in spring 2012 and fall 2014 respectively), but I was still blown away that a long-standing dream of mine was actually becoming a reality. Of course since I'm a paranoid, cynical lunatic, I was petrified that this show wasn't going to live up the ridiculous expectations I had in my head. Given how long I've been waiting to hear this album in a live setting, a less-than-stellar performance would've crushed my feeble little soul. Thankfully, this proved to be one of the rare times where an event managed to live up to the unrealistic expectations I placed upon it.
No amount of fangirl hyperbole can accurately describe how flawless this performance was for me. As soon as the lights dimmed and the "Keeping the Blade" string intro came on over the PA, a feeling of pure euphoria came over me and didn't waver in the slightest for the next 80 minutes. I screamed the words to every song as loud as I possibly could and jammed out like a total idiot, and every moment of it was fucking beautiful. To pick an individual highlight would be really difficult, but finally getting to experience deep cuts like "The Lying Lies & Dirty Secrets of Miss Erica Court", "Crossing the Frame" and "The Willing Well Parts I-III" live was unbelievably badass. While Coheed and Cambria was excellent the previous four times I saw them, this performance was some unreal, next-level shit that ranks among the best individual shows I've ever seen.
Nights like this is why I spend so much of my time and money going to concerts. In my eyes, hearing an album that you love in a room full of people that share your passion for that artists music is one of the greatest experiences a human being could possibly have. Thank you Coheed and Cambria for putting out this incredible piece of music and rewarding your fanbase by playing it from start to finish in a live setting with remarkable precision over a decade after it was released.
Stray Observations:
-I will never get tired of watching Claudio Sanchez dick around with his 12-string guitar during the solo of "Welcome Home". While it's definitely gimmicky, I will never not love watching a guitarist play behind their head for an extended period of time.
-Drummer Josh Eppard looks like one happy bastard. Dude legitimately had a goofy, ear-to-ear grin on his face for the entirety of their nearly 2-hour set.
-During the encore, Sanchez stated that the guys from Mastodon gave the entire band a nasty cold at the beginning of the tour that they had just gotten over this past weekend, so naturally some guy in my section screamed "Fuck Mastodon" as a response. After enduring the laziness of Once More 'Round the Sun and Emperor of Sand, I echo this man's sentiments and plan on blaming all my future illnesses on those formerly brilliant bastards.
-While the Blue Hills Bank Pavilion is a great, relatively intimate venue with excellent acoustics, it has the misfortune of being an outdoor venue that is located about 50 feet away from the heart of Boston Harbor. Whoever decided it was a good idea to book a show DIRECTLY ON THE WATER in mid-May is a cruel asshole that is blissfully unaware of the climate in Massachusetts. It doesn't get warm in this bitch until Memorial Day Weekend at the earliest, so you shouldn't start booking shows at a waterfront venue until at least early June.
Scores:
The Dear Hunter 7.5/10
Coheed and Cambria 10/10
Setlist:
Coheed and Cambria:
Keeping the Blade (over the PA)
Always & Never
Welcome Home
Ten Speed (Of God's Blood & Burial)
Crossing the Frame
Apollo I: The Writing Writer
Once Upon Your Dead Body
Wake Up
The Suffering
The Lying Lies & Dirty Secrets of Miss Erica Court
Mother May I
The Willing Well I: Fuel for the Feeding End
The Willing Well II: From Fear Through the Eyes of Madness
The Willing Well III: Apollo II:The Telling Truth
The Willing Well IV: The Final Cut
Encore:
Island
Delirium Trigger
In Keeping Secrets of Silent Earth: 3
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