Concert Review: Coheed & Cambria-- Boston, MA-- May 9th, 2017

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

Concert Review: Coheed and Cambria, Boston, MA, March 14th, 2013

It may only be March and the second show I've attended in 2013, but the Coheed and Cambria/Between the Buried and Me/Russian Circles show at the House of Blues last night is an early contender for show of the year.

Instrumental post-rock/sludge metal act Russian Circles opened up the night. I was skeptical as to how well they would fit in on a bill with Coheed and Cambria, but I was definitely mistaken as they set a nice tone for the evening. It took them a little bit to win the crowd over, but once they did everyone got pretty into it. These guys are just great musicians and their music has a lot of power in a live setting (especially set closer "Death Rides a Horse") Despite only being a casual fan of their studio work, I enjoyed Russian Circles's set quite a bit and I wouldn't mind seeing them again.

Between the Buried and Me was up next and per usual they killed it. There is a damn good reason I've seen them live more (Last night marked my eighth time seeing them) than any other band, their live show never ceases to astonish me. Their music just hits it's full potential in a live setting and leaves even more of a lasting impression than their records do.  The setlist was absolutely outstanding. The Parallax II material is immense live ("Lay Your Ghosts to Rest" is up there with the best live songs in their discography) and the presence of older stuff they don't play very often like "Ants of the Sky", "Prequel to the Sequel" and of course, "Selkies: The Endless Obsession" was badass. I was particularly happy about "Prequel to the Sequel" and "Selkies" being in the set. I hadn't heard "Prequel to the Sequel" live since the first time I saw BTBAM in 2008 and "Selkies" is honestly the best live song I've ever heard and the solo at the end is so strikingly beautiful that it never fails to give me chills. The biggest surprise of the set for me though was how well they went over with the Coheed crowd. With the heavy parts of their music being so abrasive, I expected a lukewarm reception, but it was quite the opposite with a majority of the crowd singing along and enjoying the hell out of the set. This was one of the best performances I've seen from Between the Buried and Me and I will continue to see them every possible chance I get.

Coheed and Cambria closed out the night in spectacular fashion. Much like they did when I saw them in Worcester in September, they put on an energetic, infectious and memorable performance. I'm in still awe that this is the same band I saw in 2006 that looked like they would rather be any place but the stage. The Coheed and Cambria of the present day is almost like a new incarnation of the band with their enormous stage presence. Also like the last time I saw them, the setlist was great. The set was mainly focused on material from last year's The Afterman: Ascension, which was awesome since they since only played two songs from that record the last time I saw them and it's my favorite album of theirs since From Fear Through the Eyes of Madness. Much like the studio album, The entire "Key Entity Extraction" series was the highlight of the set. "Vic the Butcher" was way more intense live and "Evagira the Faithful" was really atmospheric and trippy live. The old set staples like "A Favor House Atlantic", "Welcome Home" and the epic "In Keeping Secrets of Silent Earth: 3" were awesome as always and even songs I'm not too fond of on record like "Here We Are Juggernaut" and "Dark Side of Me" were excellent live. My only complaints are having an acoustic song in "Wake Up" start the encore and swapping out "The Crowing" for "Delirium Trigger" (Don't get me wrong, "Delirium Trigger" is a great song, but "The Crowing" is one of my top 5 favorite Coheed songs) Other than those miniscule complaints, Coheed and Cambria put on an outstanding performance and their pairing with another one of my all-time favorite bands, Between the Buried and Me, made for one of the most memorable concerts I've ever been to.

Scores:
Russian Circles 7.5/10
Between the Buried and Me 10/10
Coheed and Cambria 9/10

Setlists:
Russian Circles:
Harper Lewis
Geneva
Mladek
Death Rides a Horse

Between the Buried and Me:
Astral Body
Lay Your Ghosts to Rest
Ants of the Sky
Prequel to the Sequel
Selkies: The Endless Obsession

Coheed and Cambria:
Pretelethal
Key Entity Extraction V: Sentry the Defiant
Key Entity Extraction II: Holly Wood the Cracked
A Favor House Atlantic
Delirium Trigger
No World for Tomorrow
Key Entity Extraction III: Vic the Butcher
Key Entity Extraction IV: Evagira the Faithful
The Afterman
Here We Are Juggernaut
Dark Side of Me
In Keeping Secrets of Silent Earth: 3

Encore:
Wake Up
Key Entity Extraction I: Domino the Destitute
Welcome Home

 

Concert Review: Coheed and Cambria, Worcester, MA-- September 28th, 2012

Last night marked the first time in six years that I had seen Coheed and Cambria. As expected, the show kicked a lot of ass.

My friends and I got to The Palladium around 7:30. The show was either sold out or extremely close to sold out, There was pretty much no room to breathe in the entire venue. About 15 minutes later the first band of the night 3 came on. I had only heard a couple of songs prior to seeing them, but after last night I will probably be checking them out further. They played a trippy, oddball style of prog rock with a wide variety of influences that only got better by the song. The whole band was really talented and the instrumentation was excellent across the board. The last song even had an extended jam session intro with a heavy latin/Middle-Eastern influence that was badass and made for a triumphant closer. The only bad part of their set was they only played for 25 minutes. I wish them and The Dear Hunter had swapped set lengths (more on The Dear Hunter in a second).

The Dear Hunter was up next. I had heard a lot of good things about them going in and I was curious to see what they were like. I got to say they really didn't do anything for me. The fast songs weren't bad and this band definitely has some chops, but the slow songs (which took up most of the second half of the set) were pretty boring and stagnant. On the positive side, they did have a decent stage presence and got a pretty strong crowd reception (They did fit very well on a bill with Coheed). The Dear Hunter had their moments, but they didn't really make much a strong impression on me at all.

Coheed and Cambria hit the stage next. I had been waiting since the eight grade to see them for a second time and it was about damn time I got to see them again. They completely shattered my expectations. Actually that's a gross understatement, they EVISCERATED my expectations. They seemed like a completely different band from when I saw them in 2006 (which was during their peak as a band in terms of studio albums in my opinion). I was shocked by how much energy the whole band had (especially vocalist/guitarist Claudio Sanchez). The last time I saw them them, the whole band stood pretty motionless the whole time and just played. This time around couldn't be more different. Claudio was running around the stage, climbing up on the amps, jumping off shit, and even picking up drum sticks and hitting all of the cymbals during a jam break before the finale of "In Keeping Secrets of Silent Earth: 3". On top of having much more energy, the band had an absolutely killer setlist. It was loaded with most of their best older material and the new songs they played sounded pretty damn good as well. "Sentry the Defiant" was definitely the standout of the new stuff, it sounds very reminiscent of the material off their first three records which made me really excited for both of their new albums. When it comes to the old stuff, "Gravemakers and Gunslingers" (watching Claudio play that solo live was insane), "Ten Speed (of God's Blood and Burial)", the always immense "In Keeping Secrets of Silent Earth: 3" (the aforementioned jam was epic), "Welcome Home", and the absolutely perfect set closer "The Willing Well IV: The Final Cut" (the latter two songs of which Claudio played on his trademark double-neck guitar!). My only complaint for the whole night is the presence of "Mother Superior" in the setlist. I absolutely despise Coheed's acoustic songs so this is definitely my bias talking as I was one of the few in the venue that wasn't very pleased with that song being played. The combination of energy, venue size(the first time I saw them was in an arena opposed to a mid-size venue like The Palladium), setlist, and musical precision led to Coheed and Cambira absolutely blowing the doors off the last time I saw them. I really hope it won't be another six years until I get to see them again.

Scores
3 7.5/10
The Dear Hunter 5/10
Coheed and Cambria 9/10
Setlists:
3 included:
React
Only Child

Coheed and Cambria:
No World for Tommorow
Gravemakers and Gunslingers
Everything Evil
Made out of Nothing (All That I Am)
Ten Speed (of God's Blood and Burial)
The Afterman
The Suffering
Mother Superior
Sentry the Defiant
Blood Red Summer
In Keeping Secrets of Silent Earth: 3

Encore:
Key Entity Extraction 1: Domino the Destitute
A Favor House Atlantic
Welcome Home
The Willing Well IV: The Final Cut