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ABSTRACT REALITY
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The planets finally aligned for me on November 30th and after a decade of missed opportunities, I finally had the chance to catch a Devin Townsend show. A ridiculously long line of fans crowded the Phoenix Theatre for the sold out concert, so yes, you can imagine that my expectations were quite high.
The London based Monuments opened up the night and concertgoers had a "love it or hate it" attitude. Their progressive, groovy melodies paired with vocalist Chris Barretto’s clean vocals and occasional growls really hit gold for me probably because Barretto’s voice reminded me a lot of Incubus' Brandon Boyd, a teen crush of mine (hey! we all have them!). The windmilling fro’s and saxophone solo won over not only myself, but many viewers. Peronally, they were everything I would want in a Devin Townsend opener, but the clean vocals weren’t “heavy” enough for many fans. Animals As Leaders took the stage next with a performance based on complex instrumental tunes. It still blows my mind how much fans not only appreciated their experimental tracks, but how they barreled to the pit and threw down in an odd dancing/jumping/moshing pit. I guess this is how metalhead boys dance. The band didn’t even address fans until well into their set, but instead focused in delivering groovalicious tunes with heavy arrangements and mind blowing progressive melodies. With plenty of tuning sesh’s and guitar changes, I witnessed popping and slapping madness on guitars as well as a pretty impressive drum solo near the end of their set. All in all, I was left wowed. 
Z2 album review coming soon!
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Without the need for decorum, Devin Townsend himself simply walked onstage and addressed the crown in a flurry of words, giving a shout out to the openers as well as, “let’s hear it for randomly yelling things on stage” before he burst into the opening song of the night “Regulator.” Dressed in a snazzy sports coat and fancy pants, and holding a sweet looking guitar with lit up red Z inlays, Devin looked impressive surrounded by his Devin Townsend Project musicians all decked out in matching Z uniforms and red converse. I’m convinced that you have to grow an epic beard to be in the Devin Townsend Project, as not only were both guitarist Dave Young and bassist Brian Waddell sporting impressive beards, but newbie keyboardist, visuals and lighting pro Mike St-Jean seemed to be letting his face fuzz grow out.
Image is everything as Devin shed his weariness, stalking around on stage and scowling his exaggerated metuhl scowl to the delight of fans. A lot of tracks from the new album Z2 were hit (obviously) with “Rejoice”, “Z2”, and “Deathray". I was glad they hit my new favourite track “March of the Poozers”, which has a groovy marching beat that the band synchro head banged to. Between songs or even half way through them, Devin would entertain us with a rambling about self-conscious insecurity or snippy quips such as having borrowed the t-shirt he was wearing from backstage, how much it reeked and how he was happy to be in front of this “cornucopia of smelly heavy metal nerds.” Devin revealed that Ziltoid is a metaphor for all the thing’s he can’t get over and demanded fans for “puppets raised! Let’s praise!” as they played “Ziltoidian Empire.” We got treated to some older tuned such as “Bad Devil", “Grace” and “Kingdom”, but I was crushed that they didn’t play anything from the album Addicted, which contain my favourite DTP songs. I did however get the honour of seeing Devin snort out a huge loogie right in front of me. True story. Instead of heading backstage to take a breather before their encore, Devin got off the stage and came right up to the barrier. He went slowly along the barrier, hugging everyone he could reach and shaking hands, thanking everyone for coming out to support him. I’ve never seen such appreciation from a front man, and such love from fans. I was truly touched. Even though we didn’t hear “Deadhead” or my absolute favourite DTP song “Supercrush", DTP performed an amazing, if short, set that left me in a dreamy daze of fan-girlness. |
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Monuments Chris Barretto | Vocals & Saxophone John Browne | Guitar Olly Steele | Guitar Adam Swan | Bass Mike Malyan | Drums & Samples Label: Century Media Records www.facebook.com/thisismonuments |
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Animals As Leaders Tosin Abasi:7 and 8 String Guitars Javier Reyes: 7 and 8 String Guitars Matt Garstka : Drums Label: Sumerian Records www.animalsasleaders.org/ |
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Devin Townsend Project Devin Townsend - Vocals, Guitar, Synths and Ambience Dave Young - Guitar, Keys, Mandolin Ryan Van Poederooyen - Drums Brian 'Beav' Waddell – Bass Mike St-Jean - Keys, Synths, Programming Record Label: Century Media Records / InsideOut Music www.devintownsend.com/ |
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