Author: Rok Klemše
Photos: Nina Grad
Venue: Royal Albert Hall / London / United Kingdom
Concert date: 13.04.2015
Attendance: 5,000
A few years ago, Devin Townsend picked the English capital as his European base, and ever since then he’s been hitting it every few years with crazier and crazier projects that leave the fans blissfully floating on air. In 2011, Townsend played the entire Ki-Addicted-Deconstruction-Ghost tetralogy in London over four nights in a row, and in October 2012 he put together what was then the absolute peak, a three-hour career-spanning cross-section of his discography, The Retinal Circus. The question was what else Devin could pull out of his sleeve to top that three-hour spectacle at London’s Roundhouse, but it seems Townsend doesn’t just keep aces up his sleeves, he’s got whole stacks of high cards in there.
In October 2014, the long-promised sequel to the space saga about the alien Ziltoid, Z2, came out, along with the announcement of a new spectacle that would top even The Retinal Circus. This time Townsend moved from the Roundhouse, which sits in London’s alternative Camden district, to the posh neighborhood of Kensington and the prestigious Royal Albert Hall, just a stone’s throw from London’s biggest park, Hyde Park, and the giant free museums, the Natural History Museum and the Science Museum. Royal Albert Hall was opened by Queen Victoria in 1871, and for almost 150 years the elite venue was famous mainly for its dreadful acoustics and such terrible echoes that it earned the unflattering reputation of being the only place where a British composer can be sure to hear his work twice. Shortly after the Second World War those problems were finally fixed, and the acoustics today are superb.
Late in the afternoon the hall was already surrounded by endless, famous English queues, which, in typically English fashion, were herded inside in no time. Even with a 5,000-strong crowd packing Royal Albert Hall, you never waited more than five minutes for a beer or a cider (around 4 pounds, which is pretty reasonable by London standards), while the merch sold out in record time and the stand looked like the Slovenian parliament during the summer recess. As is his habit, Devin warmed up the crowd before the show with a selection of his most twisted photos and photoshopped collages. If this wasn’t the first metal gig at the RAH, it was definitely the first one where the show included photos of a pig pooping out of its own testicles. Yum.
This time Townsend split the show into two parts: the first was the entire current album Z2, the second a cherry-picked selection of fan requests. The hour-long first part was exactly what Devin promised and wanted it to be. What we got was nothing less than a musical, a space rock opera spiced with the humor of Douglas Adams, Monty Python and Matt Groening’s Futurama. The first half came conceptually very close to The Retinal Circus, but the whole performance, with all the performers, the narration and the wonderfully deranged comic-book animations, was much less chaotic and more focused than Devin’s first London spectacle. For the most part it was just the musicians on stage, Ziltoid visited us with his Omniscience only a few times, and the cherry on top was Dominique Lenore Persi, who played the part of Queen Blattaria, commander of the army of Poozers (disgusting creatures that look like fart-powered testicles), brilliantly. The two of them strolled across the stage again and again while musical madness thundered around them, and with its progressive nature and bombastic loudness it reminded you in a few spots of Deconstruction, if not outright of Strapping Young Lad. Amid the all-around chaos, the helpers added their bit too, firing Ziltoid puppets and T-shirts out of cannons like at some American baseball game, and Chris Jericho (Fozzy) had us in tears with his fully committed turn as the self-obsessed pretty boy Captain Spectacular. The band did an excellent job with fantastic sound, and besides “the-man-himself” Devin, Ryan van Poederooyen especially stood out, proving he’s the second outstanding drummer Townsend has worked with after Hoglan. The first part ended pompously with the epic Dimension Z, sung along to by almost the entire hall, and the final line “The End… Or Is It?” of course suggests that we haven’t said our final goodbyes to the green alien after all.
After a twenty-five-minute break, it was time for the fans’ real treat, something that will truly stay unforgettable. An hour and a half of songs picked by the fans served up a few moments etched into eternity. Not only was it by far the biggest and best Townsend show I’ve ever seen, it was also the most beautiful, since every song was accompanied by projections made specifically for it, which deepened the incredible experience and the message of the songs even further. True, Devin did also serve up those hits you apparently can’t go without anymore, and I’m mainly thinking of the goofy but catchy Lucky Animals, during which the whole hall waved their arms around in the air like idiots (even that guy in the Manowar shirt), and the often-played songs like Supercrush! and Kingdom (let’s face it, a Townsend show just can’t go without that one), but this time Devin fed the biggest connoisseurs too. The opening with Namaste was already a killer, and the guys also threw in the unforgettable ten-minute ecological epic Earth Day, the old Christeen and the country number Heatwave with Brian Waddell on banjo, but the most superb part of the show came at the end, with the unforgettable trio from Ocean Machine. The mighty Funeral was played in its entirety for the very first time, giving us shivers all over our bodies, and when Devin tossed in the fantastic Bastard, and on top of that the twelve-minute orgasm that is Death of Music, which raised every last hair in the hall (mainly thanks to Devin’s vocal performance, which was, to put it mildly, on the level of the greatest opera soloists), the result can only be an explosion of emotion, the kind that only the strongest and most sincere music with a clear message can conjure. And an honest, humble thank-you from one of the greatest musicians of our time. Without a doubt the most heartwarming moment of the show and a fantastic finish was the farewell Universal Flame, picked by Devin’s son Reyner Liam, who came onto the stage shyly and timidly but was jumping around with genuine joy from the very first riffs of his dad. A phenomenal send-off into the London night.
Was the song selection absolutely perfect? No. Can a man with sixteen studio albums (not counting SYL and the double albums that have become pretty much routine in the last few years) satisfy every taste (considering that the hero of the show was Ziltoid, it’s downright odd that not a single song from his first album was played)? No, but a two-and-a-half-hour show is the absolute peak of Townsend’s career so far, and the gig of the year was worth the visit and all the miles traveled for Funeral-Bastard-Death of Music alone. And last but not least – this wasn’t the first metal gig at the Royal Albert Hall, but it was definitely the first one where testicles strolled across the stage. Priceless.
Setlist
ZILTOID:
1. Z2
2. From Sleep Awake
3. Ziltoidian Empire
4. War Princess
5. Deathray
6. March of the Poozers
7. Wandering Eye
8. Earth
9. Ziltoid Goes Home
10. Through the Wormhole
BY REQUEST:
1. Namaste
2. Night
3. Deadhead
4. Earth Day
5. Christeen
6. Supercrush!
7. Kingdom
8. Lucky Animals
9. Heatwave
10. Funeral
11. Bastard
12. The Death of Music
13. Universal Flame
Photo gallery
