Author: Rok Klemše
Photos: Nina Grad
Venue: Roundhouse, London, United Kingdom
Date: October 27, 2012
Attendance: 3,000
Ticket price: €45
Ah, Devin Townsend. What hasn’t this genius Canadian thrown at us already? With his first serious entry onto the music scene, Steve Vai’s album Sex & Religion, he let everyone know he was something special. And sure enough, Townsend got so sick of the music business that he flipped it the bird and founded one of the most »pissed off« bands ever, Strapping Young Lad. The disappointment when they ended in 2007 was huge, but Devin can boast an incredible solo catalog that oozes nothing but quality. After the SYL story wrapped up, Devy came back to the living with a space parody opera about an alien with an unquenchable thirst for the ultimate cup of coffee, Ziltoid the Omniscient, and then shot himself into orbit with The Devin Townsend Project quadrilogy – the albums Ki, Addicted, Deconstruction and Ghost – exploring every last corner of his musical soul. Last year in London he also played the whole foursome in full over four consecutive nights, and packed those orgasmic shows into a fat white package called By A Thread. But »The Dev« doesn’t rest on his laurels – after By A Thread came the most megalomaniacal project of his long career.
This past Saturday, the venerable London hall Roundhouse hosted probably the most exciting concert event of the year, The Retinal Circus: a nearly three-hour spectacle, a cross-section of Townsend’s entire career, an audio-visual treat and a concept spiced up with circus artists, which makes it almost a musical. But first, a few sentences about the setting of Devin’s circus. Roundhouse was built in 1847 as a circular turntable shed for trains, but served its original purpose for only a few decades. From 1871 a gin distillery stood in it, and after World War II it was turned into a cultural center, Centre 42, in 1964. In the seventies, big names like Jimi Hendrix, The Rolling Stones, Jeff Beck, The Yardbirds, David Bowie, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd and Motörhead played there regularly, and in 1975 Roundhouse also hosted The Doors’ only British show. This imposing round building in London’s Camden district closed its doors in the eighties for lack of funds, then got a rebirth and a mighty renovation in 1996. From 1996 to today, an incredible 38 million pounds (about 50 million euros) has gone into restoring the hall! No doubt the hall’s history added to the excitement of an event that drew a good three thousand fans, making it Townsend’s biggest solo show ever (festivals excluded, of course). Chalk Farm Avenue was already graced at five in the afternoon by a kilometer-long line that moved along diligently and patiently, in true English fashion, in an orderly queue, until Roundhouse opened its doors at half past six and the nearly year-long wait for the show, sold out ages ago, was finally over!
When the lights finally went down, none other than Devin’s musical godfather Steve Vai popped up on the screens and introduced the hero of the show, Harold (played by actor Danny Cooksey, who even appeared in Terminator 2, among other things). Through Harold’s eyes, Steve and Devin then guided us through his discovery of life, relationships between people, religion and sexuality. Harold starts out disappointed by news of hatred and wars, which really only show that life is one big pile of crap, and without a shred of hope he falls into a deep sleep to the sounds of a 24 (!) piece gospel choir, which sang Effervescent! from the album Epicloud in a way that raised every hair on your body. Every one of the twenty-five songs played was a stop in Harold’s dream, into which he was gently led by the motherly figure of Anneke van Giersbergen, Devin’s main muse in recent years. With her angelic voice, Anneke sang Harold the opening lines of True North, »I love you, I need you…«, and when Devin walked onto the stage, Roundhouse exploded for the first time. Devin, dressed in a white tuxedo as the circus ringmaster, and his crew delivered a flawless, top-notch performance from the first note to the last. But that’s something Devin has long since spoiled us with; the heart of this show was the story that the thirty or so performers told through Townsend’s musical retrospective. With the wonderfully silly yet infectious Lucky Animals, animals entered Harold’s dream, and this time the goosebumps came from an excellent visual show with fire-breathing and dancing happy critters. But they didn’t stay happy for long, because a storm of shit awaited them with the eleven-minute Deconstruction masterpiece Planet of the Apes. Orwell’s Animal Farm style, half of the animals evolved into apes who became cops, politicians and priests, and as such enslaved and subjugated the other animals. After a brutal assault and a phenomenal show that kept us on the edge of our seats, Devin brought the idea of God into the concept with Truth in Infinity. God naturally split the poor animals into two factions, and what followed was nothing less than total war with the fantastic War. The real bizarre spectacle was still waiting around the corner, though. It was time for the star of the evening, the all-knowing green alien Ziltoid, who flew down to Earth with Planet Smasher, or more precisely, onto the stage of Roundhouse. Planet Smasher was portrayed with confidence and excellent vocals by none other than Dom Lawson, one of the better writers at England’s Metal Hammer. Ziltoid, in his usual manner, destroyed humanity, but got his lesson when he received an unpleasant call from Mrs. Ziltoid, telling him she was expecting a baby. In Devin’s style of twisted humor, this was clearly accompanied by a stage presentation with a giant phallus and white balloons standing in for sperm. From an enormous green vagina, a team of nurses and a surgeon pulled out a huge green blob. Ziltoid Junior is born! During the wonderfully playful Babysong, a whole army of inhabitants of planet Ziltoidia 9 arrived at the baby’s »babyshower«, while poor Ziltoid cradled the newborn green slimeball in a giant cradle, holding his head in his hands. No cup of coffee will help you now, haha! The military-style intro naturally meant nothing other than the bonkers Vampira, and the dancey Addicted wrapped us in Ebola-level infectious pop metal.
After an hour and a half, the crew took a well-deserved fifteen-minute break, and we pulled Harold from space back down to Earth with the hauntingly beautiful Hyperdrive, which Devin performed alone in an acoustic version. We stayed in ethereal waters with the love ballad Ih-Ah, which Devin and Anneke sang beautifully as a duet. Then came, without a doubt, the biggest surprise of the night – Steve Vai’s skull appeared on the screens and grilled Devin about what happened to his promise of a retrospective of his entire career, when there’s not a trace of Strapping Young Lad. Townsend explained once more that he was done with SYL, that the aggression of that band no longer has a place in his life, and that he had a New Age ambient acoustic piece prepared for us. Vai’s comment, asking if he should hold his purse for him in the meantime, was the last straw, and the band launched like a rocket into a brutal rendition of the Strapping Young Lad classic Detox, where Devin was joined by his old colleague Jed Simon! The hall exploded in a wave of euphoria, and real chaos broke out in front of the stage, with bodies flying in every direction and, quite literally, shoes too. Townsend even got a shoe or two on stage. Heads barely stayed on their shoulders, and with the perfect rendition of that SYL wrecking ball I wasn’t the only one whose eyes got misty, hehe. The »cheesy« Bend It Like Bender took us into dance waters, with strippers and pole dancers taking over the stage, and the eternal Life again delivered one of the loveliest moments of the show. But the peace didn’t last long again; Devin’s own head appeared on the screen, warning Devin on stage that he can’t escape the devil inside him. It was clear something loud and chaotic was coming, and that’s exactly what we got when a locomotive ran us over with Juular, followed by a phenomenal return to Alien with the SYL anthem Love? Insane! The drummer Ryan van Poederooyen especially shone here, nailing Hoglan’s parts with flying colors. The epic finale came with a monumental, bombastic rendition of Grace, in which the brilliant Anneke and the gospel choir stepped into the spotlight once more, and together with Devin slowly woke Harold up. He woke at sunrise to the sounds of the premiere performance of Little Pig (from the bonus disc of Epicloud, Epiclouder), which led to the big point of the whole show and Harold’s dream: the simple essence of human relationships is friendship (and judging by the choir, bearded Canadian lumberjacks too, hehe). Hippie mentality notwithstanding – isn’t that true?
However kitschy it may sound, Retinal Circus was one big celebration of the beautiful things in life (»LAUGH! LOVE! LIVE! LEARN!«) and two and a half hours in which you could easily forget all about everyday troubles and the crap currently covering the world. Devin Townsend proved once again that he’s one of a kind and that he’s right now at the peak of his career, both creatively and live, while also being one of the hardest-working creators in metal, who still puts quality ahead of quantity. Epic, loud, unforgettable!
P.S.: On November 30, 2012, Devin Townsend will play Kino Šiška together with Fear Factory. I warmly recommend going; Townsend is a live experience without equal.
Setlist
1. Effervescent!
2. True North
3. Lucky Animals
4. Planet of the Apes
5. Truth
6. War
7. Planet Smasher
8. Baby Song
9. Vampolka/Vampira
10. Addicted
11. Colour Your World
12. The Greys
Intermission
13. Hypderdrive
14. Ih-Ah!
15. Where we belong
16. Detox
17. Bend it Like Bender
18. Life
19. Kingdom
20. Juular
21. Love
22. Wild Colonial Boy
23. Grace
24. Little Pig
Photo gallery
