Location: internet
Date: Saturday, September 5, 2020
At a time when even the average music fan is starting to get a serious craving for quality live experiences, and music obsessives are banging their heads against the wall with tears in their eyes, replaying every gig they’ve ever been to, streaming concerts have become the new standard. Understandably so. Concert revenue is the main income source for most bands out there, and six months without live shows really hits the bank account hard.
Most of the Rockline crew follows Devin Townsend closely; personally, his show back in December in Vienna was the very last concert I attended before this whole Covid-19 madness kicked off. And while we can safely say that every Devin show is a unique experience, his special events — Retinal Circus, the Royal Albert Hall show, and the Roman amphitheatre in Plovdiv, Bulgaria — are something else entirely, a true audiovisual feast. And believe it or not, last night’s show easily lands in that same category!
After wrapping up the first leg of the Empath tour, the workaholic Canadian announced that the second leg would be rawer, with a leaner lineup, and also heavier — he’d be going through his entire catalog, including tracks from the Strapping Young Lad era that he’d completely avoided for the better part of a decade, packed away and locked deep in his personal musical archive. But apparently, in this new post-DTP chapter, he’s finally dared to unlock even those most hidden doors of his creative past.
For this tour — which was also set to include a slot at Metaldays — he assembled an interesting crew: rhythm guitarist Wes Hauch with an impressive death metal pedigree, bassist Liam Wilson who, among all his other projects, spent a full 17 years holding down the low end for The Dillinger Escape Plan, and drummer and YouTube sensation Samus Paulicelli, also known as 66Samus, who consistently blows his listeners away with both his technique and precision.
True, this wasn’t the first streaming concert of the past six months, but it earns a spot on the list of special Devin shows because he once again stepped outside the box and pulled off something this format has never seen before. Each member recorded their part in their own location, in a studio against a green screen, filmed by multiple cameras — up to eight! The footage was then edited into a single performance and, through digital post-processing, placed into one stunning unified environment. Each member played their instrument on massive black platforms that rotated — or parts of them did (simulating gravity, maybe?) — while floating in space. And the lighting effects were straight out of a J.J. Abrams film. About a year ago I joked that if there’s any musician who could pull off a concert in space, it would be Devin — and a year later, voila — a concert in space! Virtual space, sure, but space nonetheless.
The setlist for this show was chosen by fans for the Bloodstock festival appearance. And a promise is a promise — the list ended up packed with SYL classics. Right from the off with Velvet Kevorkian and All Hail the New Flesh, closing out with Detox, and plenty more in between. Of course there was no shortage of highlights from his DT/DTB/DTP career, and — believe it or not — yet another stunning rendition of Deadhead. The only mild surprise was the inclusion of the rather delicate Spirits Will Collide.
Devin himself made sure the show had that live feeling through real-time video commentary. As if he weren’t already hilarious enough during the concert itself, he kept putting out even wilder material in the breaks between songs — through gestures, signs, and drawings that popped up during the actual performance, as he appeared in a picture-in-picture window in the bottom-right corner of the screen. Among other things, he drew gorillas and elephants during Spirits Will Collide (if you’ve seen the music video, you’ll know why), mimed jerking himself off during the guitar solos, held up a “Miss U Anneke” sign between Supercrush! and Kingdom, and sent shout-outs to his former bandmates from Strapping Young Lad and Devin Townsend Project. He even had DTP keyboardist Mike St. Jean in the studio and convinced him to play air-synth live on screen during the keyboard solo in Stormbending.
I can say with confidence that Devin has set a new standard for streaming concerts. He himself confirmed it wasn’t cheap to put together, which is reflected in the higher ticket price. He did hint at the possibility of releasing this show on DVD/Blu-ray down the line, and also announced at least two more streaming concerts — one at the end of October and another at the end of December. To wrap it all up, all I can say is that I hope we’ll see each other next year in Tolmin. But if this has to be our new reality — bring it on!
Setlist:
1. Velvet Kevorkian (SYL)
2. All Hail the New Flesh (SYL)
3. By Your Command
4. Almost Again (SYL)
5. Juular (DTP)
6. March of the Poozers
7. Supercrush! (DTP)
8. Hyperdrive
9. Stormbending (DTP)
10. Deadhead (DTB)
11. Aftermath (SYL)
12. Love? (SYL)
13. Spirits Will Collide
14. Kingdom
15. Detox (SYL)
note: SYL – Strapping Young Lad, DTB – Devin Townsend Band, DTP – Devin Townsend Project
