Last night I drove for about an hour and a half to Baltimore to see my all-time favorite musician, Devin Townsend, perform for thirty minutes on a Monday night. It was worth it I think. There were some other bands too, I guess.
Scale the Summit
StS is a young band playing very technical progressive metal, with no vocals. They sound at times like Cynic, Atheist, Pelican, and maybe a little Dream Theater. I hadn't heard any of their stuff before the concert and I most likely won't be pursuing any music of theirs now, but it was an enjoyable set. Like most of the other music performed that night the style was pretty uplifting. The bassist had the busiest fingers I think I've ever seen live, and I've seen John Myung of Dream Theater play three or four times.
Devin Townsend Project
This is of course why I bought the ticket. I first heard Devin's music I think in 2004, my first year of college. At that time I was still an avid Dream Theater fan and not much else, so it took me a while before I started to recognize the genius in there. He's been one of those artists that I have to see before I die, and now the list is one act shorter. A few years ago he said he was never going to perform live again, but he's always running his mouth like that. Unfortunately he's just easing back into it now and only played for about half an hour. Still, it was an half hour of AWESOME. The set started with Disruptr played way heavier than on the record, and proceeded with a few tracks from Terria and I think Infinity, and ended with By Your Command from Ziltoid. The crowd was nuts for the whole set. Devin of course was hilarious, throwing out genitalia jokes left and right and just being generally charismatic.
Cynic
This band is a legendary act in the progressive metal scene, as they were one of, if not the first, prog death bands. Labeling them at all death metal is quite a stretch though, as the only feature from that genre that they incorporate is a little supportive screech/growling to offset the higher pitched robot-vocals. Other than that their music quite uplifting, dealing with very zen-like themes. Half way through their set, Paul Masvidal led the audience in a short yoga session. Seriously. It was an enjoyable show.
Between the Buried and Me
I've always had a love/hate relationship with BtBaM. I don't like their early stuff much because it's too hardcore, their latest material is too proggy, and their middlin' bits are still plagued by what I consider sub-par growls. I did enjoy Colors for a while but I wore it out pretty quickly. So, as soon as Cynic's set ended I headed for the back of the room. This was partially because I new the mosh pit would be the worst while they played. As expected I enjoyed some bits and was bored for other bits. I left before their last song ended because it was a long trip home and I wanted to beat the rush from the parking lot.
Altogether it was a pretty cool show. I brought my new etymotic earplugs, which I wore for most of Cynic and all of BtBaM's set, so my ears weren't too badly damaged. Sonar is an okay venue; the stage is a bit elevated so most of the time I could see the performers' heads at least, and there was water available in the back which was nice. Parking was free too, which is apparently not very common in Baltimore. It was cool to see the Metal Injection guys there too. I think they’ll be uploading some video footage of the show sometime soon.
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