STS/DT/Cynic/BTBAM

 

Anyways, last night on January 15 I went and saw Scale the Summit, Devin Townsend, Cynic, and Between the Buried and Me with a couple of buddies. We went in and waited around in the Clubhouse in Tempe, Arizona. It's a small, standing only venue with a bar in the back, though I'm 17 so I just moved in with the crowd.

 

The lights started to dim and Scale the Summit took the stage.

 

 

I wasn't familiar with them too much, and neither were my friends, but their talent was instantly recognizable. By the time their first song had ended my friends and I were easily impressed. They continued several songs in their set, the highlights were Sargasso Sea and The Great Plains, both of them energetic and technical. They had a flawless performance, though I feel sorry for them since the crowd was younger and probably more interested in the hardcore styles of Between the Buried and Me, and their technical style wasn't conducive to headbanging or moving to the music, so the crowd ultimately seemed dead. Anyways, they were great.

 

Then Devin Townsend started setting up the stage. He seemed rather dorky with his glasses and buck teeth in a black tank top, nothing like I'd seen of him before.

 

 

Then he put on a jacket and started screaming into the mic, and his entire persona changed into the evil crazed mad scientist on guitar that we all know and love. Again, I wasn't terribly familiar with his music, but I recognized a few songs like "Disruptr" and "Supercrush!", though there seemed to be quite a few ziltoid references. All his songs were performed loud and heavy, though the atmospheric samples coming from his laptop weren't as loud, so it was altogether more heavy and less atmospheric than as on his recordings. He constantly leaned out into the crowd, and at this point I had been able to scoot closer to the stage, so there were only two or three rows of people in front of me. He looked into the crowd and I was close enough to rub his head. He even ended up looking directly at me and giving his evil snarling glare. The crowd went nuts over him, and was ultimately dissapointed when he had to take down his set so quickly, I believe had he been the headliner that he would have had cheers for an encore.

 

At this point I was able to move even closer to the stage. There was only one person in front of me. Cynic set up in a bit of unusual manner, with their two guitarists, Tymon Kruidenier and Paul Masdival to the Left, their bassist Robin Zielhorst in the middle, and Sean Reinert to the far right.

 

 

Again, I don't think the younger crowd was quite fit for Cynic since people weren't as familiar with the band, though there were people singing the lyrics along with the band, including me. There wasn't as much energy, but Cynic's not so much a go-nuts band as a "get caught up in the spiritual energy" type band. In any event, they played near flawlessly (Paul did screw up one line, but was otherwise perfect), especially Sean who sounded exactly like the record. They played the first three songs from Traced in Air right off the bat, and over the set they ended up playing everything but "The Unknown Guest". They also played "Veil of Maya" which was insanely good, as well as another one from Focus which I didn't know. Great set.

 

Somehow I made it to the very front so that I sort of had to lean over the front of the stage, so I was directly in front of the center right monitor. The crowd was really pushing at this point, most of the people there were definitely there for Between the Buried and Me. In any event, I was right where I wanted to be so I could see the California/Mr. Bungle sticker on Tommy Rogers' keyboard.

 

 

 

That's right, I was so close that when the band came on Tommy's foot rested on the monitor right in front of my face. I looked directly up at times and there he was, screaming, "CLOSE ONE EYE! STAND TO THE SIDE!" It was absolutely excellent, they started off with "Obfuscation" and "Disease, Injury, Madness". The crowd was going so nuts that it was a relief at the soft parts, when everyone stopped moshing and I wasn't being bashed around and into the stage. Let me re-emphasize how insane the crowd was. I had to literally push against the stage to keep my spot, and I guess some guys wanted to be front and center, cause there were massive shoves pushing me further and further to the right, so I ended up having to scoot back behind people, and there was massive shoving in the back. The crowd bounced at every breakdown and went nuts at every blastbeat and sang along to nearly every lyric. They continued with "Ants of the Sky", "What We Have Become", "Alaska", and finally "Swim To the Moon", actually bringing out Chuck Johnson to shout out the hardcore vocals at the beginning. He got just as much praise as Tommy did. Every sweep in the set was played flawlessly, and everything down to Blake Richardson's drum solo in STTM was spot on. Tommy had stage presence like no other, gave insane expressions and flailed his arms, and everyone in the crowd including me ate it all up.

 

When they left the stage, the entire crowd started shouting "B-T-BAM! B-T-BAM!" Over and over again. It appeared that at first it was in vain, but with a cheer they returned to the stage. To the crowd's praise they came into the middle of "Viridian", that's right, they played all of White Walls. It was simply incredible. Paul and Dustie came out for their twin lead shredding solo, and I'm pretty sure I went nuts. Everything was simply flawless.

 

All in all, it was a great night. Although the crowd could have been better, every band was at the top of their game. B-T-BAM indeed.

In any event, your username reminded me of an amusing anecdote. As I said, Cynic opened up with the first three songs of Traced in Air (In fact, I was expecting them to play the entire album in order by the time they played ES). However, towards the end of the set the guy standing in front of me trying to be funny just talked over to Paul and said, "Play Evolutionary Sleeper, again".

 

I am, however, quite proud of the shot of Tommy there where his foot was on the monitor directly in front of me, whether it's a good photo or not.