Haken - March 4, 2020 in Richmond, VA

Haken and the Contortionist are both currently touring right now as the openers for Devin Townsend. Haken scheduled a few club gigs in during the tour to play Affinity in its entirety. This was the first of those shows. They are doing the same set for Cruise on the Edge. The show was at the Canal Club, which holds about few hundred, and as a guess, was about half full last night.

The opening guitarist definitely shredded and had a good vibe around him, joking that he's from Hong Kong but not to worry, he doesn't have the coronavirus, and we can shake his hand and fist bump him after the show.

The Contortionist had a good energy and got the crowd going. A pit formed a couple of times. 

Haken put on a good performance. I thought the mix of off at times,  but the band seemed to be in good spirits. They had opened the night before in Philadelphia and are playing today in Charlotte for the Townsend tour. They opened with the Affinity album. During "1985", they broke into a fun cover of "Owner of a Lonely Heart". By playing the entire album, it included their first live performance of "Bound by Gravity". They then played the "Aquamedley" in honor of the 10 year anniversary of the debut album. They closed with Nil by Mouth and Cockroach King. They played a solid hour and 45 minutes. 

It's not that they've turned into a metal band, it's about turning into a rather above average one. If I want to listen to something heavy, I'd rather put on some Meshuggah or something else that's far better.

I saw Haken last year with Vola as the opener, and in the latter kind of stole the show with a much better mix. I suppose they all brought their own sound guys… Nevertheless, I do enjoy the band and their live show quite a bit - nothing average to my ears; for modern prog metal, Haken is one of the prime players to me.

The new release Prosthetic sounds great to me (although very much going further in the metal direction), so I hope to see another live set one the Corona situation resolves.

The only time I saw Haken was Leprous and Bent Knee opening. Leprous really killed it. 

I think it's odd that Haken even added in a breakdown at the end of Prosthetic LOL.

I'd have to listen to it again....must be forgettable .

Listened again, forgot it was instrumental. I like that one, I too am a sucker for instrumentals. 

Haken as leaders!

I thought the mix was off at times at the show I saw, mostly with Ross's vocals. Nil by Mouth sounded good as an instrumental. Overall, the show was good because they went through Affinity in its entirety, which is my personal favorite of theirs. I wasn't too keen with Vector and the upcoming Virus is supposed to be a continuation of sorts. The lead track Prosthetic is thrashy, and the band has said that it was inspired by both Hanneman (Slayer) and Fripp.