I still hope someday they will play the entire Good Apollo I'm Burning Star IV Vol. 1 album live. That would be epic.
I liked the review I wrote up from this show when they did the 4-night Neverender in Chicago, so I'll repost it here for your pleasure, er, pain.
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So I know plenty of bands have played entire albums in a live set (I've seen Cursive and Green Carnation do it), and some have even played complete albums written and recorded by other bands (Dream Theater). But playing your entire four-album discography, one album each night, goes a step beyond that. That's what Coheed and Cambria are doing, in New York, LA, Chicago, and London. I know that Wilco has played all of their songs in one of their Chicago residencies, but I don't imagine many other bands have done this.
It worked out really nice for me, because of my desire to limit the number of albums I own from a band. So for C&C, I really like their third album, but never saw the need to get to know any of their other stuff. That meant I could pick the night I wanted to go to, and be sure that they would play all songs I knew, and none that I didn't. Perfect! It's almost like having a custom-made setlist.
There was no opening band, and instead a couple of guys in the band just came out and talked for a bit. Then, strangely, the crew still spent 30 minutes "setting up", even though everything had been set up for two nights already. Also strange was that the PA music was Coheed and Cambria; ok, for a fanboy show, that makes sense, but it was music from the very same album they were about to play live! Weird.
Then the show finally starts, and proceeds exactly as expected, although a cheer would still go up whenever the band would play the first recognizable notes of a new song ("OMIGOD, I didn't think they'd play THIS one!!!") For the special occasion the band had two well-used backup singers, and a rather unnecessary second percussionist. I think Chris Pennie (formerly of Dillinger Escape Plan) would have the ability to simultaneously play his own drum parts, plus the percussionist's parts, and bake an apple pie, all without breaking a sweat, but I guess the band just wanted to give another person gainful employment. It did mean that there was absolutely no shortage of cowbell throughout the entire night, so we had that going for us.
Overall the band was good, but they didn't have that crazy super-tight sound that I was hoping Pennie might bring over from DEP. But I guess that's to be expected since they haven't exactly played this setlist a million times. Also, they intentionally played the songs pretty straight, which meant that any instrumental jams (which they're quite good at) were saved until the very end. I wouldn't have minded them going on more flights of fancy. But at the end, they pulled out ALL the prog-dork stops, including theremin (played at times by Claudio Sanchez's Sideshow Bob hair), talk-box, duelling guitar leads, teeth-played guitar, and...a drum solo. Except for the drum solo, it was all pretty awesome.
In all it took them 90 minutes to get through the 72-minute album, and then they came out to do a medley-encore of a few of their other songs, plus, "The Trooper". Yeah! I'm pretty sure that's the only time I'll ever see Iron Maiden performed with a couple of hot blonde backup singers leading the "whoa oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh!"
I'm still surprised how young this band's fanbase is. I wonder what it is that keeps older prog-dorks away. Maybe the sci-fi concept and lyrics (which I've never actually paid any attention to) are just incredibly bad? Anyhow, I think it's safe to say that I was the only person there reading Murray Rothbard on my phone while waiting for the show to start!
