Show review of October 1st, as always, also available on mindspell.org
As the time of the show approached I was getting restless. I had already seen Strapping Young Lad once but it was the first time for me to see both Zimmer's Hole and the Devin solo material live. I have been a longtime fan of Devin's music, I bought Heavy as a Really Heavy Thing shortly after its release and I have been hooked since. I just couldn't wait to get to the show.
After the door opened 45 minutes after the scheduled time, we were shortly assaulted by Shiverdown's brand of metalcore. While the band blazed through their set all I could think of is how good they could sound if they weren't that ambitious. They try to create those very long songs and complex structures and they fail because their technical abilities are not good enough. Apart from their drummer, the bass and guitar player are just not good enough to pull what theyre trying to do off. They sometime try to do things that Candiria do but the Candiria boys have chops to spare. Overall the band wasn't that bad, but they weren't that good either.
Next came the kings of the absurd, the masters of homage, the cheeeeeeese commanders: Zimmer's Hole. While I have been familiar with the band since their debut album, Bound by Fire, and had heard rumors of their live show I was not prepared for this. This has got to be one of the most entertaining live show ever and Chris Valago is also one of the most entertaining front man to ever grace a stage. Not only everything Chris says is funny as hell, everything he does is too. While some of their songs really set themselves up for on stage stupidities, others of the later just are for the entertainment value and it succeeds in more ways than I could imagine. Notice that I am trying very hard not to divulge any of the stage antics but I will just say the following: Some of it involves Cheese, baptism, prosthetics and a case of beer. Take that as you wish. More to the entertainment value is that the songs are pretty damn good. Fully Packed, Re-Anaconda, Legion of Flames, 1000 Miles of Cock some of the highlights (they all were) of the Zimmer's Hole show. I had already heard a few clips of Zimmer's Hole and unfortunately on those Chris' voices cracked a bit but on that night he was dead perfect, nailing every single songs and pitch perfectly. The Hole is definitely the law and tonight they laid the law on us pretty good both physically and aurally. Damn that was good.
Probably my most anticipated set of the night followed: Devin Townsend Band. I dreamed of a few of the solo songs live and I just couldn't wait to hear some of the material. Unfortunately I knew that this was the first show that they did in a long time, SYL being on tour pretty much non-stop since February. Devin warned all of us right off the bat that it was like a rehearsal, but, in reality, it really wasn't. I could not say that the band was dead-on but it was pretty damn close. No songs was botched or clearly misplayed; I only saw a few mishaps that you really had to know the songs really well and be very concentrated to hear. They played a variety of songs from all the solo projects except Physicist, which obviously doesn't fit with the rest of the material. Devin showed a great versatility on the guitar and showed leads and a solo that I did not expect from him. Especially since I heard him say that he didn't think he was such a great guitar player. He seemed in perfect control of his instrument. Ryan's performance on drums was especially noteworthy because I had not heard him on any material except Accelerated Evolution and he was great. He is a drummer with a lot more groove than Gene Hoglan who is just so precise that it just doesn't fit those songs as well. Great performance all around for a rehearsal.
Next were the monsters of metal: Strapping Young Lad. I had seen them in may and I was expecting the same type of performance. We did have the exact same performance, if anything they were even tighter. SYL at this point is a well oiled machine and its running on all cylinders. Byron, Jed, Munash and Gene just ripped through the material with a ferocity and intensity that you just don't see often for a band that has been out on the road like that. Devin is his old funny self, finding new and interesting ways to insult the audience as much as possible. I really think that the SYL album was written in expectation of playing them live because they work so well live that to me they are better than the City songs. I consider City the stronger album of the two and both are better than Heavy.. but those songs, Aftermath, Relentless, Devour work so well in the live arena its amazing. It truly was a great night and enjoying Zimmer's Hole and DTB live is just the icing on the cake. I think that yours will remember this night, truly, as one of the best live show ever. There ends the recollection and just thinking about seeing DTB again in November is enough to keep me excited for a month and a half.
