By Jase Walker
It’s been quite literally two days since I was at this venue last enjoying some quality time with Alexisonfire and co but tonight is a pretty big variety show of heavy hitters that have been around for bloody ages! Coheed and Cambria are out on tour in support of their latest album and have brought along Thrice and Touché Amoré for the ride, both of which I’ve seen earlier this year and put on fantastic shows. It’s been a hot minute since seeing C&C at Arctangent in 2019 so I can’t wait to see them again!
I got in a bit later than anticipated but just in time to see Touché Amoré kick off what is looking to be a pretty busy venue already! These guys always deliver a brutally raw and emotional show, bittersweet melodies mixed with aggressive shouting vocals act as a vehicle to get across songs infused with pain and hope in equal measure. Whoever put this lineup together is a genius, the emotional weight that many songs from each of these bands carries is massive and having them all on the same bill is incredible. Seems to be that not many people in this audience really know Touché Amoré that well barring the few people waving their arms about and singing along which is a bit of a shame.
They’ve even given a shout out to Outbreak as it’s barely been a few months since they were here last (Manchester perks innit). Speaking of the sound, admittedly the drums are a little bit too loud compared to the guitars which muddies the clarity a bit, not massively though. The level of energy from their singer is immense though, I don’t think I know of many that quite fling themselves around the stage while putting so much force behind their voice as he does. It’s also noticeable how the light show has been fairly static, some colour changes but not much in the way of dynamics which makes a lot of sense given their down to basics, simple style. It was a pleasure seeing these again so soon!
Next on tonight is Thrice, the wildly varied and often underestimated act that absolutely blew me away at 2000 Trees! Compared to Touché Amoré, the stage production is much more intense, with strong contrasting pastel colours, often with split beams dancing along to the intensity of the music. They’ve also got what appear to be pillars behind them and I’m unsure if it’s part of their production or possibly Coheed’s. Honestly they sound fantastic here, I wouldn’t expect any less considering they sounded incredible at an open air festival too! Similarly to me, a vast majority of the crowd are definitely more familiar with their older material considering how loudly they sing the lyrics back at them!
Thrice knows how to put on a real classy, slick show, there’s no over-the-top going massively wild, but how tight everything they’re doing is really showing. Considering how long they’ve been around, it’s little wonder how much they’ve refined their shows and really put on display the mind boggling variety of music they’ve made over the years. Not a single scuffed note at any point in this show, they almost make it look easy! Despite the great performance so far, the crowd remains quite sedate barring some bigger reactions to their better known songs which is a bit of a downer, it would appear the majority of the crowd is here quite literally for Coheed alone. All in all though, Thrice has been fantastic to see again so soon in the same vein as Touché Amoré.
Walking on to the tune of Iron Maiden’s ‘Aces High’, I can sort of make out a mysterious image on the backing banner, I suppose I’ll see what it is shortly. Oh, it’s the album art for their newest album, unsurprisingly! The up-until-now quiet audience has now sprung into life, I mean it’s understandable but at the same time can imagine it’s frustrating for the supports. The pillars I noticed earlier are now lighting up the stage in various patterns and intensity, for their size they’re incredibly powerful lights too AND they spin! The crowd’s hype levels really are firing off now with every song being met with a chorus of screams and flailing arms above the crowd all the way to the back. Coheed And Cambria‘s mix of prog and emo continues to resonate with many people, even ‘Vaxis II’ songs get a fantastic response.
They’ve even got lights that shine a pattern that resembles a Death Star! It’s so incredibly nerdy and I love it! The moment I think “surely they’ve gotta play ‘Man Your Battlestations’ soon” they immediately go straight into it, like I’m psychic or something, I’ll take it! Coheed excel at creating an atmosphere, whether it’s a tantalising build up to a massive chorus, or just going hard as fuck and driving home the euphoria at a song crescendo, they kill it with every song they’ve played so far.
After a brief monologue about the new stuff being as well received as their older stuff, in a sort of bait and switch, they follow it up immediately with ‘A Favour House Atlantic’, banger. And following up immediately with Claudio grabbing his signature double necked guitar, ‘Welcome Home’, and even playing part of the solo behind his head with it! It’s hard to believe how far apart these two last songs are in terms of sound as well, one an epic prog banger and the other probably most well known in emo circles. I’m fairly sure this signals the end of the set but I don’t think they could have ended it any other way really! They’ve generally done that every time I’ve seen them for years now.
As it turns out, I’m actually wrong! The finale for this set was actually ‘Window Of The Waking Mind’ from ‘Vaxis II’, and then followed that up with an encore of ‘Running Free’. I wonder if this signals a possible large change in approach to their sets then?
Three different bands, each of whom couldn’t be further apart from each other sonically, but each with a myriad of songs in their back catalogue that are charged with emotion. Bloody fantastic again, proving we’ve been absolutely spoiled for amazing shows in 2022.
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