By DJ Astrocreep
A long haul from the previous evening’s entertainment of The Flower Kings and friends in London up to Glasgow was in store for me to catch Hevy Devy live, with Haken likely to provide more than adequate support with their own melodic brand of prog metal. Though not my first time in Glasgow, it is my first time in SWG3, an apparent warehouse conversion, something that often bodes ill for sound quality, given experience of others.
Haken take to the stage literally as I get into the venue and get straight into the music, launching quickly into ‘Puzzle Box’ in a set that borrows almost entirely from their latest two albums in ‘Vector’ and ‘Affinity’. Six songs in around 45 minutes may not seem much, but this is Prog metal after all – anything under five minutes may as well be a Napalm Death-esque second long masterpiece! My earlier worries about the song clarity are around at first, when the sound is not quite optimal, though this is tweaked and fixed by the sound engineer within a couple of songs, after which it’s actually a very high level of quality.
They do an excellent job of representing themselves, with the inclusion of ‘Cockroach King’, the only non ‘Vector’/‘Affinity’ track being my personal highlight, given its place amongst my favourite tracks by them and not being on their setlist when I previously caught them, whilst set closer ‘1985’ marks the close of a very enjoyable set. The vocal harmonies and acapella on ‘Cockroach King’ work exceptionally well for them, while the set overall may well have garnered them some extra fan base, given the crowd’s reaction to them.
So, I sit here, thinking quite how to describe the performance of Hevy Devy and his band of merry men and women. Certain things stick in my mind – Devin in a dress saying, ‘Don’t look at my balls…ok, look at my balls’ is certainly up there in the memories, alongside his rather humorous monologing, as is keys artist Diego, who makes cocktails for various band members at different points of the performance, plus drummer Morgan having a tiny set of drums carried out to the front of the stage, so he can play a little quieter for a song! Ten people on a decent sized stage means there is enough room to not seem too crowded, with vocal/guitarist Che joining Devin centre stage. They come out on to the stage, Diego first and introduced by the big screen behind him, beginning to create then pour cocktails for other band members as they take to the stage after him, all adorned in Hawaiian shirts to start off the performance.
Devin Townsend is a true musical enigma. In the two hours we get of music, short(ish) monologues and generally brilliant batshit approach to music, we are treated to something of a spectacle. The sheer warmth and feeling of positivity that pours out from every nook, cranny and person in the venue is truly nothing short of inspirational, as Devin takes us on a journey through his own head, full of ramblings, melodies, harmonies and sheer musical brilliance. While songs from this year’s Empath release were always going to feature decently in the setlist, the blending of them into the set amongst better known tracks such as ‘Deadhead’ and ‘Lucky Animals’, while each member gets the opportunity to take centre stage, the backing singers included, to demonstrate quite how high their personal talent levels are. Spoiler alert: they are some pretty goddamn talented musicians – but then, someone of the calibre of Devin is hardly going to take jobbers on tour with him.
The musical quality is ridiculously high, as is quite standard for Devin now, with each member more than capable of performing their role with aplomb. We finally get to our three song encore, and Che once more takes centre stage to absolutely nail a cover of ‘Disco Inferno’, followed by Frank Zappa’s ‘The Black Page #1’ before we get our final track of the evening in Devin’s own ‘Kingdom’, quite fitting, given that this venue now feels like it’s his own personal domain. The crowd have been in excellent spirit throughout, singing, waving and jazz hands’ing throughout and the sheer feeling of love is reflected back in each direction, with even band members unable to repress a smile from their faces, be it from Devin’s own ramblings or the odd comment from the audience. All of a sudden, my top gigs list for the year is being reworked, again. Simply phenomenal.
- The tour continues at the Roundhouse in London tomorrow (Thursday 12 December) and finishes at Rock City in Nottingham on Friday (13 December).
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