The blend of musky sweat and Los Angeles air hits you in the sweet spot at the Key Club, between the front door and the double doors granting entry to the venue. It's intimate size is perfect for a metal show and The Devin Townsend Project were ready to prove it. Lead singer, guitars, and production is handled by Townsend himself, and even more during the recording sessions, so his touring band had a tough task of recreating very well crafted musical journeys into albums about addiction, infinity, and intergalactic space puppets hell-bent on obtaining Earth’s finest cup of coffee.
Almost a flesh and blood version of Dethklok, the Iron Maiden influence deep within Orange County’s Voices of Ruin was clear. This did not work against the opening band, as they played it well and with great speed and accuracy. The lead guitars had many solo stretches, using all sorts of tricks from the metal guitarist bag that would make Kerry King proud. Voices of Ruin straddle the border of legitimate groups and bands whose guitarist is the outlier for a tried and true formula of music. They showed guts by playing a song never performed live entitled “Dark Passenger,” more than likely inspired by the show Dexter but not a bad tune by the Orange County band.
The very proggy Tesseract came from southern England to entertain, and the Yanks couldn’t have been more delighted. Their vocals show a wide range, much like Tommy Rogers from Between the Buried and Me or Cave In’s Stephen Brodsky. The tenor voice that soars over the top of their Meshuggah-like signature changes works well, although the lengthy pieces without vocals makes for awkward moments when singer Dan Tompkins exits stage right only to reappear sometimes five or six minutes later. The guitars felt like machine guns and drummer Jay Postones took the series of stretched sequences to explore his space. Vocals will ultimately make a new listener love it or leave it, but the whole package is overwhelmingly solid and more than the sum of their parts.
Devin Townsend’s intergalactic alter ego, Ziltoid the Omniscient, hijacked the house radio before the main event started. “93.5 Ziltoid Radio” began torturing the fans by spinning the worst of 90’s club hits, everything from “Mambo #5” and “Barbie Girl” to the worst of ABBA and Britney Spears. The groans were matched by chuckles after each song making it certainly effective. There are a lot of smiling faces at a Devin Townsend show: female fans rest their chins into their folded hands, giving doe-eyed looks to the bald captain of this crazy ship.
The green jacket and red bow tie looked more Bill Nye than Steve Vai, but the science teacher look works for Devin Townsend. His music combines the exceptional timing of bands like Porcupine Tree or Frank Zappa’s Mothers of Invention while playing faster than both combined. Townsend’s voice is nothing short of magnificent and outpowering his recorded material is no small feat. His transition from outlandish lunatic with the band Strapping Young Lad to the wise sensei lunatic with The Devin Townsend Project is organic and beneficial. The step away from the confining shackles of making extreme metal (mostly avoiding cliché gimmicks) allowed much more freedom to write, produce, and create art without limits.
The show opened with “Addicted” and “Supercrush,” both from his most recent album. The first two tracks represent recent DTP material well, swelling from light vocals and a simple backbeat to elaborate headbanging blitzkriegs. A healthy chunk of his catalog features this layered approach to music, often resulting in elaborate soundscapes. Set lists for established artist are hard to create, but the Vancouver native insured those new to his sound would be amazed while giving a history lesson on how he has come so far. A true showman, Townsend’s orchestrating every note you hear, even the ones he is not playing. The collective guitar skills shown on stage were hard to match, and the drummer seemed to turn his kit into a battleship, firing bass torpedoes and snare missiles directly into the crowd. Some of the pieces he was playing were created by Townsend’s drum machine, so to make those parts not sound so mechanical live is fantastic.
Townsend’s fingers do lots of dancing along the fret board during the ten-minute “Color Your World” as the song changes from near sea shanty to blistering speed before heading back to a softer pace. That song and two others from the “Ziltoid the Omniscient” album went over the most with the crowd. The pulp comic aspect of the alien invasion record ensures the outcasts will get a piece of the metal pie. Devin Townsend should appeal to most, as they are hardcore enough for the Slayer fan and extreme enough for the Cannibal Corpse crowd, while people who have no idea who those two bands are but love Star Trek will dig them. Townsend’s music ultimately makes you embrace yourself using the lyrics and subject matter as a lens to begin retrospection. The message is to appreciate yourself and accept the nerd you are, even if you aren’t.
FOR MORE PHOTOS: Head to photographer Adam Kozlowski's flickr page!
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