Coheed & Cambria: Live in Austin, TX 4/11/11 ("CD" Review)

“Making it” in the music industry is a Herculean task these days and being signed to a major label seems to mean absolutely nothing for a band’s financial position (see Tim Quirk’s article on how much money Too Much Joy HASN’T made over the years). As such, I admire any major label band that breaks from the ‘traditional’ release cycle of a shrink-wrapped product at a big box retailer.

Coheed & Cambria have made available soundboard live recording from their current Neverender: SSTB Tour through their online webstore which are available on both a USB drive and as a digital download. When Pearl Jam started releasing all of their shows on CD a few years ago, I was doubtful there was a market for so many live albums but I’ve obviously been proven wrong. These Coheed and Cambria shows are available as MP3’s but, before anyone ‘panics’ that they aren’t FLAC, they are recorded at 320kps and the recording engineer has done a nice job of capturing the clarity and precision of the band’s music and blending this with the excitement of their live performance.

Outside of a few metal festivals, I really don’t go to arena shows anymore. I think that I’ve gotten to a point in life where overpriced nosebleed seats and drunken audience sing-alongs just aren’t that enjoyable. As such, I’m probably part of the demographic that this type of offering is targeted to. I picked up a copy of Coheed’s April 11th show from Stubb's in Austin, TX (27 tracks – approx. 2 hours and 20 minutes) and I can clearly hear every guitar note and every vocal line without having to schlep out to (i.e.) Jones Beach with 5,000 other Coheed and Soundgarden fans. The $15 cost of this download seems worth it in comparison to the $52 price per ticket (to sit in the very back of the pavilion). Sadly, just avoiding the concession and parking fees more than pays for this download.

I don’t think there is much point in trying to review this live show (especially this far after the show) as you are either a fan of the band or you aren’t and the band doesn’t break from their established sound in the live arena. The set list (below) consists of one song from Travis Stever's solo project Davenport Cabinet (which kicks off the set), an acoustic set (that includes a new song "Iron Fist") which leads into a complete electric run-through of Second Stage Turbine Blade and the band closes out the set with an acoustic version of "Elf Tower New Mexico" which was a bonus track on the reissue of Second Stage Turbine Blade.

Acoustic set:
Nostalgia in Stereo (Davenport Cabinet acoustic)
Always and Never
Mother Superior
Pearl
Iron Fist
Milkfoot
Who Watches the Watchman
Happy Birthday V Man
Juggernaut
Wake Up

SSTB:
Second Stage Turbine Blade
Time Consumer
Devil In Jersey City
Everything Evil
Delirium Trigger
Hearshot Kid Disaster
33
Junesong Provision
Neverender
God Send Conspirator
I Robot

Encore:
Far
Ten Speed (Of God's Blood And Burial)
No World For Tomorrow
Welcome Home
The Black Rainbow

Encore 2:
Elf Tower New Mexico (Acoustic)

I still wonder if there are people who bought every Pearl Jam live disc as I don’t think I need more than this show from the current tour but this is a pretty solid tour souvenir.

Coheed & Cambria Tour Dates:
June 11 - Brooklyn Waterfront, FREE headlining show with Adrian Belew Power Trio & Tigers Jaw

With SOUNDGARDEN
July 02 – Toronto, ON – Molson Canadian Amphitheater
July 03 – London, ON – John Labatt Center
July 06 – Uncasville, CT – Mohegan Sun Arena
July 08 – Newark, NJ – Prudential Center
July 09 - Wantagh, NY – Nikon at Jones Beach Theater
July 10 – Mansfield, MA - Comcast Center for the Performing Arts

Links:
Coheed and Cambria

House of Thieves Plays the Trash Bar on Sunday, Nov. 28th

DOWNLOAD: House of Thieves - "Hans Fritz" (download requires Facebook/Twitter post)

Experimental/prog-rock band House of Thieves are playing the Trash Bar on November 28th along with Broken Glow and The Enth.

"House of Thieves runs the musical gamut. Providing listeners with a diverse spread of different musical influences, from progressive dual guitar shredding, to dub reggae influenced delay-drenched riffs,and gritty power chord driven anthemic choruses ( a la "Hans Fritz"). The band not only refuses to be confined by generic constructs within the band as a whole, but within individual songs; the dance breakdown in "Hans Fritz" is just one of many examples of a band that takes pride in offering listeners a more diverse song structure than Verse-Chorus-Verse-Chorus. All the members are veteran musicians and bring a confident, aggressive, almost frightening energy to their live performance."

Cover is $6 and there is open bar from 8-9PM.

Links:
House of Thieves

Vans Warped Tour '07 DVD Review

It seems hard to believe that Warped Tour has now been running 13 years. The original Lollapalooza Festival was supposed to be the indie-festival benchmark and it faded away in about half this time. This DVD documents the Warped experience from the 2007 Tour and mixes live footage with interviews from a number of bands.

The DVD is fun to watch as it is a good representation of the Warped Tour experience, from both the band and the audience member perspective. The camera crew uses a multi-camera set-up but the shots have a loose feel so the viewer can appreciate the experience without the footage feeling like an over-produced music video.

The bands are a nice eclectic mix of current fan favorites, old guard punks, and new up-and-coming bands. The interviews are fairly intersting and the age difference between the bands shows - Killswitch Engage talks about how they couldn't do the tour in a van and you have bands on the opposite end of the spectrum, like The Almost and Escape The Fate, who seem like they just climbed out of the van. The footage gives you a good perspective on the bands, their live set and what they are all about.

In addition to the main program of live footage and interviews, there are two additional tracks on the disc. The first track allows the watcher to access the long-form interviews, which run about 3 -6 minutes per band. (There are only interview snippets included with the live footage as part of the main program). The second track features additional live footage from the tour.

Here is the complete list of live performances:

Avenged Sevenfold - "Almost Easy"
Bad Religion - "Honest Goodbye"
Chiodos - "The Undertaker's Thirst for Revenge is Unquenchable", "Baby, You Wouldn't Last a Minute on the Creek"
Circa Survive - "In the Morning and Amazing"
Coheed and Cambria - "The Running Free"
Fishbone - "Behind Closed Doors", "Forever Moore"
Killswitch Engage - "Rose of Sharyn", "My Curse"
Pennywise - "Straight Ahead", "Pennywise"
Pepper - "Ashes", "Your Face"
The Starting Line - "Direction", "Island (Float Away)"
Sum 41 - "The Hell Song"

The hightlights for me are both of Killswitch Engage's live songs (and "Wall of Death") along with Coheed and Cambria, Pennywise, Fishbone and Bad Religion's performances.

If you want to get an inside look at what Rolling Stone called "America's most successful festival", check out this DVD. It will only be another couple months before Warped '09 starts up.

Links:
Warped Tour's Official SIte

Coheed and Cambria Announce Early '09 Tour with Slipknot

I just can't envision these bands on the same bill...or appealing to the same fan base. The show will probably sell out quickly though.

Coheed and Cambria, Slipknot and Trivum and teaming up for a 30+ date tour that stops at Madison Square Gardens on February 5th. Internet pre-sales through Ticketmaster will start on December 5th and the password is Noworld.

For more information, check out Slipknot's new website which was launched to coincide with the tour.

Links:
Coheed and Cambria