THE RETINAL CIRCUS

Devin Townsend was thinking about this project for years, and it finally came true in 2012, here he can have for prosperity his Broadway musical "The Retinal Circus". This theatrical production has a story that was supposed to illustrate his 20 years career. How the artist can put in a story the music of different parts of his career when every album has his own story? We can think that the story is secondary compare to the music. He wanted to give some entertaining value to the music that is already pleasant to hear. So we got a big production here with costumes, plenty of characters, visual objects, a choir. The musicians had the task to keep their focus on their music while there were a lot of things going on in the stage. Steve Vai, a long time friend of Devin is doing the narration between songs to explain the story of the evolution of man through the mind of Mr. Townsend, which include the invasion of aliens.

The music is intense as usual with 3 different kinds of songs: the complex prog songs, the quiet and dark ones, and the heavy ones; 2 Strapping Young Lads songs, with the original guitar player, Jed Simon. The vocals of Anneke Van Giersbergen are well worth the price of admission here by giving more melodic feel to the music. You can here and see the results of this in the simple song "Ih-Ah!". The set list is well crafted with a balance set of songs of different moods and you never get bored during this 2 hours and forty minutes show.

The final scene is really special with the recreation of a living room where every band members pass through a door and gets a rest while Devin sings his little acoustic piece "Little Pig". It's impressive to know that this big production was done on low budget and that the man is still sticking to his ideas despite the lack of funds. I hope this efforts serve him in the future and help the band to have more recognition because, the man has a lot of others ideas to bring to the world of the experimental metal scene, and need plenty of money if he want to do others big productions! I have to give 5 stars here, because it's the first time we can see a document of that nature and that proportion in the metal world.

"The Retinal Circus" is the sort of in-depth, live retrospective that a fan of any artist dreams of, and Devin Townsend does it only as he can, in a silly, surrealist manner. Steve Vai narrates a loose narrative about a dreamer named Harold, tied together by selections from Devin's considerable body of work, and the proceedings are acted out by a Cirque du Soliel slew of acrobats, choir members, and dancers.

When Devin dives into one of his crazy concepts, be it the coffee-obsessed Ziltoid, or the boney landscapes of Casualties of Cool, the proceedings always manage to garner a commitment from his fan base. This is why he can announce something as off-kilter as Casualties, and his fans are more than happy to fork over five times the asking price.

This is why Devin needs to learn not to blink.

"The Retinal Circus" offers a perfect live audio and video experience for the fans. You get the sunny stuff from albums like "Epicloud" and "Ocean Machine," some dark stuff from records such as "Deconstruction," and the goofy stuff from "Ziltoid the Omnicient." God bless him, he even does a couple of Strapping Young Lad songs for headbangers who miss that stuff, and we know he probably didn't want to do that, but thank the good Lord, he grinned and screamed a couple of those old favorites for us anyway. There's nothing from great records like "Terria," but you can't cram 'em all in there.

Yet Devin doesn't seem sure if the whole concept of the show is working or not, and retreats into self-depreciation in that skittish manner he tends to do in interviews. No one's asking him to show Kanye West-levels of confidence in his work, but Devin seems like a guy who has difficulty taking a compliment. He doesn't need to slag off his live concept to appease those who may not think it's cool, it's icing on the music, but he does anyway as an unnecessary defense mechanism. It's the one thing that mars an otherwise brilliant showcase for his unique career.