I saw this show last night (with my oldest son) at the Thomas Wolfe Auditorium in Asheville North Carolina. Drove about 250 miles, mostly in the pouring rain, to get there. Arrived early enough to walk around this nice shop / bar / restaurant area near the auditorium and to have dinner at a decent Cuban restaurant there.
I've been a PT fan for just a few years, but quickly became addicted and own most of their CDs. I saw them in Charlotte a couple of months ago (for the first time) with Bigelf and they were just fabulous, performing all of The Incident and a similar-length set of earlier songs, including a double-plus-extended encore version of Trains complete with the bassist vacuuming the stage while Wilson began yet another reprise of acoustic bits. Just awesome. As a long-time Yes fan, I really appreciate the way that PT's live performances are as tight as their studio recordings. I've enjoyed listening to C&C's first four albums (introduced to me by my son and by some of my students), but had never heard of TDH.
So, we went into the auditorium a bit before 7, well in time for the published 7:30 start. No need to line up earlier since we had assigned seats in Row N. I had to pay $2 to get a blue wrist band so that I could pay $5 for a plastic cup of beer, but it was a pretty decent pale ale, so I guess it's all right that it cost about the same as a six-pack of Sierra Nevada.
The stage was really crowded with three drum kits and all sorts of other triply redundant equipment. The Dear Hunter started at 7:30 on the dot and they were about as loud as it is possible for my ears to imagine. I don't think I ever heard Deep Purple or Black Sabbath or The Who play louder. Ear plugs wouldn't have helped, since the low frequencies were also cranked way up. Most of my internal organs probably suffered some damage. I have no idea what the band were singing about as I could discern no words. Really lively, somewhat complex, and did I mention LOUD? If they'd played any longer I would have had to go out in the lobby for some relief. Still, I do want to give their studio albums a listen and will try to pick up one soon.
It took about half an hour to clear TDH's equipment off stage and arrange the PT setup. When PT came on stage, Steve Wilson greeted the "Coheed & Cambria fans," which generated a lot of applause and cheering. Then he asked if there were any PT fans, and to my ear got a louder response, but maybe that was my bias. They played for about an hour, with the opening of The Incident, Open Car, Russia on Ice, a concise rendition of Trains, Blackest Eyes, Anesthetize, Way Out of Here, maybe something else I'm not remembering (and I probably have the order wrong). They ended, took a bow, and left the stage, with no expectation of an encore for obvious reasons.
The dozen or more roadies then took the stage to remove the PT gear and get the C&C equipment ready. I was surprised that they simply removed the mikes and cymbals from the PT drum kit and then covered the rest of the drum kit with a purple tarp.
About 10:15 PM or so, the crowd began to chant Coheed Coheed Coheed. Perhaps that's what the band were waiting for, because they came right out and started playing, almost as loudly as TDH. The lead singer's hair formed a bushy cone around his head into which the microphone disappeared for the singing, which like TDH, was mostly inaudible. But that was all right, because the C&C fans in the audience (the majority by a long shot it seems) knew ALL the lyrics to ALL the songs and sang along on EVERY song. Sometimes Sanchez would step away from the mike and the audience would do the heavy lifting for a verse or chorus. Three well-tattooed emo chicks standing in front of us (no one used the seats during PT or C&C) knew all the words and sang them with their hands clasped in prayer near their chins throughout the show. Impressive fandom participation, I must say, kind of like going to see Rocky Picture Horrow Show.
C&C played for an hour+, left, then came back for a two-song encore, with the first song being an acoustic Sanchez-only love song -- the emo chicks swooned. The second encore featured a battle between Sanchez (using his guitar as the weapon) and the big speaker near the drummer. While it was probably intended to look impromptu, he had set it up near the beginning of the piece with his frantic hand jive communications with the roadie who was crouching behind that speaker, getting him to move the keyboard and other accoutrements off of the speaker.
We were back to the car by 11:45 PM and drove home, arriving about 3:30 AM, slowed down a bit by the NASCAR traffic leaving the big race in Bristol earlier in the day.
All in all, an excellent experience, though now I know that I do not need to see C&C live again, but will try to catch PT again and soon, preferably in a headlining performance.
YMMV,
Chris
Edited by krishl - August 22 2010 at 13:02
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Porcupine Tree, Dear Hunter & Coheed
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