Devin Townsend Project + Between the Buried and Me + Fallujah @ Corona Theatre

September 18th, 2016. It's the weekend, and you know what that means. Lots of shows! Attending the Double Experience show at the Pioneer in the West Island on Saturday night set the standard high for the next day, which was the Devin Townsend Project and Between the Buried and Me at the Corona Theatre.

I arrived around 3:00 PM knowing that there wouldn't be a line yet. I went through the back to see if any of the guys from the Devin Townsend Project were there. Waiting for a little bit, Zim their videographer came out, and Nick their sound tech as well. I noticed a few familiar faces from the videos, like Eddie their tour manager, the merch guy, and the sound girl. It was all so exciting. I chatted with Zim for a little bit to see if we could do some filming for the vlog, we ended up filming a lot that morning, hence yours truly is in it.

We then ventured with Beav, the bassist from the DTP, and had lunch together. The guys had all poutines, I only had a grilled cheese because my stomach was upset from the BLT I ate the night before that really did not agree me. Nevertheless, it was a lot of fun to get to know the guys and was great to hang out with them.

Headed our back again and let them be for the remainder of the day, I saw Devin and Ryan unloading gear. I said, "Hi" to Devin, and he replied, "Hi" in an awkward way and said, "We need to get this stuff off first." So I just let them be; I didn't want to bother them that much.

With the greatest adventure that happened and witnessed, I then ventured forth to wait in line. My friends from Halifax surprised me when they entered the restaurant where we were, and we all waited in line until 5:30 PM when the doors opened. Eagerly waiting to get my ticket, I was a little worried I wouldn't make it to the front. Slowly but surely I was able to make my way. Fallujah was really late and only had an hour and forty-five minutes to get to the venue, since they had issues with merchandise imports. It's a shame that they got held up but at least they made it.

Fallujah is one of those bands that are up and coming, and they were so technical with what they do as musicians. The amount of complexity and technicality in their music is astounding and they use all the amount of resources they can in their musical ability. What I really liked about Fallujah was they use a lot of atmospheric melodic death metal, which I noticed when I listened to the album Dreamless. The band is headed in a more mature direction with their music, and some of the songs they played off Dreamless was fantastic and made me appreciate Fallujah a lot more.

Switching on over to Between the Buried and Me. Oh. My. God.

Since Parallax II, BTBAM have said they'd be able to bring forth to us a concept like no other, but I really feel as if Coma Ecliptic is like Colors 2.0, there is that same vibe to it all over. I was so ecstatic to hear them play it all in its entirety when it was announced.

Between the Buried and Me pulled off a flawless performance, sounding exactly like on record, which was crazy. The amount of technicality is actually more noticeable live. It seems more powerful and in your face, if I do say so myself. The professionalism of Between the Buried and Me was shown that night alone with just Coma Ecliptic.

The band was phenomenal. Tommy Rogers was a lot more engaged with the crowd unlike most times I've seen BTBAM. I especially liked Tommy's setup because I'm a keyboard player, and he had a chaos pad of some sort or a microKORG. I couldn't see from where I was but the microKORG did all sorts of weird EDM electronic stuff with booming bass, which was incredible.

Needless to say, seeing Between the Buried and Me for the fifth time was worth it, and everyone did an amazing job performing the album. Highlight songs from Coma Ecliptic included "The Ectopic Stroll", "Dim Ignition", "Rapid Calm", "Coma Machine", "Memory Palace", and "Life in Velvet".

Weird music began to play as we were waiting for Devin Townsend to come one stage. I wasn't too sure if it was the DJ playing the house music, but it was coming off of Devin Townsend's crew playlist. Some of the silliest songs I've heard. Everyone got settled in and then the lights dimmed. They play a backing track and hit right into "Night" from Ocean Machine: Biomech, one of my favourite songs off that album.

Then transitioned into "By Your Command" from Ziltoid the Omniscient. Devin got more interactive with the crowd and there were a bunch of people moshing. Since I was front row in the middle, I thought I was completely safe, but there were a lot of crowd surfers during that song. I almost got hit, but I managed to get down before they hit me. Nevertheless, it was a crazy pit. One of the craziest I've ever experienced at a show.

Following up with "Failure", the first single released for the new album, Transcendence. I was quite happy how much it sounded like off the record, but twice as heavy. Surprisingly, he played "Where We Belong" off Epicloud, but took it down a notch from being all heavy and all about love. 

Back into heavier things again with two songs from Z². "March of the Poozers" and "Ziltoid Goes Home", which was a highlight of the set. The crowd was going super crazy at that point. It was out of control! Devin encouraged the crowd to not hurt each other during the song, which was kind of funny.

The entire show was incredible from start to finish. Twenty-three years of Devin Townsend's music showcased in an hour and a half, I'd say that this is not a tour that anyone should miss, especially due to the amount of fun and effort that the crew put into it, and the supporting bands that made this tour even possible. I would love to see another year worth if this tour with the same bands, because it was a perfect line up.

Overall. This show was one of the best I've ever seen in my entire life. The professionalism was there with all three bands. I really have no words to say left on how amazing this was. If this tour comes to your town. By all means GO. YOU WILL HAVE A BLAST.

--Philliam hosts Turn On The Darkness every Tuesday at 2PM, only on CJLO 1690AM.