DEVIN TOWNSEND PROJECT – Oslo – Sentrum Scene

As soon as Radar booking announced that Devin is coming back to Oslo in February 2017 and with the local Leprous as support act, I was boiling with excitement for the upcoming show and I am extremely thankful to Pirate Smile for offering me the chance to photograph and witness the show so I can write the below review. The tour has stopped in Bergen the evening before and based on all the pics and clips I’ve watched from my friends, it looked like another fun evening à la Devin was reserved for us.

The concerts took place at Sentrum scene and being on a Sunday evening, they had a somewhat early start, before 8 PM. I was expecting a rather empty venue but it turns out that Leprous’ hard work for the past years is actually paying off and they almost manage to fill the big Sentrum Scene so early. Well deserved, especially since their last show on home ground was the DVD released Rockefeller show and if one found that show impressive, I must say I think they, once more, leveled up on this tour. And even a replacement guitarist can’t stop them from delivering close to perfection and without any sign that they are only the opening act. The attitude, skills, the lights show (not a delight for photographers though), the beast Kolstad on drums, the many stringed guitars…these guys work it out as if they’re the headliner of the evening. And it is rather sad when their show ends so abruptly after you only warmed up with about 5 songs. But then again, they do wonders with the live arrangements of their songs, so that there is little loss in the quality of voice or demanding riffs. My main complain, as usual, is that they stopped performing from older albums. How I miss those songs live.

 

After one drumkit and a set of keyboards was removed from the stage, it all seemed less cluttered and there was all of a sudden plenty of space for the guy in Between the Buried and Me. I never heard them before so I spent some time in between camera shots to figure out what they are all about. I couldn’t really decide where they stand or what they do. While there were some really cool parts on keys or vocals, I found it very distracting that it all jumped in all directions and I had a hard time focusing on the idea of a song. Maybe it makes more sense on an album so I will give it a try at some point, but I went away from the stage after getting too confused. Still, another enjoyable lights show at least.

 

 

With an precision worthy of envy for a lot of tour managers, Devin and his project took the stage at the planned time and within the first few seconds it was obvious that this is a fun evening. Well, it’s not that it ever gets boring with Devin, but he has evenings when he’s more talkative and funnier than others. This was one of them. I personally had so much pain in my jaws by the end of the show…besides the little speeches between songs that always crack you up, there’s always all those faces that accompany the singing. ALL THOSE FACES…the gestures, the everything that shows how much fun he is having and it makes it so easy to diffuse the fun mood down to the audience. He even explained how shitty the touring conditions can be and how rewarding it is to be up there and have fun with such a bunch of people. ANd with the puppet holders. Afterall, how many metal shows offer you the chance to witness adult people holding puppets.

 

 

Devin’s discography goes back many many years, under various names and touching a variety of genres. He even introduced one of the songs like this, saying ‘we have about 25 releases and here’s a song from one of them’. I would love to know more on how they decide which songs to include in playlists and which ones to stop performing. No matter what, someone will probably say they would much rather have heard this instead of that (I am being one of those who can always hear Bend it like bender or Addicted). And now, with the new Transcendence album, there’s even more older material that has to go away to make place for the new ones. Which are not bad songs, but they’re not classics yet. Overall though, one can always be happy when he introduces Kingdom (those amazing slow vocals on such intense background), or when we hear the silly story from his last night dream and he has to perform an acoustic version of Ih-Ah wearing a crown. And pulling it off in such an elegant manner, without missing the romantic side of this beautiful ballad.

 

 

Besides the composing and entertaining skills, Devin is very talented at picking amazing people to work with. Well, he did it many years ago but whatever reasons he had it was very inspired. Those guys are such a great musical machine which perfectly completes Devin’s madness. A madness that ended way too soon, since this guy can probably never play long enough, according to some enthusiasts like me I guess.

 

 

The tour still goes on for a while so I highly recommend everyone to attend a show or two, get their ziltoids and good mood with them and have an unforgettable time at the concert.

 

http://www.hevydevy.com/

http://rockefeller.no/