Not much time today but let me quickly tell you about the Devin Townsend show.

It was tripple billed with the legendary Paradise Lost of UK and Katatonia of Sweden.  Apparently Dev and Katatonia have been been switching between headlining and opening all tour. A quick word about Paradise Lost– they’ve been around for 24 freakin’ years, formed in 1988, which is just nuts. They’re one of the first doom/death metal bands and have been through a few major detours. In their middle years they used more keyboards and became a kind of doom/death/synth-pop band, which worked in many ways, and now they’re basically a straight up gothic metal band, with slow, grinding, highly listenable tracks with occasional grooviness. I was never a big fan, but nothing but respect for their work over so many years.

Back to Dev. I wasn’t sure what to expect– I’d only seen Devin play once before, back when his only music act was the ultra-heavy Strapping Young Lad, a favorite band of mine that ended in the mid 2000s. Since moving on from that project he’s been doing his own thing, and that’s been highly variable to say the least. His last 4 albums have been all over the place, one fairly heavy, one filled with flutes and acoustics, one that was more of a commercial sound with lots of danceable tracks, and this new one, a double EP called Epicloud, which is happily heavy and filled with feel-good groovy metal/rock tracks.

If you’re interested at all, I highly recommend downloading his albums Infinity, Ocean Machine and Accelerated Evolution. Some of the best guitar work around.

He’s not a commercial musician and writes, records, produces and sells his own albums from his home in BC Canada. When an artist chooses to go that route, they typically end up with limited reach, and I meet very few people who’ve ever even heard of him, despite his huge presence in the world of progressive metal. Me, on the other hand… I’ve seen every interview he’s ever given, read everything written by or about him, and have everything he’s ever done… I’m quite the fan.

At around 8:30p, while his roadies were setting the stage up, Dev had a giant video playing on a screen in the background, with sound, and the contents were utterly bizarre. I hate taking my phone out during shows, but I couldn’t help but capture some pieces of it.

Some were giant stills of a famously hideous face he made and posted to twitter that went viral. Here’s one I grabbed:

Then there were utterly bizarre animations– nearly indescribable. And then weird little interludes starring the Ziltoid alien character he created a few years back. Here’s a clip I took of one of those:

(it’s sideways but you get the idea)

Eventually he took the stage and people were glad. He broke into Supercrush and the sound was huge. I’d say he had about 2/3 of the crowd with him from the start, and that was actually surprising to me. For some reason I assumed I’d be in a minority group here. But at Irving Plaza last night there were about 2000 likeminded fans, and it was great to see their support for Devin. The 1/3 that didn’t seem into it were probably there to see Katatonia, and when Dev began his set, they all seemed utterly confused at what was happening. It was fantastic.

As I had read about (over the years), he provides lots of commentary throughout the set, speaking freely between songs, and sometimes changing lyrics in the middle of a song, usually as a joke.

But around 10p, near the end of his set, he easily had 4/5 of the place with him, making new fans with a hell of a performance. He used 4 different guitars, including one he designed with Peavey that I was on a wait list for for over two years and eventually had to cancel on. When he brought the PXD out it was awesome. 7-string 28″ scaled V-body baritone.

Anyway, he nailed the last song and everyone was roaring for more, but as an opener, he had to get off the stage, and that was that. I didn’t stay for Katatonia and instead headed home, very happy.

I’m being treated to another schmancy restaurant tonight called Casa Mono which is actually right next to Irving Plaza. I’ll take pics and post a review for tomorrow.

OK! Overtime already. Happy Monday as always, hopefully your ears aren’t ringing too badly from all the high voltage ecstasy of the weekend.