Coheed and Cambria Show review
Written October 15, 2004

On the cusp of a crisp, perfect October night, a line was gathering in front of Toronto ’s Kool Haus. This was no ordinary line, oh no. This was a line populated primarily with teenage punk princesses in studded belts and guys wearing obscure band T-shirts. This was a punk rock crowd in traditional mall attire.

I somehow knew that we had come to the right place. The Kool Haus has long been a gathering place for manufactured rebels and the ultra-hot Coheed and Cambria could only increase the magnetism. Despite my cynicism, I was excited: braving the Gardner traffic had been less harrowing than anticipated and we had arrived in time to see all the acts on the bill. This is an immense rarity for me.

After melding into the mass of angsty melodrama filing slowly into the front doors, I was patted down quite sexily by an old woman and sent into the venue. The milling crowds were greeted by the appearance of a lone figure on stage. Without warning, the man launched into a rocking acoustic set of considerable complexity. The palm stops and percussion stuff he was pulling off were most impressive.

Following a song or two, the Lone Guitarist informed us that the rest of his band, collectively known as 3, was unable to cross the border into Canada . However, he still forged through a short solo set which, at the very least, was enough to raise questions. Such as; is the rest of this guy’s band as good as him? Is he the only one getting paid for this show? I was intrigued, but the Lone Guitarist ultimately left the stage without enlightening me.

The next act was the much-vaunted screamo band Underoath. I am admittedly unfamiliar with their musical catalogue, but I’ve heard a song or two that were decent. Well, Underoath stormed the stage with the intensity of raving speed-freaks. The keyboard player was absolutely nuts, bashing away on his instrument and headbanging wildly. Guitar players were all over the stage, spinning and whirling and kicking the shit out of their amps. The singer (read: screamer) pranced around, swinging his microphone. It was madness.

The music itself? Meh. It’s reminiscent of Alexisonfire. I was assured by several fine RadioLaurier people that the albums are laden with intricacies, but Underoath’s live show didn’t showcase their music as anything profound. People were singing along with the lyrics but I didn’t know them. I was partially distracted by three kids trying to surreptitiously smoke a joint next to me and looking incredibly obvious and awkward in the process. Before I knew it, the kids were getting chased away by security and Underoath was finished.

Coheed and Cambria finally took the stage to much applause. Launching directly into “The Crowing,” it quickly became apparent that the band was in fine form. Claudio Sanchez’s trademark voice (think Rush) was spot-on for every song, despite the fact that he let the crowd sing the more popular verses. Even the vast range of backup vocals that Coheed employed were surprisingly well layered. The band drew primarily from their latest release, In Keeping Secrets of Silent Earth: 3, but still touched on favourites like “Devil in Jersey City ” and “Everything Evil.” The crowd loved it. I loved it.

I noticed that a lot of the longer, epic songs on the set list were chopped down considerably - “The Light and the Glass” for example, went from nine minutes to five. No big deal: the guitar buildups were still powerful and the breakdowns complex. The inevitable encore added shine. “Time Consumer” was the only memorable song missing in action.

Coheed and Cambria’s stage presence was negligible but their talent supersedes the lack of flashiness. And, to my knowledge, it’s the bands with talent that stick around for a while.

It always seems like I don't have enough room to say everything I want. In this instance, I rambled on about the venue and the opening bands so much that I had to cram my opinion of Coheed into a miniscule couple of paragraphs at the very end. I think that it's important to add a touch of personality to show reviews - weird things that happened and so forth - instead of simply talking about the melodic guitar solos and blah blah blah, but sometimes the stories fill my word count before I even realize what I'm doing. Blast.