Live-Metal.Net - Concert Reports - Between the Buried and Me - The Great Misdirect Tour - Sonar

Between the Buried and Me direct from Baltimore


	BETWEEN THE BURIED AND ME vocalist/ keyboardist Tommy Rogers

BETWEEN THE BURIED AND ME
CYNIC
DEVIN TOWNSEND PROJECT
SCALE THE SUMMIT

February 1, 2010
Sonar
Baltimore, MD

Support acts by JEFF MAKI
Between the Buried and Me by RYAN MAVITY

Riding the current success of their latest album, The Great Misdirect, Between the Buried and Me is all the buzz right now in the rock music world. Still very much an underground act, the band's fan base is steadily growing with every album. Now in 2010, Between the Buried and Me has climbed to headliner status with their own tour of seemingly handpicked support acts, Cynic, Devin Townsend Project and Scale the Summit. When the tour rolled through Sonar in Baltimore, Md., Live-Metal.net was there.

Don't get me wrong, I was very much looking forward to Between the Buried and Me, but since I saw them open for In Flames at the 9:30 Club in Washington, D.C., only a few months ago, I was equally interested in the support acts of the tour.

The Texan progressive metal band Scale the Summit opened things up to a large crowd at Sonar that was still filling in. The band played the big stage recently, opening for Dream Theater on last summer's Progressive Nation tour. Their music is completely instrumental—no vocals, no effects, no samples. They had the crowd's attention at the onset, but interest seemed to wane further into the set, with the loudest response coming for "The Great Plains." Crowd interaction from the band was minimal. Scale the Summit's music is certainly interesting, yet a live setting is probably not the greatest place to showcase their latest album, Carving Desert Canyons, as strange as that sounds. It's atmospheric, mood-metal that seems better suited for a downer after a wild night, long road trips or drug-induced trip.

Scale the Summit set list: Age Of The Tide, Sargasso Sea, Dunes, The Great Plains, City In The Sky, Omni

For most metalheads, the name Devin Townsend should sound familiar. He once sang vocals for Steve Vai, was the lead vocalist/guitarist for Strapping Young Lad and also The Devin Towsend Band. The latter two have since disbanded and he now is playing under the moniker Devin Townsend Project, which is reported to be a four-disc project with each album bearing a different theme of his personality. And personality is something Townsend definitely has. With a small, skinny frame and shiny bald head, he resembles more of a metal version of Michael Stipe than the escapee from a mental asylum that he portrayed in the very metal Strapping Young Lad. On stage he is quirky, comedic and quite the oddball, which made me—and probably the rest of the crowd—somewhat uncomfortable if not amused at times. He almost reminded me of Jim Rose from Jim Rose Circus or Criss Angel of Mindfreak--he's got that same sort of dark and dry sense of humor and weirdness. Or maybe he's just done his fair share of drugs in his lifetime.

I've heard Devin Townsend Project's most recent release, 2009's Addicted, an electro-metal, atmospheric album, yet nothing from his set sounded like what I had heard (though apparently he did play "Supercrush" from the album), What started as a riff-heavy, groove metal style, morphed into a set beamed down from planet Mars. Towsend's vocals and sound effects were as absurd as his stage movements and facial expressions. And the band's overall sound became a harsh wall of sonic oblivion as nonstop high-pitched ringing and distorted fuzz protruded from the speakers. And this was in addition to the band's unusual loudness that still had my ears ringing four days later! It was similar to being trapped in some sort of horror movie funhouse with distorted mirrors, strange images and deafening sounds.

Devin Townsend Band set list: Disruptr, Supercrush!, Kingdom, Truth, OM,
By Your Command

The often critically acclaimed Cynic is another progressive metal band that's been around since releasing its debut album in 1993. After several lineup changes and an eventual breakup, the band reformed in 2007. Vocalist/guitarist and original member Paul Masvidal told the crowd that Cynic has a new EP due out soon, and the song they played from it, "Wheels Within Wheels," was the only real highlight of their set. It sounded like an alternative rock band I like called Band of Horses. There were some backup growls from the guitarist on several songs, amidst the laid-back, melancholic fusion of several musical styles. I didn't know whether to nod my head to the complicated rhythm and song structures or to start meditating.

Originally rooted in death metal (Cynic at one time actually had band members who played in Death), Cynic's set was anything but. At one point, Masvidal had the crowd perform a yoga stretch. What? You see, he's the sensitive, soft-spoken type who's immersed in culture, poetry and literature—an indie rock type dude. I think I bumped into him at the coffee house the other day.

Cynic set list: Nunc Fluens, The Space For This, Evolutionary Sleeper, Celestial Voyage, Wheels Within Wheels, Adam's Murmur, King of Those Who Know, Nunc Stans, Integral Birth

I've always had an open mind in music. I'm always eager to seek out new bands and to find the next great thing for myself. Yes, I "get" it. Yes, I know what these bands are about for the most part, yet in the end these opening acts did nothing except make me pray for Between the Buried and Me to hit the stage. Sorry guys.

After 45 minutes of “yoga-rock” from Cynic, the always-feisty Baltimore crowd was pumped and ready for headliners Between the Buried and Me.

The North Carolina fivesome had a much bigger following than I thought they would have. If Sonar wasn’t sold out, it was damn close.

The band got the crowd going right away with “Obfuscation,” the first single off the band’s latest release, The Great Misdirect. The crowd started going off as soon as guitarist Paul Waggoner hit the opening notes of the song and sang along to the “Close one eye/step to the side” choruses and the “We will always be part of the great misdirect …” finish. Vocalist/keyboard player Tommy Rogers brought his usual manic energy, moving between his keyboard at the rear of the stage and singing at the front.

The band followed with the second single from The Great Misdirect, “Disease, Injury, Madness.” Pits started breaking out all over the place during the brutal first two minutes of this song. The band was certainly in top form musically—there were only four shows left in the tour after this one—and seemed surprised at first by the crowd reaction.

Rogers then introduced the next song, the seldom-played “More of Myself to Kill,” from the band’s 2002 self-titled debut. The songs from the first record have rarely been played live in recent years, but this song—one of the first the band ever recorded—was brought back for this tour. Those familiar with BTBAM as a progressive metal band may not recognize them from their first record, which was more of a mix of math metal and technical death metal. Still, the version of “More of Myself to Kill” played on this tour was better than the original, as the band—Rogers in particular—is much more confident and assured.


	BETWEEN THE BURIED AND ME's Paul Waggoner and Tommy Rogers

Next up was the first track played off 2007’s Colors, the 13-minute “Ants of the Sky.” This song was a bigtime showcase for Waggoner’s guitar shredding. Looking like a cross between Cousin It and Zakk Wylde’s younger brother, Waggoner was in full-on guitar hero mode, putting on an exhibition of sweeps, tremolo picking and fast fretwork. He even pulled off an electrified version of the country hoedown section of “Ants of the Sky.” By this point, the band was really feeding off the crowd’s energy with Rogers and even normally placid bassist Dan Briggs exhorting the audience for more noise. It was a rare show of emotion from a band that typically is a picture of stoic concentration—they have to be since the songs are so intricate and usually about eight minutes long.

Another rarely played song, “Alaska,” from the album of the same name, was the shortest in the set and gave the slam dancers some good ammunition as its one of the more brutal songs in the band’s repertoire.

The crowd let out a collective “awww” when Rogers announced the next song as the band’s last, althoughthe singer promised, “It’s a long one.” And that it was, in the form of the nearly 18-minute closer from The Great Misdirect, “Swim to the Moon.” The crowd kept up the energy throughout, though, singing along to the “Slide into the water …” chorus. Seeing Waggoner do the Celtic-style guitar part in person was pretty impressive.

After a short break, the band came back for one more song, the always-popular “White Walls” from Colors. This song got some of the best crowd reaction the last time I saw BTBAM in D.C. due to its multiple heavy breakdowns. It was a fine way to close a great set.

This show had a different vibe then when we last saw BTBAM opening for In Flames in D.C. As an opening act, the band played more of their well-known songs, but as headliners, they opted for a more varied set list. The interaction between the band and the audience was also different. Maybe it was due to having to carry the bill as headliners or just better energy at Sonar, whatever thecase, it was as lively as I’ve ever seen the band in a live performance. All told, BTBAM played a killer set and continues to get betterand better with each performance.

Between the Buried and Me set list: Obfuscation, Disease, Injury, Madness, More of Myself to Kill, Ants of the Sky, Alaska,
Swim to the Moon, (encore) White Walls