Concert Archive: Coheed, Circa, Torche @ Cain's Ballroom 4/30/10

Friday's concert was an amazing experience. The venue is very interesting, it has two bars, a stage and a large dance floor. The second bar has a smaller stage where they project a live video image of the main stage. Why you would be content watching this I don't know but it was useful for Torche's set. We did not think much of it. Their sound wasn't set up very well. Their songs sound cool at the beginning but once they are all playing it was so muffled you couldn't distinguish much. I'm not saying they weren't good but I just couldn't enjoy their set at all.

Circa Survive's set was much better. Their sound was a little shrill at the end, but up until that point it was very smooth. They sound exactly like their recordings which is becoming pretty rare now that artists can openly use tools like auto-tune to make their recordings better, and no one seems to care. They played a handful of their well known songs like 1,000 Witnesses and Stop the Fucking Car, but to my wife's great disappointment, did not play Travel Hymn. They mixed up their songs a little bit while they were playing them which was confusing and interesting at the same time. Circa's stage was kind of neat yet very simple. They had a wall of mirrors behind them and large strobe lights. I'm a sucker for strobes so this definitely worked for me.

Moving on, Coheed & Cambria's set was amazing! I will admit I am particularly biased towards them in this situation. However there was no denying the energy that everyone seemed to exist once Coheed started playing. They started with "One" as was expected and went straight into "The Broken".

A rush of screams and energy seemed to emanate throughout the ballroom whenever they started One. Every song after was greeted with a roar from the crowd. Some songs they played for their set were "The Broken", "Guns of Summer", "In Keeping Secrets of Silent Earth 3", "Everything Evil", "Welcome Home",  "Pearl of The Stars", "Time Consumer, and many more. People were moving so much the floor of Cain's was moving up and down and at some points it buckled so much you could feel it bottom out on the foundation below. It was hard to stand still but if you just moved with the crowd you were fine.
Whenever they played Welcome Home everyone joined in on the vocals as they did on every other song. But when you hear that Whoa-ah-oooh filling the entire ballroom it gives you goosebumps and this crazy rush of euphoria. If you are a Coheed fan and have yet to see a show, PLEASE DO!

It will change you in ways maybe small, maybe large, but the connection to the music that you feel will change forever. Each song will never be the same. I have seen them twice and each experience is different, and I don't believe it will ever get old or boring, no matter how many times I see them.

Some video and merch after the jump...

 There was tons of merch there for each band. The Coheed table disappointed me greatly. Not because there wasn't anything good, Oh no... there was plenty of good stuff. I was disappointed because they had so much stuff and I didn't have so much money.

I eventually chose the raven shirt, and the Good Apollo graphic novel, as I was surprised to see it and plus, who knows how long it will be till it comes back into print. I really wish I would have brought more money as they had part one of Amory Wars, along with basically every issue of the Bag.On.Line Adventures. I saw many people in line ahead of me fleshing out their collections.

There were special deals on the comics, as well as a really sweet deal where buying 6 issues of Kill Audio got you a signed Year Of The Black Rainbow LP, for only 25 bones if I remember correctly. This was a very hard thing to pass up because I actually have a record player and I am one of those people who does follow the "analog is better" theory. Now, if you did not know, Amory Wars, The Bag.On.Line Adventures and the Good Apollo Graphic novel are what Coheed And Cambria's lyrics are about and are written by Claudio Sanchez.. Kill Audio is another comic by Claudio that is completely unrelated.

My videos were taken with a cell phone so they turned out horrible, but please enjoy some video someone else took with a good camera. I encourage you to check out other videos posted from this venue as the sound and energy of this place was amazing, and some of these videos capture that very accurately.