Fear Factory - Devin Townsend Project

DEVIN TOWNSEND!!! DEVIN-MANIA!!! Okay, you never can have enough of this crazy man and his live performance. I saw the DEVIN TOWNSEND PROJECT live 2 times and every show was an ultimate experience. Now the DEVIN TOWNSEND PROJECT has released another masterpiece by the name of Epicloud, for me the counterpart to Ziltoid – The Omniscient. Both records belong to be performed on a musical stage. Something similar as it happened most recently at London’s Roundhouse where the DEVIN TOWNSEND PROJECT put the Retinal Circus on stage. Too bad I could not attend this spectacle, so I had to to be satisfied with the regular support show on the FEAR FACTORY tour ;)

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Well then! Me, I and myself super on time stood in front of the door of the • Essigfabrik • and begged for entry ;) There was actually an interview with Devin planned too, but it did not work out. Again *sighs*. My merchandising prey was likewise poor. No CDs (I actually wanted to get signed then) and the only girlie shirt was a pink one *huuuuh*. Even if pink is the new black… no, thanks.

Norwegian thunder beast :: DUNDERBEIST :: entered the stage an half hour before the announced time and kicked off in front of a just half filled hall (not really nice by the way). As for that they surprisingly rocked the house so asskickingly, just wow! I have to admit that the guys to date just scratched my horizon when talking of promotion and band things. I never dealt closer with them. Shame on me! DUNDERBEIST are really great. Even if everything is just “nicked”. Means, DUNDERBEIST use parts and elements of known songs, and make their own out of this. To point this out they even wear the perfect outfit for that on stage ;) And… the dudes really, really love their band name ;) After every song and whenever it was possible singer Torgrim und Åsmund shouted DUNDERBEIST down the audience. Nice promotion strategy. Unfortunately there was not that much room on stage as DUNDERBEIST is a seven-piece. And light was only enough for the both singers too. Though, as I said, asskicking show! And just to mention it again… DUNDERBEIST!
Setlist: Fear & Loathing, Through The Peephole, Father Serpent, Songs Of The Buried, La Guerre Du Feu, Four Of The Seven, Shields Aligned

The just passably filled hall got now packed. Change-over was fast and finally Supercrush! was thundering out of the speakers. The sound was… mighty. A bit unbalanced but mighty. The :: DEVIN TOWNSEND PROJECT :: almost literally blew everything away. As usual, Devin was much talkative, searching a close connection to his fans, was joking and fooling, told many little stories to the songs he played, some to laugh about, and some heartrending romantically. And he of course was once again acting like an insane, pulled faces, jumped and ran on stage. His mates to the outer left and right comparatively acted lame. As for that, and after Lucky Animals, drummer Ryan a thundering Happy Birthday sung by the band and the audience (and later a bday cake at the aftershow party). This song live is a stunner. And we got see the brand new fan video on a huge screen behind. But what really caused gooseflesh was the might Grace! Even without Anneke. OMG, how fkg great was that? As the most recent tetralogy was well played on the last tour, we now got a lot of old material. I can’t remember how long I did not hear Vampira played live. What else I can still tell? This show was – of course – once again extraordinarily great! That’s it!
Setlist: Supercrush!, Kingdom, Truth, Planet Of Apes, Where We Belong, War, Vampira, Lucky Animals, Juular, Grace, Deep Peace

Well, as already mentioned :: FEAR FACTORY :: did not really play the leading part tonight and I guess they mostly did not do on the tour either. The Essigfabrik noticeably emptied out. Strange enough, after kicking off with The Industrialist, the title track from the brand new album (one of only two new songs), FEAR FACTORY led already follow a bunch of classics from the 1998 hit album Obsolete, going on with tracks from the second hit album Demanufacture. Seems like they don’t have much trust in the new material and try it with a very best-of set. Well, it was surely nice to get all these old smashers live again but the show was not really spectacular, especially as it was almost the same setlist as in 2010. Just replace the two brand new tracks with two from the previous album. I got the feeling that the band’s heydays are long gone. Bummer!
Setlist: The Industrialist, Shock, Edgecrusher, Smasher/Devourer, Powershifter, Acres Of Skin, Linchpin, Ressurection, Recharger, Martyr // Demanufacture, Self Bias Resistor, Zero Signal, Replica