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Back in 2002 or so, a guy friend of mine introduced me to a band he had discovered, whose lyrics were all about two fictional characters in a sci-fi world, and whose artwork had no band photos, only a drawing of the fictional guy and girl. The music was like a cross between pop/rock, metal, and prog-rock, with high-pitched vocals that immediately called to mind the band Rush. There were some amazing melodies in there, punctuated with a lot of fun "oh oh's". They were called Coheed and Cambria, they were very mysterious, and we were positive the singer was a girl.
Fastforward to six years and a couple changes in music taste later, and I still cite "Devil In Jersey City" and "Time Consumer", off that first album The Second Stage Turbine Blade, as two of my all-time favorite songs. (I did buy In Keeping Secrets of Silent Earth: 3, the second album (despite the 3), but shortly thereafter I re-discovered folk and Kate Bush and wandered off in other directions.) I was definitely aware that Coheed had blown up at that point though, with a massive hit in the catchy "A Favor House Atlantic". (And in the video, I finally got a good look at them... The giant hair and lip ring pretty much killed the mysteriousness, but a good sense of humor is always appreciated.) I saw them play an acoustic set at Spaceland later, which sounded a bit thin, but it was still fun to sing along.
So last Sunday, I went to see Coheed at The Wiltern. I have to say, it's been a long time since I've seen a show with full-on arena-rock lighting and a backdrop with a sci-fi skyline (okay, I've never seen the latter), and the need to stand on my toes to see over incredibly tall guys with emo hair up against the wall in the back section. (My fault, I could've gotten there early.) Watching with my friend, a fan of In Keeping Secrets..., we kept turning to each other and yelling, "I know this one!...Oh, remember this one?!" Needless to say, they played a lot of the older songs and it was absolutely great to rock out to them.
"Is this the one where they say 'Over and out, Connecticut'??'"
Coheed comes complete with blond back-up singers now, who can't quite compete with singer Claudio's range-defying vocals, and his hair now knows no bounds. He had it in a ponytail when we came in, but pulled it out during a shameless guitar solo at one point, and instantly looked like Slash. It used to just be big, now it's big and long. (...Oh stop, I am just talking about his hair.) I was happy to see they still sport the green dragonfly logo from the first album, among the ghostly white and black that decorated the stage, and the new songs sounded pretty good, as far as I could tell still in the vein of In Keeping Secrets.... The crowd certainly knew the songs well, which is always fun to see.
We left during an encore that turned into a slightly self-indulgent jam session (or is it a mighty long new song?), in which one of the guitarists was singing into the mic with death metal-voice effects, and Claudio was echoing the melodies on his guitar. Possibly with his teeth, I couldn't tell. And that's certainly not my thing, so we took our cue to leave. But I did go with the urge to re-indulge in my Coheed albums (listening to their myspace now), and check out the new album, which another friend is currently obsessing over: No World For Tomorrow.
Nothing like the occasional night of gigantic hair, soaring melodies and prog-rock solos, just to keep your perspective. Go listen to "Devil In Jersey City."
Photo by Miss Gaby via Coheed and Cambria's myspace
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