Coheed & Cambria / Rock City / Nottingham
Yet another trip to the legendary Rock City and a co-headline show tonight with Coheed & Cambria and Thrice touring the UK together. I really enjoy both bands, but thought this was a strange match up for a co-headliner, with Coheed’s prog rock not feeling like the natural partner for Thrice’s heavier rock. However, tonight we would see how it works !
A slightly rushed start to the night. Doors opened at 18:30 and I got there at 18:45 as no set times were published beforehand. I was happily chatting to one of the security when one of the regular pit security came past and told me I might want to hurry. “Why’s that?” I asked, “cause the first band are on !” came the reply….. I legged it up into the main hall, pulling out a camera and trying to slot in an SD card without dropping it, or falling down the stairs. I got to the pit just as Touché Amoré were coming to the end of the first track Come Heroine, and was still able to shoot a couple of songs.
Touché Amoré were on fire and delivered an explosive set with frontman Jeremy Bolm pacing along the stage as he angrily belted out the vocals. The band put out a wall of noise in support and the whole thing had a fierce feel to it. The Los Angeles quintet tore through a set made up of tracks from their 2016 album “Stage Four” and 2020’s latest offering “Lament”.
The energy levels were maxed out from start to finish as the growing crowd pushed to the front barrier. Highlights of the set for me were the title track from their latest album Lament and the final track, the wonderful Flowers and You.
A great opener for the night.
Set List
Come Heroine (Lament 2020)
New Halloween (Stage Four 2016)
Rapture (Stage Four 2016)
Lament (Lament 2020)
Reminders (Lament 2020)
Limelight (Lament 2020)
Flowers and You (Stage Four 2016)
A quick turn around on stage and the first of our headliners came out on to the Rock City stage to huge applause and Thrice didn’t waste a second, ripping straight into the new album “Horizons/East” with the first two tracks Color of the Sky and Scavengers. Color of the Sky is a slower trackk, more emotional with some excellent reverb effects before we’re hit for six with the more powerful and aggressive Scavengers which bursts out at us with maximum intensity.
Next up is a fan favourite in The Artist in the Ambulance from 2003’s album of the same name. This fan anthem kicked the crowd into top gear as they shouted along to the lyrics.
The dark anthemic Black Honey followed before the bass heavy tones of All the World is Mad from 2009’s “Beggars” which sadly seems so appropriate right now in 2022 !
We headed back to 2002 next for Where Idols Once Stood and The Red Death from the album “The Illusion of Safety”. Their earlier work feels somehow more animalistic…. raw even especially the chest pounding beats of Red Death.
This sense of raw power and incendiary delivery continued and perhaps demonstrated best in my track of the set Summer Set Fire To The Rain which whipped thew crowd into a frenzy. As their set came to an end we slowed the pace down with the emotional acoustic ballad Beyond The Pines, from 2018’s excellent album “Palms” before they bowed out with The Earth Will Shake, from 2005’s “Vheissu”. The crowd were clapping, chanting and stamping their feet as the notes drifted off into the night and the set finally ended.
A brilliant set from the first of the co-headliners.
Set List
Color of the Sky (Horizons/East 2021)
Scavengers (Horizons/East 2021)
The Artist in the Ambulance (The Artist in the Ambulance 2003)
Black Honey (To Be Everywhere Is To Be Nowhere 2016)
All the World Is Mad (Beggars 2009)
Where Idols Once Stood (The Illusion of Safety 2002)
The Red Death (The Illusion of Safety 2002)
Anthology (Major/Minor 2011)
Dandelion Wine (Horizons/East 2021)
Hurricane (To Be Everywhere Is To Be Nowhere 2016)
Summer Set Fire to the Rain (Horizons/East 2021)
Robot Soft Exorcism (Horizons/East 2021)
Beyond the Pines (Palms 2018)
The Earth Will Shake (Vheissu 2005)
Finally the lights dimmed and the cheers grew as Coheed & Cambria took to the stage. With “Vaxis II: A Window of the Waking Mind” out earlier this year, a fair chunk of the set was given over to the new album but there were all the usual favourites in there too.
The unmistakable silhouette of Claudio Sanchez brought more cheers as the lights burst on and the band kicked in we started with The Dark Sentencer from 2018’s “The Unheavenly Creatures.
I was eager to see what the new material would be like live, and we didn’t have to wait long, as next up we had Beautiful Losers, Shoulders and A Disappearing Act from the new album back to back. I have to say, I loved them and the slotted in perfectly. I don’t get it when fans moan about new stuff ion the set list and where was X or Y, “I love those old tracks”. Surely the point is to move on, evolve and create new and exciting material, as well as pay homage to what got you there as well ? And this was a perfect example the triumphant Beautiful Losers being a great showcase for Claudio’s vocals, and the almost retro feel of A Disappearing Act.
A little later in the set we had another incredible new track in The Liars Club, which was upbeat and powerful with an anthemic chorus that got the crowd joining in. With his trademark hair free to swirl and dance freely as he moved around the stage, Sanchez delivers a performance worthy of such a skilled frontman.
The new material worked really well tonight and showcased how diverse Coheed & Cambria really are, using different styles and elements to develop new and blisteringly good material.
But, the classic tracks are where the band and audience become one, and that’s so true with Coheed & Cambria, with the classic Welcome Home and Favour House Atlantic inspiring the greatest singalongs, and then there is In Keeping Secrets of Silent Earth: 3, with it’s sci-fi dystopian brilliance, the amassed crowd as one raised their hands and sang along to the chorus.
As the set came to an end, we ended the night with the excellent The Running Free from 2007’s “No World for Tomorrow”. Band and audience were as one as the fans sang back every line. Smiles all round you came away feeling this was more than a band/fan relationship but a sense of love and belonging.
I’m happy to say, I was completely wrong. I worried that Thrice and Coheed & Cambria were too different to work well as a line up. Add to that the raw power and anger Touché Amoré !!! But it does. Sometimes they say opposites attract ? And I think this was a perfect example of that. Fans of different rock genres coming together and enjoying their own thing, but learning to love something a bit different too. A cracking night from start to finish.
Set List
The Dark Sentencer (The Unheavenly Creatures 2018)
Beautiful Losers (Vaxis II:A Window of the Waking Mind 2022)
Shoulders (Vaxis II:A Window of the Waking Mind 2022)
A Disappearing Act (Vaxis II:A Window of the Waking Mind 2022)
In Keeping Secrets of Silent Earth: 3 (In Keeping Secrets of Silent Earth: 3 2003)
The Liars Club (Vaxis II:A Window of the Waking Mind 2022)
A Favor House Atlantic (In Keeping Secrets of Silent Earth: 3 2003)
Welcome Home (Good Apollo I’m Burning Star IV 2005)
Window of the Waking Mind (Vaxis II:A Window of the Waking Mind 2022)
The Running Free (No World for Tomorrow 2007)
