Devin Townsend’s Retinal Circus – The Prequels
Words by Nicholas Holmes
Photos by Tess Donohoe www.tessdonohoe.com
A year ago Devin Townsend had barely finished a four-night run of London gigs bringing together his then most recent albums and playing them in full. Without a pause for breath an even grander spectacle was announced in the English capital for a few days before Hallowe’en 2012. Exact details were vague but the poster alone was enough to create a huge buzz of excitement.
Fast forward almost twelve months and the big event was approaching fast. At quite short notice two warm-up shows were booked to try out some of the songs on latest album “Epicloud”, a few as yet never played live to an audience. So far north without quite being in Scotland, knackered from jet-lag and the previous several weeks touring the USA with Paradise Lost, it would be understandable if Townsend and the band were shitting bricks. Talking to some of the fans it seemed some of them were on their behalf!
Day 1 – Northumbria University, Newcastle 23rd October 2012
Local band Arcite kick the night off in confident style. Vocalist Kev has an impressive roar and a good rapport with the crowd. The band were tight and polished with a crunching and catchy style in similar vein to Evile, Sylosis and the headliners’s heavier moments. With their debut album due soon these guys are ones to watch.
While the stage was prepared for the first Retinal Circus practice run some ludicrous videos including classic internet virals played on the backdrop. There even appeared to be a brief glimpse of a naked Devin Townsend, with the poodle fitness class clip and Ziltoid skits also making the audience laugh. During the notorious “Badgers! Badgers!” video the omniscient one declared, “To hell with badgers!” revealing a new favourite, “Mangos! Mangos!”. After fruity fooling it was time.
The “Effervescent” choir tape was rolling.
It became immediately obvious there were a few nerves. In his typically humourous fashion Townsend played it down telling the audience, “Pretend Anneke (van Giersbergen) is here! This is a special night. We don’t know 90% of the songs!” Her stunning voice was there on a backing track for the opening bombast of “True North”. Devin seemed relieved its live cherry had been popped. He toasted the audience with his water and joked, “We’d rather fuck up in front of you than Retinal Circus! I hope you know the annoying dance for this!” ? The whole room rocked to the infectious rhythm of “Lucky Animals”, its crazy video featuring excitable gorillas and jumping turtles!
After the double dose of “Epicloud” songs, “Planet of the Apes” from the “Deconstruction” album was heavy as a very heavy thing indeed complete with an impressive lights show. They turned pink at one point and Devin instructed, “Be gay for me!”. The crowd responded waving their arms in the air through the mellow interlude while the screen poked fun at Between The Buried And Me, whose vocalist guested on the album track.
Equally crushing “Truth” followed and Devin asked the crowd to “pretend we’re epic when we’re just awkward!” After the euphoric rush of the song he shouted “Life is beautiful! Fucking hallelujah! Time to declare war on myself! It’s a self-fulfilling prophecy!” before another track from 1999’s “Inifinity” album. It’s “War” obviously, and eye-catching visuals showed a myriad of cartoon-like characters changing faces in time to the music. This was the point where the spectacular potential of Retinal Circus began to sink in.
A huge Steve Vai-like guitar melody heralded another arm-swinging “gay” moment. The soaring sound of “Babysong”. Everyone jumped and grinned along to the pummelling beats from the mid-part on. Absolute stunner. The triple whammy of “Synchestra” tracks kept the bouncing tempo going as over “Vampolka” Devin said, “This is where the clown car should come out on stage, but we did it for half price. So you get dubious Canadians of dubious sexual prowess!” “Vampira” inevitably followed with its mock-Metallica riffing, “Hey! Hey!” chants and hilarious video.
A certain coffee and fart-obsessed alien had been noticeably absent until Townsend paused to count the Ziltoid puppets held aloft in the crowd. During “Colour Your World” Devy borrowed a fan’s daft white hat with ears and declared, “It’s gonna smell like a hobo’s anus! Ziltoid has been spreading his butt cheeks across the universe! He has a wife and a child! This song is for them! ’80s cheese!” The gentle sway of “Epicloud” track “Where We Belong” had arms in the air once more and the occasional lighter too.
Teasing about what next Devin suggested mellow “Ih-Ah” but instead the band erupted into “Kingdom”. It showed his voice was at full power even if the rest of him wasn’t. There was little pausing before the pounding pace of “Juular” hit equally hard.
Perhaps appropriately for the now exhausted Devy the final track opened with a lullaby-like tune and the gorgeous sound of Anneke van Giersbergen over the PA. As images of the cosmos flew by on the screen, huge words were spelling out the mantras within “Grace”. The musical and emotional force of it was like a gentle kiss on the forehead and a big slap round the face. With a hug. Just imagining this at Retinal Circus with full production was enough to send any Dev-otee into orbit.
Devin apologised for his weariness and joked, “I’m going to dip my armpits in disgusting soup. Next time we will wear better clothes.” There was no encore, but the atmosphere was great and it was smiles all round at the end.
Day 2 – Cambridge Junction, 24th October 2012
Like the rather soulless university hall the night before, the venue was on the edge of a characterless precinct but filled with restaurant franchises. Inside it was a good setting for the final warm-up show. Very dark with enormous silver ventilation pipes running all over, it was like being in a club in a low budget sci-fi movie. You’d almost expect Ziltoid to suddenly pop his mutant green head out from somewhere and hurl an insult at you before disappearing cackling back up the tubes. Yesssss!
The set list for this show was identical to that in Newcastle, but there was a Spinal Tap moment at kick off. Someone seemed to miss their cue with the “True North” backing roll so they started again. Devin made a joke of it, “You’re the second guinea pigs! Pull rock pose 42! Let’s do this informally. We’ll go off and come back. Pretend I didn’t fuck up!”
Once the gig got going frontman and band seemed a bit more at ease than the previous night. Devy was in mischievous mood taking the piss out off two guys with their arms crossed during the more cheesy moments. Nicknaming them “The heavy metal bobble heads!” he suggested they were asking themselves, “Is it cool to like this?”
Later he proclaimed the band “unrepentant Canadian geeks! We’re too old to care if you like us!” He emphasised the point by introducing “Where We Belong” as “like Def Leppard. It’s about awkward first kisses!” A decoy request to be quiet and introspective preceded another mighty rendition of “Kingdom”.
At the close “Grace” was described as “heavy metal Huey Lewis and the News! With added digital Anneke. This is how we do love songs in Canada!” The second experience of this wall of sound was even more stirring than the first. Incredible. He then said they would be back but had to “take a couple of minutes ’cause we’re old and fat!”
When they returned, Devy introduced the band and asked cheekily, “If you have a vagina, please show us how to dance!” Correcting himself he laughed, “That was rude! Do the I-want-to-live-in-your-underpants boogie!” The finale, “Bad Devil”, had the sweaty crowd throwing themselves around one last time before dispersing into the first really cold night of the year.
For Devin Townsend Project and crew the temperature was rising. A relatively short trip to London to make final preparations for the biggest, craziest and most ambitious thing they had attempted in their collective careers. No sleep ’til Camden!
Look out for the Metalgigs review of Retinal Circus!
Devin Townsend Project will tour the UK with Fear Factory in December:
Dec 13 – Wulfrun Hall, Wolverhampton
Dec 14 – ABC Glasgow
Dec 15 – Ritz, Manchester
Dec 16 – Academy, Bristol
Dec 17 – Mo’ Club, Southampton
Tickets available here
More information at: www.hevydevy.com
“Epicloud” is out now via Inside Out: http://www.insideoutmusic.com/
Arcite information here: http://en-gb.facebook.com/arcitemetal
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