Coheed & Cambria, Atreyu,Fall Of Troy – Live (Dec. 15th, 2006)

Thanks to some miscommunication, traffic jams and a lineup that seemed to never end, my friends and I walked into the Shaw Conference Centre as local opener Ten Second Epic was finishing off their set. We were able to see two or three of their songs, and during that time I opted to look at the stage setup for the second annual Jingle Bell Rock show put on by local radio station Sonic 102.9. The stage setup was changed drastically from last year, while they still had the “Jingle Bell Rock” lights up top, the stage was no longer littered with giant snowmen and Christmas decorations. Instead, they had one giant screen on the back of the stage and two smaller ones on the side playing random Christmas clips from the internet. Even though it was a cool setup, I was disappointed not to see the snowmen towering overtop of everyone. Luckily they did use the screens to their advantage for the co-headliners, Atreyu and Coheed and Cambria.

Anyway, after a short set change, Equal Vision‘s The Fall Of Troy came on. I was expecting much from them, but they actually impressed me. I was expecting some hardcore act like Atreyu, instead I got a sporadic pro-rock band ripping insane guitar riffs left, right and centre. There’s no denying that the Washington trio was incredibly self-indulged with a Mars Volta-like attitude of “look at how artsy we can be”, it was still rather interesting. The only thing that annoyed me was that the vocals were pretty much nonexistent, you could barely hear it (even when standing right next to the monitors). I could only tell they were screaming/yelling/singing when I saw them step up to the mic and strained to pick out the vocals amongst the cluttered backdrop. Still, it was entertaining to watch the guitarist use his magic fingers to pick out random notes and solos constantly. As their set continued I started to wait for the band to get off the stage so I could see the remaining two bands, but it was still entertaining. I wouldn’t go out of my way to see them again, but if they were opening for an act I like I’ll definitely make sure to get there early and see them again.

During the following set change I wandered around the venue a bit, and was truly amazed at the blandness of the crowd. There were maybe two or three punks decked out in studded jackets and liberty spikes, and thousands of thousands of emo kids. It was insane, they all looked exactly the same and I couldn’t help but snicker that at least one out of every five people I passed had the swooping black hairstyle with a blonde streak through. And the amount of kids that were wearing the exact same shirts together was just disheartening. I guess the only way to truly be unique is to dress up like everyone else. But when you go to a show were Atreyu are one of the headlining acts, that’s what you’ll get- and it was the Orange County act that came on next. I’ll get this out of the way first of all: I hate Atreyu. It’s that simple. But since they were there and I was there I went up to the pit and watched them for their set. I was glad to see the drummer slimmed down his drum kit, three bass drums were cut down to two, which just seems more appropriate and didn’t look half as cheesy. They put on a good performance, lots of energy and movement as they ripped through songs like “Her Portrait In Black“, “Ex’s and Oh’s“, “The Crimson“, “Untitled Finale” and more. Like I said, I don’t like them, so I won’t talk about them much. People seemed to liked them, I just wanted them to end so that the band I had come to see could hit the stage. They finally did, and an abnormally long set change, Coheed And Cambria finally stepped on stage.

Now, the foursome had a lot to make up for. As far as I can remember, they’ve never been to Edmonton and the last time they were close to here (Calgary for Warped Tour 2004), Claudio Sanchez was a drunken mess and forgot how to play his own songs. So suffice to say, there was quite a lot of pressure on them. They came on doused in red lights, with their name on a backdrop behind them and their signature circle/triangle symbol on the two side screens. This time Sanchez was up to the task of playing a decidedly strong set as they played a wide selection of new and old tracks. The weirdest thing was the fact that it was impossible to see his face throughout 98% of their set. All you saw was his crazy hair surrounding the mic and you heard his voice come through the speakers, it somehow fit the atmosphere creating an added air of mystery to Coheed‘s already spacious sound. They sounded great, although Sanchez didn’t always hit the high notes that he does on the album. Numerous times, particularly during the crowd favorite Flavor House On The Atlantic, he stepped away from the stand to let the crowd sing back to him. Sanchez outshone The Fall Of Troy with his magic fingers as he ripped through the crazy guitar riffs that the band is formed on, and they ended it all with an extremely long instrumental breakdown after The Willing Well IV: The Final Cut. They also played Devil In Jersey City,The Suffering, The Crowning, In Keeping Secrets If Silent Earth: 3, Blood Red Summer, Ten Speed and Delirium Trigger among others. The set was great, although at times they were stagnant on the stage, Coheed And Cambria still put on a solid performance. It made up for the 2004 debacle and made the second annual Jingle Bell Rock a worthy night out.