Coheed and Cambria

The Unheavenly Skye Tour was in San Diego at Petcos Park on the Park Sycuan stage, which just came on board as a concert venue this year. What a great venue! Fans brought towels and blankets to sit on. The park has a sloping hill, which makes viewing great for those in the back. This was a co-headlined show with progressive rockers Coheed and Cambria and slightly dissimilar hard rockers Mastodon. The crowd had plenty of fans for both main liners in attendance. New York based hardcore punk band Every Time I Die was the opening act.

Every Time I Die Formed in 1998, and have eight studio albums. The current members are: Keith Buckley, vocals; Jordan Buckley, lead guitar, Andy Williams, rhythm guitar; Stephen Micciche, bass and Clayton “Goose” Holyoak on drums. They have strong southern rock influences and screamo type vocals. They were very energetic, and got the early crowd ready to rock.

Mastadon

Mastodon is a heavy metal band from Atlanta, Georgia, formed in 2000. The current band has Troy Sanders, bass/vocals; Brent Hinds guitar/vocals, Bill Kelliher, guitar; and Brann Dailor, drums/vocals. Mastodon has released seven studio albums. The band is performing their 2009 album, Crack The Skye, in its entirety on this tour. They also played a few other songs after the featured album. The album is said to be about an “out-of-body experience”, and has concepts about astral travel, Stephen Hawking’s theories, the spiritual world and wormholes. The album is about a quadriplegic who learns astral projection. While on the journey he flies too close to the sun, burning his umbilical cord which connects him to his body, and flies into oblivion. During that same time in Russia, Rasputin and his cult were channeling spirits and brought the quadriplegic into their time. He explains his situation and tells of the coming assassination of Rasputin. Rasputin is assassinated and guides the quadriplegic back to his body. The cartoon video they played during the featured album was excellent! It reminded me a bit of the 1980’s adult cartoon movie Heavy Metal, and was a good visual aid for relating to the album material. I thought it had a psychedelic feel to it, like Pink Floyd on steroids. Mastodon done soundtrack work on Monsters University, the 2010 science fiction comic book western Jonah Hex, and the 2015 comedy movie The Big Short. Members have also appeared in episodes of HBO’s popular drama Game of Thrones. They are projected to release a new album in 2020.

Coheed and Cambria

Coheed and Cambria are from Nyack, New York, formed in 1995. The current lineup consists of  Claudio Sanchez,  vocals, guitars, keyboards; Travis Stever  guitars, vocals; Josh Eppard drums, keyboards, backing vocals; and Zach Cooper bass, backing vocals. They are promoting their recent album The Unheavenly Creatures, which debuted at number one on Billboard’s Hard Rock Albums chart and reached the top 20 on the Billboard 200 chart. Most of Coheed and Cambria’s albums are concept albums based on a science fiction storyline called The Amory Wars, a series written by Claudio Sanchez, which has become a series of comic books as well as a novel. The band has released nine studio albums, and three live albums. Their most recent release, Vaxis – Act I: The Unheavenly Creatures, is a return to The Amory

Coheed and Cambria

Wars concept following 2015’s The Color Before the Sun, the band’s only non-conceptual album since they formed. They played all the fan favorites and had the crowd singing along.  The show closed with my favorite song by them Welcome Home, from their most commercially successful album and first major-label release: Good Apollo, I’m Burning Star IV, Volume One: From Fear Through the Eyes of Madness. This song was also included as a playable track in the video game Rock Band in November of 2007. I think the lead singer is an amazing vocalist! He sings so effortlessly, always on perfect pitch. They literally sound live the same as they sound on their albums. Personally, I think the singer sounds a bit like Geddy Lee, front man of the band Rush. This show was overall fantastic, and highly I recommend catching this tour!

Roxie / BackStage360