Phenomenal show last night by Coheed and Cambria. They’ve been a band for 10 years (a little longer if you count their direct predecessor Shabutie, but they’re not), and so they’ve hit the road on a little tour in which they’re playing their whole first album, plus a whole acoustic set and some additional full-band material. Oh, and also no opening act, just Coheed for 3 hours.

The acoustic set began the show, and it was where most of the more interesting setlist items were placed. It featured a song each from Travis Stever’s side project The Davenport Cabinet and from Claudio Sanchez’s side project The Prize Fighter Inferno, plus a new song called “Iron Fist”, a mellow song well-suited to the acoustic arrangement. It actually reminds me quite a bit of some of the Prize Fighter Inferno material. “Pearl of the Stars” sounds excellent whether electric or acoustic, and the different arrangement for the acoustic performance of “Here We Are Juggernaut” makes it into an almost completely different song.

Following a short break to move the giant “turbine blades” further back on the stage and give the boys a break, the band returned to perform The Second Stage Turbine Blade in its entirety. The energy level of the band was possibly at the peak of the four or five times I’ve seen them, with them feeding off the crowd’s energy (which was also at a high level) and creating a bit of a cycle back and forth.

Another brief break following the album closer “IRO-Bot” led to a closing set of five songs, which aside from “Welcome Home” were not necessarily obvious choices. Notably, this was the first time I’ve seen Coheed and Cambria where they didn’t play “In Keeping Secrets of Silent Earth”. (In fact, now that I notice it, they didn’t play a single song from that album, which is kind of stunning.) However, “Far” is one of their best songs in my opinion, and its inclusion was welcome. The set closed with “The Black Rainbow”, which took a nice deviation from the recorded version at the end and closed the set surprisingly well.

Only one song was played during the encore, but that one song was well worth it: Claudio and Travis doing an acoustic arrangement of “Elf Tower, New Mexico,” a song unreleased until it appeared as a bonus track on a reissued version of The Second Stage Turbine Blade a few years back.

All in all, this was one of the best shows I’ve been to in a while, and definitely my favorite Coheed and Cambria show, not just because of the length of the show, but because the band was truly energetic and performed extremely well.

Without further ado, a few pictures and videos I captured, and the set list:

Before the show:

Claudio playing “Always and Never” to start the show:

Mother Superior:

Iron Fist:

Second Stage Turbine Blade / Time Consumer:

Time Consumer:

33:

Junesong Provision:

Neverender:

God Send Conspirator:

IRO-Bot:

Ten Speed (Of God’s Blood and Burial):

No World for Tomorrow:

Welcome Home:

The Black Rainbow:

Elf Tower, New Mexico:

acoustic set:
Always and Never
Mother Superior
Pearl of the Stars
Iron Fist
Milkfoot
Who Watches the Watchmen?
Here We Are Juggernaut

Second Stage Turbine Blade album set:
(Second Stage Turbine Blade)
Time Consumer
Devil in Jersey City
Everything Evil
Delirium Trigger
Hearshot Kid Disaster
33
Junesong Provision
Neverender
God Send Conspirator
IRO-Bot

additional rock set:
Far
Ten Speed (Of God’s Blood and Burial)
No World for Tomorrow
Welcome Home
The Black Rainbow

encore:
Elf Tower, New Mexico (acoustic)