PHOTOGRAPHED FOR VANDALA MAGAZINE
Gracing the stage of the Starlite Room in the midst of Labour Day long weekend, beloved fellow Canadian's of the Devin Townsend Project boomed into Edmonton, laying down a wicked 14 song set to a sold out house.
Anticipation was rising throughout the night, as Calgary's Divinity, and San Francisco's Fallujah warmed up the audience with songs of consistent beauty and neck-breaking speed. As fog began to fill the room, concert goers were tightly packed on the floor of the Starlite Room, slowly inching their way forward towards the stage. As the lights dimmed, the crowd began to roar, consecutively louder, as each member of the Devin Townsend Project took to their place on stage. At deafening levels, the audience beamed as Devin Townsend himself, took his place front and center.
Exchanging smiles with nearby audience members, the band slammed into Ocean Machine's 'Night', causing an outburst of singing voices to echo around the venue, before rolling into Ziltoid the Omniscient's 'By Your Command', which resulted in a frenzy of headbanging across the floor, and unfolding the excitement even more so with 'Failure' from the soon to be released album, Transcendence.
Rolling on throughout the set, Devin and his band played a number of fan favorite tracks, 'Hyperdrive', 'March of the Poozers', and 'Kingdom' to name a few, as well as a handful of songs such as: 'Higher', 'Stormbending' and 'Secret Sciences', from their newest record, Transcendence. It was obvious that the audience received hearing these new tracks for the first time well, as murmurs of eagerness to hear the rest of what the album had in store could be heard among fans in the crowd.
As each member of the band left the stage momentarily, Devin appeared alone, silhouetted against beams of white light. Speaking to the crowd with sentiment, as if he were speaking to an old friend; All the while, expressing his appreciation for everyone who made it to the show. Armed with an acoustic guitar, Devin flew solo as he played the familiar melodies of 'Ih-Ah!'. His hauntingly-beautiful voice soared through the Starlite Room, as the audience began to sing along and clap to the rhythm of the song. Exchanging smiles with his band mates at the side of the stage, he welcomed each of them back to their places before tying their performance together with 'Grace', their final song of the night.
After the last hammering chorus of 'Grace' had left the bodies of singing audience members, Devin bid his farewells by shaking the hands of nearby concert goers, thanking them for their endless support while also being on the receiving end of thanks for his genius; Overall casting a memorable evening of sentimental musical enjoyment for all who gathered at the Starlite Room on Sunday night.
