I'm Climbing Up Those Walls Again

Wow

Well, I have finally seen Coheed and Cambria live, and it was quite the awesome show.

I arrived 30 minutes before the show started, only to see a long long line in front of the Manchester Academy. Once everyone got in, there was confusion, because there were two different shows in that building. Luckily I managed to find the door that was going to be opened for C&C, and got near the front of the line, so I got a place right up front-left! Booya! It was a small venue, which was nice, but it filled up a lot by the end.

First band Beyond All Reason was actually pretty good. The second band, who's name I have forgotten, sucked. The lead singer wanted to look just like Matt Skiba.

Finally, Coheed and Cambria came on to the music of The Ring in Return and blasted us all to hell with In Keeping Secrets of Silent Earth: 3

Here is there setlist as I remember it:

The Ring In Return
In Keeping Secrets of Silent Earth: 3
Three Evils (Embodied In Love and Shadow)
Devil In Jersey City
Delirium Trigger
A Favor House Atlantic
The Velourium Camper III: Al The Killer
The Velourium Camper I: Faint of Hearts
The Crowing
Blood Red Summer
Time Consumer

Encore: Everything Evil (with a 10 minute jam stuck right in the middle!)

The sound of the show was great, these guys really know how to give a good performance. Claudio, the lead singer, was upbeat the whole time, smiling and laughing (perhaps laughing a bit too much, several times in several songs he lost his place in the lyrics because he was laughing too hard, one time the band had to stop because they and the audience were laughing so hard).

The crowd was great, Claudio's vocals are sometimes really hard to pull off, but often he'd hold off singing a lyric because the audience was right there with him. The "whoah-ohhhh whoaah ohhhooiiiohh" in the middle of Blood Red Summer was sung completely by the audience; it was beautiful.

The girls were realling coming onto Claudio. Some girl near the front threw her bra on stage, and he attatched it to the end of his guitar for a couple of songs before returning it. At one point someone yelled:

"Show us your balls!"
Claudio: "But why? The scrotum is not attractive in any way.... but the penis!"

There was a big fat guy with a "Weerd Science" t-shirt that was helping them out on stage, and Claudio made him play the cow-bell on Faint of Hearts, introducing him as the 5th member of the band. In the middle of the jam they played in the middle of Everything Evil, the fat guy went up to the microphone and started singing some silly lyrics, and Claudio stuck the end of his guitar up between the guys legs from behind, which was pretty funny.

These guys know just how epic their rock is. The finish was perfect, and they thanked us and walked off stage. Someone threw a broken drum stick, and I caught it!!

So most of the people left, except for a few hanging out in the building and the Academy's bar which was downstairs where they were selling merch. I was buying Beyond All Reason's cd, getting a C&C shirt, and listening to someone explain that C&C didn't come out after shows because the got swamped, when I saw Claudio come out and start talking to some people.

Not only did Claudio come out, but he wasn't swamped, the whole time he was there he never had more than 5 or so people around him.

Luckily I had brought the cover to The Second Stage Turbing Blade. I walked over, thanked him for an amazing concert, and had him sign it. Sadly, I couldn't think of a question about the story to ask him at that moment, so I just said, "Uh... do you have any hints you want to tell me about the story?!?!" to which he replied: "The whole story will be out soon, right before the Warped tour!"

I felt like asking him more, but he looked really tired, and had some other stuff to sign. I noticed that as people thanked him and such, he looked pretty humble, and eventually he walked off and had a drink to the bar. Despite having a video on MTV, Claudio has not let fame and the waiting beds of a few hundred Manchester girls go to his head.