Coheed and Cambria, Thank You Scientist House of Blues September 17, 2014
Concerts are rarely a communal experience, even though they should be.
The reality is that we all get our tickets for different reasons; someone's favorite band may just be "those guys who have that one song" to someone else. Some people really love the new album and some people really miss the band they used to be. Some people go to the show because they would hate to miss it and others because they'd hate to not be seen at it.
Different people, different agendas, all sharing the same space. And this lack of community is often what makes shows a bummer. It's what leads to rampant talking until the band plays "the song" or people shouting out random bullshit to get themselves over.
That's why when a crowd is great, it's something to cherish. That's when the real magic happens. A band can be great, but if the room sucks, the show automatically has a ceiling it can't get past.
The point is, Coheed and Cambria have some great fans, and Wednesday night everyone was on the same page about why they were at House of Blues, which made the whole thing damn near magical.
The truth about this new wave of album tours is that most albums don't need to be played front to back live, no matter how much people may like them or how influential they are perceived to be. They're not conceived to be played front to back, and while the songs may be good in the order they're in on wax, that doesn't necessarily translate to a satisfying show.
Plus, other than being lumped together at a specific moment in time, the songs don't really have anything other than a superficial connection to each other.
Now, while all of that may be true most of the time, Coheed and Cambria are not your everyday band. Claudio Sanchez has always dreamed bigger than most front men. All of their albums are concept records, massive sci-fi stories set in a shared universe. From the very beginning they're designed to flow from one song to the next, to advance a plot, to build to a climax.
That makes them uniquely suited to be performed live, because there's an actual reason for the songs to follow one another.
Story continues on the next page.
