One of my favorite bands, Coheed and Cambria, are on the road again this year for their Neverender: No World For The Waking Mind (NWFTWM) tour. I had seen them sevearl times earlier on in their career but kind of drifted away with some of the new albums or just bad luck getting people to join in to see live shows. Now I don’t care and am happy to see them on my own. Ironically, the last time I saw them was on the original Neverender tour for No World For Tomorrow so to me it feels like time has paused a bit. They always put on a high-energy, fun show so I figured why not check them out again?
The Sylvee
Venue for the show was The Sylvee in Madison, Wisconsin. I parked in the public structure next door on the last spots on the 5th floor roof which was actually a good idea to get some photos from above.
Here’s a wider view of the same location. This is an interesting venue and seems to be built into a larger multi-use building with business offices along the outside. Across the street are some public power utilities. Very curious planning but it makes sense in many ways as noise concerns for the neighbors is mostly a non-issue.
One other benefit of parking where I did: views of the Wisconsin State captiol building at night from a distance. There has been some rain tonight and more in the forecast for later, and the lights were quite vibrant against the humidity in the air.
Deafheaven
Opening act is a band called Deafheaven. Never heard of them before, they sound OK but not my thing (screamo/post-metal). Sound for them was mostly muddled distortion that even I couldn’t make out well, but after getting home and listening to some recordings I think that’s how they intend to sound. Meh. They went on at 8pm and played about 45 minutes.
I used their set as an opportunity to walk around the entire venue and scoped out spots to stand. From the top left balcony you could get a good wide view of the venue. Earlier in the night I met my sister Emma for dinner and she picked up tickets to see this same show – apparently she was up here on the balcony somewhere but I never saw her. Emma I promise I was searching for you, and even played a game of Where’s Waldo? with my photos afterwards but never located you in the crowd!
Coheed and Cambria
It was a quick transition from openers to the main act, and Coheed & Cambria went on at about 9:15pm and jumped right into No World For Tomorrow. Their lighting and set design were outstanding, however that makes it difficult to take photos in an already dark venue when all I have is a cell phone. That being said, I am still impressed with how good phones have become – in years past, capturing even this amount of detail would be unimaginable.
Strangely enough the iPhone 13 Pro’s 3x zoom lens worked well in these conditions (and I say surprising because in past experience this has been the opposite). Here are a few more close-up shots of the band during different points of the set. I was at the very back row of floor general admission 100 feet from the stage and holding the phone above my head. I swear everyone at these shows are like 7 feet tall.
At one point late in the show, the band stopped to give thanks to the crowd and said (we) were the most energetic/enthusiastic crowd they’ve had. But then also joked that they say that to all the crowds. I’m conflicted how to feel, but have to say it was a lively crowd. Even had a couple crowd-surfers which to me is the true mark of a good crowd.
Overall the sound and lighting were great, the band is extremely talented and played super clean, Claudio’s vocals are always on the money, and it was great to see them again! Full setlist here for reference.
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Sounds like a great day!
Yes it was! Not mentioned here is that earlier in the day I was helping some friends work on Toyota trucks in Milwaukee before heading to Madison. All fun things though!
Wow… wish there was sound!