What do you do when you have 25 albums of material? If you’re Devin Townsend, it seems, you don’t sweat it. Touring his latest, Transcendence, the Devin Townsend Project (the culmination of a number of different solo and side projects) played a career-spanning set, opening with previous album Sky Blue’s ‘Rejoice’ before rewinding way back with ‘Night’ from 1997’s Ocean Machine: Biomech.
Visibly jetlagged, the frontman apologised for his (albeit hilarious) ramblings and failing voice, but displayed a grand generosity. Pushing through the vocal acrobatics of ‘Deadhead’, ‘Ziltoid Goes Home’ and ‘Supercrush’, he didn’t skip a note. Having toured the country since 1998, from smaller venues to larger crowds, he was humble for having enjoyed a lengthy career through a tumultuous time for heavy music, and showed a genuine gratitude to a loyal fan base that has followed him through a few decades of crazy experiments.
Concept albums about coffee-addicted alien puppets aside, the band tore through a number of touchpoints from seven records before hanging out to shake hands with the entire front of the crowd.
Special note to Sleepmakeswaves for a brutally melodic opening set and a likely swathe of new fans, but this was one for old and new school Townsend fans alike. The only criticism would be that the set was too short. There were at least four other albums to cover.
Devin Townsend Project played the Enmore Theatre on Monday May 22.
