Carlswerk Victoria, Cologne, Germany30th October 2022
Thrice & Coheed And Cambria - “UK & Europe Tour 2022” - Support: Touché Amoré
A concert with two headliners plus a special guest? We couldn’t miss that. And so, we made our way to Cologne’s Carlswerk Victoria to experience TOUCHÉ AMORÉ alongside THRICE and COHEED AND CAMBRIA.
Touché Amoré
The first band of the evening made quite an excellent impression. The Californian Post-Hardcore band headed by singer Jeremy Bolm used their half-hour gig to impress the audience in the well-filled, but not quite sold-out Carlswerk Victoria with a powerful, energetic performance. Especially singer Jeremy Bolm used the complete width of the stage and literally rushed from one corner to the other. And indeed, the band was in a hurry: the evening in Cologne was the last evening of the whole tour and the plane, which was supposed to fly at least TOUCHÉ AMORÉ from Frankfurt to the USA again, had 5 o’clock as departure time.
Therefore, the bandleader asked in a small friendly speech not to delay the purchase of merchandise, because immediately with the final chord the merchandise offered for sale should be packed up again. Overall, the Americans offered an entertaining and strongly celebrated short gig, which at best could have been better illuminated.
Rating
Music: 8
Performance: 10
Light: 4
Sound: 8
Total: 7.5 / 10
Coheed And Cambria
The progressive rock band headed by their very striking frontman Claudio Sanchez, being the second band of the evening, set a strong contrast to the first band, as the soundtrack of the story the band continues to tell with each album since 2001 is a lot more radio-friendly and poppier than the Post-Hardcore of TOUCHÉ AMORÉ. In fact, it was a bit surprising that COHEED AND CAMBRIA was the second band of the evening, as they are the band with the biggest commercial success of the three bands of the evening. But on the other hand, it didn’t really matter, because the playing times of COHEED AND CAMBRIA as well as THRICE were about one hour each. It was a typical co-headliner evening.
In this hour the quartet from New York focused on their new album ‘Vaxis - Act II: A Window of the Waking Mind’, released in June, and performed six songs from the current album. But of course, with ‘A Favor House Atlantic’, ‘In Keeping Secrets Of Silent Earth: 3’ or ‘Welcome Home’, the classics of the band, which every fan can sing along, were not to be missed. And because everyone can sing along and likes to sing along, singer Claudio Sanchez took a few breaks and let the audience sing along. Besides singer and frontman Sanchez, drummer Joshua Eppard once again stood out. It is not only his expressive drumming that makes you like to watch him. It’s also the grimaces that he consciously or unconsciously cuts that characterize his performance and why you like to watch him at work. An all-around excellent performance of a likeable band.
Setlist
01. Prologue
02. The Dark Sentencer
03. The Embers of Fire
04. Beautiful Losers
05. Shoulders
06. A Disappearing Act
07. In Keeping Secrets of Silent Earth: 3
08. The Liars Club
09. A Favor House Atlantic
10. Welcome Home
11. Window of the Waking Mind
Rating
Music: 10
Performance: 10
Light: 6
Sound: 8
Total: 8.5 / 10
Thrice
THRICE were the ones to round off the evening in Cologne. The quartet led by singer and guitarist Dustin Kensrue also focused on the current studio album ‘Horizons / East’, but their setlist used a total of nine (!) albums of the band, thus covering almost the entire band history. The fact that their latest album was not as well received by the public as older albums by the band seems to have reached THRICE as well. So, singer Kensrue remarked before one of the new songs that at least they liked their new album.
In general, the performance of the Californians was also very sovereign, even if far less dynamic than the performances of the two bands that opened the evening. But not every frontman can be as wild as Jeremy Bolm or as expressive as Claudio Sanchez, and also the songs of THRICE have less sing-along potential than the songs of COHEED AND CAMBRIA. In this respect the performance of THRICE scored under other aspects.
Setlist
01. The Color of the Sky
02. Scavengers
03. The Artist in the Ambulance
04. Black Honey
05. All the World Is Mad
06. Where Idols Once Stood
07. The Red Death
08. Anthology
09. Dandelion Wine
10. Hurricane
11. Summer Set Fire to the Rain
12. Firebreather
13. Robot Soft Exorcism
14. Beyond the Pines
15. The Earth Will Shake
Rating
Music: 10
Performance: 8
Light: 6
Sound: 8
Total: 8 / 10
All pictures by André Wilms
Comments powered by CComment