What on Earth was this now? I am used to the setup of Devin Townsend Project, and I’m used to expect something unexpected from this guy, but this! This was beyond anything I was prepared for.

“Tonight is going to be wutastic!”
- Devin Townsend (vocals/guitar)

The stage was set up to look like a Hawaiian beach bar, with the backdrop screen projecting the calm waves of a crystal blue ocean gently licking the beach. First man on the stage was (wait, wasn’t he just in Haken?) Diego Tejeida, and fittingly he was wearing a Hawaii shirt, and instead of beginning to play music, he started mixing colourful drinks to hand to the rest of the band members as they entered. Through the speakers, a fitting soundscape played - waves, a gentle breeze, some birds in the distance - and the louder the audience shouted, the more alcohol got mixed into the drinks.
The show would turn out to be very different from all that I’ve come to know from seeing Devin Townsend Project. This night saw less jokes, but more noodling around in the music. It was calmer, yet fun and full of surprises. And variation, lot’s and lot’s of variation - from changing backdrop (the astronaut cat in Evermore was one of my favourites), to changing costumes (Townsend in a pink tutu, why not?), to a change in the stage setup - after Sprite, there was an instrumental jamming, with only Townsend, Tejeida, and Morgan Ågren on stage. Ågren had moved away from the drumkit, and had gotten a new minikit placed at the front of the stage, and it had fur on it. Yep.

The Hawaii theme didn’t stay up through the entire show either, and there was a section of DTP songs played, as well as a couple of covers towards the end of the show - wow, Disco Inferno? Didn’t see that one coming. On the other hand, given the artist on stage, I was the fool for being surprised, I suppose. Oh yes, and then there was the Careless Whisper (George Michael) snippet by Tejeida, at the end of Lucky Animals.
Interestingly, given this was just Townsend, and not DTP, the show felt less focused on the man himself, and more on the entire band. Ché Aimee Dorval was at least as much of a centrepiece as Townsend himself, and there was always something going on amongst the musicians and choir as well - overall, this was just a huge setup!

Being empathetic means you feel the emotions of others, and if this show wasn’t one big mutual gathering of feelings, I don’t know what it was. It was like a balm for the soul, as if Townsend had seen enough hardship and suffering in the world, and taken it upon himself to contribute to the contrary of this.
Like the waves in the beginning, the show gently flowed over us like warm waves. It did not invite people to go crazy in a moshpit or perform any similar bursts of energy - instead, we could take a minute off, just lean back and enjoy. Relax. Recharge. And what better treatment could we really ask for in a time such as this? No, it didn’t feel very ‘metal’, not in the traditional sense, but on the other hand, since when has Townsend ever conformed to traditions? And as long as you too were open and willing to give something different a try, this was a golden opportunity.
If rocking out is your thing, I’m sure we’ll see DTP back again at some point, so no worries there. For my part, I thoroughly enjoyed this oddball excursion through the masterful madness that is Devin Townsend for what it was, and even though a lot of confusion arose throughout, I wouldn’t want to be without it. One absolute stand-out (of many) of the evening was the acoustic rendition of Spirits Will Collide.

Setlist:

Borderlands
Evermore
War
Sprite
Coast (Devin Townsend Project cover)
Gato (Devin Townsend Project cover)
Heaven Send (Devin Townsend Project cover)
Ain’t Never Gonna Win (Devin Townsend Project cover)
Deadhead (The Devin Townsend Band cover)
Why?
Lucky Animals (Devin Townsend Project cover)
Castaway
Genesis
Spirits Will Collide
Disco Inferno (The Trammps cover)
The Black Page #1 (Frank Zappa cover)
Kingdom