Between The Buried And Me Headlines Sold-Out Glass House In Pomona

Review & photos by Andrew Bansal

March 12th 2014, Glass House, Pomona CA: North Carolina progressive metal band Between The Buried And Me are still soaring high on the success of their massive concept album ‘Parallax II: Future Sequence’ which was released in 2012, and have done numerous tours to promote it, most recently headlining North America and playing the album in its entirety. Now, they’re back for another run of dates, with support acts Deafheaven, Intronaut and The Kindred and are presenting a more comprehensive, career-spanning set of tunes in front of their ever-growing fan base. They visited a sold-out Glass House in the sleepy town of Pomona last evening for what promised to be another epic show for BTBAM’s Southern California fans.

The Kindred, a six-piece prog metal band from Ottawa, Canada, opened up the show with a 30-minute set, forming a largely positive impression on this audience with the six tunes they played, ‘Dreambender’ in particular standing out in memory because of its catchy gallop. Vocalist Dave Journeaux put on a solid show with a wide range of vocal patterns and gave it his all in terms of stage presence, jumping into the crowd a few times in the process. To a great extent, The Kindred succeeded in warming people up for the acts to follow, and along with impressive vocals they brought forth some enjoyable guitar melodies. Their new album ‘Life In Lucidity’ came out recently on Sumerian Records and prog fans are recommended to check it out.

Visit The Kindred on the web:
TheKindredBand.com
facebook.com/TheKindredBand
twitter.com/TheKindredBand
instagram.com/TheKindredBand

Set List:
01. A Grand Debate
02. An Evolution of Thought
03. Everbound
04. Dreambender
05. Seekers & Servants
06. Heritage

Los Angeles’ very own Intronaut played next, delivering yet another Floyd-esque performance in a manner only they can. This show was a stepping stone for the band in their rapid progress towards achieving greatness. They’ve been in existence for nearly a decade now, and having started their buildup at a gradual pace, they’ve picked up steam in recent years by making all the right moves, getting on all the right tours and most importantly, writing great music. This set was a mere 30-minute taste of their musical abilities, with a majority of it focussed on the latest album ‘Habitual Levitations’. The combined talent of Sacha Dunable and Dave Timnick on guitars/vocals, Joe Lester on bass and Danny Walker on drums was there to be seen, heard and felt by everyone in attendance, and quite honestly, 30 minutes is not nearly long enough to be able to truly appreciate a band of Intronaut’s calibre. ‘Harmononicon’ was the highlight of the set, 6-and-a-half minutes of pure delight. After finishing out this tour they’ll be back on a headline run of their own, a tour not to be missed at any cost.

Visit Intronaut on the web:
IntronautOfficial.com
facebook.com/Intronaut
twitter.com/Intronaut
instagram.com/Intronaut_Official 

Set List:
01. The Literal Black Cloud
02. Vernon
03. Harmonomicon
04. Milk Leg
05. The Welding

San Francisco’s Deafheaven have enjoyed a meteoric rise ever since they released their sophomore album ‘Sunbather’ in 2013, and have become several fold more popular than they were a year ago. Besides listening to the album itself, seeing Deafheaven play the new material live really pinpoints the reasons for their success, more than anything else. Not surprisingly, Deafheaven devoted this 35-minute set entirely to material off of ‘Sunbather’. The sheer power and expression of the music was very evident from the way the band played it live, and from the audience’s reaction it was quite clear that they pulled in a lot of their own fans to this show despite being a support act. ‘The Pecan Tree’ was the pinnacle of this short set and very aptly came at its end. It was a bit of a surprise though to see them depart the stage after merely 35 minutes. As main support, one would have expected them to get a longer set. But nonetheless, this was a great little dose of ‘Deafheaven 2.0’, and their LA fans will certainly look forward to their headline show at the El Rey Theatre on April 25th. Deafheaven are often riled by critics and elitists for not being ‘true black metal’ in their on-stage getup and lyrical themes, but musically they’re as intense as any of the so-called black metal and extreme metal bands out there, so fans of the genre are highly encouraged to give Deafheaven an honest listen and appreciate them for the right reasons.

Visit Deafheaven on the web:
Deafheaven.com
facebook.com/Deafheaven
twitter.com/DeafheavenBand 

Set List:
01. Dream House
02. Irresistible
03. Sunbather
04. The Pecan Tree

And finally at 9:55, the lights went out to signal the arrival of Between The Buried And Me onto the stage amongst huge cheers from this eager and excited audience. Unlike the previous US headline tour which focussed almost entirely on their latest studio offering ‘Parallax II: Future Sequence’, this set had quite a good bit of material off of the ‘Alaska’, ‘Colors’ and ‘The Great Misdirect’ albums, much to the delight of the band’s longtime fans. But as expected, the new material was still largely represented and with the aid of visual projected on two circular screens mounted either side of Blake Richardson’s drum kit, the show had a true prog feel to it, even though it seemed like the screens weren’t as bright and prominent as they should have been and the visuals on them were slightly overshadowed by the stage lighting.

But that didn’t take away from what musically was a spectacular set by this band of virtuosic musicians. They occupy a well-earned place in a very rarified group of bands that really take the meaning of the word ‘progressive’ to its extreme and push boundaries with each of their creations, going from crushing death metal breakdowns to dream pop-like passages. Vocalist Tommy Rogers takes on a dual personality on stage, one behind the keyboards and the other solely as the frontman, executing both with equal impact levels, while Paul Waggoner and Dustie Waring nail down some killer guitar work and carry the set through various stylistic shifts. And amidst all the wildly varying lead parts, bassist Dan Briggs along with Blake Richardson successfully fulfill the herculean task of maintaining a solid rhythm section. This set at the Glass House was, in all its aspects, a telling advertisement of what Between The Buried And Me stand for.

Granted that it takes a deep appreciation and understanding of progressive music to be able to appreciate a 90-minute set such as this one and it’s certainly not everybody’s cup of tea, for those who’re able to do so, it’s a very rewarding experience to witness a BTBAM show, as was proven by the satisfied looks on everyone’s faces at the end of this show. This is a band that simply does not know how to put on a bad show, and fans would hope it stays that way for several years to come.

Related: In-depth Interview With Between The Buried And Me Bassist Dan Briggs 

Visit Between The Buried And Me on the web:
BetweenTheBuriedAndMe.com
facebook.com/BTBAMofficial 
twitter.com/BTBAMofficial
youtube.com/BTBAMofficial 

Set List:
01. Foam Born (A) The Backtrack
02. (B) The Decade Of Statues
03. Obfuscation
04. Astral Body
05. Lay Your Ghosts To Rest
06. Autumn
07. Selkies: The Endless Obsession
08. Bloom
09. Swim to the Moon (second half only)
10. Silent Flight Parliament
11. Goodbye To Everything Reprise
Encore:
11. Sun Of Nothing

Check out a full BTBAM photo gallery from the show (view them here if you’re on a non-Flash device):

Remaining Tour Dates:
03/14 – Lubbock, TX – Jake’s Sports Café
03/15 – San Antonio, TX – White Rabbit
03/16 – Grand Prairie, TX – South By So What?! Festival
03/18 – Sauget, IL – Pop’s
03/20 – Ybor City, FL – The Ritz Ybor
03/21 – Ft. Lauderdale, FL – Revolution
03/22 – Athens, GA – 40 Watt
03/23 – Charlotte, NC – Tremont Music Hall

Visit the Glass House on the web:
TheGlassHouse.us
facebook.com/TheGlassHouseConcertHall
twitter.com/TheGlassHouse
instagram.com/TheGlassHousePomona

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