Review & photos by Andrew Bansal
November 24th 2015, The Troubadour, West Hollywood CA: Soon after welcoming vocalist Daniel Tompkins back into the fold and releasing their third full-length studio album ‘Polaris’ via EOne Music in September 2015, British progressive metal group Tesseract embarked on a North American headline tour with support acts The Contortionist, Erra and Skyharbor, and three weeks into the tour, arrived in Los Angeles for a gig at the Troubadour in West Hollywood last Tuesday November 24th. Having seen the band go through multiple changes in vocalists in recent times, fans were looking forward to witnessing Tesseract return to a familiar incarnation, and anticipated an evening of diverse modern progressive music in a very apt setting here at the Troubadour.
Doors opened at 6:30, and the show began at 7 with Skyharbor, all the way from New Delhi, India, opening the show with a 30-minute set. I saw this band open for Lamb Of God in India in 2012, and at the time they were actually fronted by Daniel Tompkins. Getting to see them here at the Troubadour was nothing short of surreal, and noticing an alarmingly unusual number of Indians in the crowd was even more surreal, but once I got past that and started to perceive the band’s performance alone, I came to the conclusion that with Eric Emery on vocals the band has a slightly different sound and visual presence on stage. In all honesty I do enjoy the growling vocals more than the clean singing parts (and I almost never say that about any band), but musically Skyharbor still present interesting modern prog patterns, mainly due to the songwriting efforts of guitarist Keshav Dhar, and more than anything, showcase the incredible influence modern prog/djent, i.e. bands such as Meshuggah, Periphery and Tesseract themselves have had on the modern Indian metal scene. Skyharbor are the first Indian band to do a full US tour in this manner, at least the first I can think of, and are paving the way for their fellow countrymen to take the plunge and explore the vastness of the touring circuit.
Next up were prog/metalcore group Erra, hailing from Birmingham, Alabama of all places. In comparison to Skyharbor, they injected some relatively heavier grooves and breakdowns into the show and presented a great combination of clean and harsh vocal stylings, to go with excellent musicianship all around. They instigated the first mosh pits of the evening and got a solid response from an impressed crowd. The standout feature of modern prog shows of this nature is the fact that a majority of the ticket holders are open-minded and come out early to see all the support bands. This was the case here as well, making it more than worthwhile for Erra to be on this package. Erra’s music came across as just as dynamic as any of the other bands at this show, and they certainly walked away having garnered an expanded fan base in Los Angeles.
Main support act of the show was fast-rising Indianapolis prog band The Contortionist, now featuring former Last Chance To Reason vocalist Michael Lessard as the frontman. I hadn’t seen this band since 2011 and they showed that they’ve undeniably come a long way since then, as they put forth a captivating performance that held the audience’s attention through the mellow progressions and instilled much excitement and moshpit action during the violent outbursts. Lessard delivered the goods spectacularly on vocals and has clearly taken The Contortionist to new altitudes as a live band, while the core of brothers Robby and Joey Baca on guitar and drums respectively, continue to explore and expand their talents as composers, as they proved on their third full-length release ‘Language’ (2014), the first featuring Lessard. The Troubadour looked completely mesmerized during The Contortionist’s set, and the spell was only broken once the band ended the performance and stepped off the stage. Soon enough, this band will be worthy of headlining this venue, because seeing them alone would have worth this ticket price.
And lastly, a Daniel Tompkins-fronted Tesseract took the stage, and quite frankly, redeemed themselves from two of their previous sub-par Los Angeles area performances that stick in memory for all the wrong reasons, when they opened for Katatonia at the El Rey in 2013 and for Between The Buried And Me at the House Of Blues Sunset Strip in 2011. This was a far more fine-tuned, balanced and smoothly flowing Tesseract set, and the undeniable skill and repertoire of this group of musicians was done full justice to, as their performance was flawless and the sound quality during the set was supreme. Tesseract fans loved every moment of it, and the band presented tunes off of ‘Polaris’ along with selections from the only other Tompkins-fronted album ‘One’ (2011), and interestingly enough, the three-part track ‘Of Matter’ off of the 2013 ‘Altered State’ album which Tompkins did not record with the band. This performance was the best representation of Tesseract that I’ve ever witnessed, and I could certainly get on board with this incarnation of Tesseract more than ever before.
All in all, an enjoyable metal outing at the Troubadour, and this package is strongly recommended to all fans of modern prog.
Set List:
01. Dystopia
02. Messenger
03. Concealing Fate, Part 2: Deception
04. Concealing Fate, Part 3: The Impossible
05. Hexes
06. Of Matter – Proxy
07. Of Matter – Retrospect
08. Of Matter – Resist
09. Of Mind – Exile
10. April
11. Of Mind – Nocturne
12. Survival
13. Concealing Fate, Part 1: Acceptance
Remaining Tour Dates:
12/1 – Austin, TX @ Empire Control Room
12/2 – Dallas, TX @ Trees
12/4 – Atlanta, GA @ Masquerade
12/5 – Winston-Salem, NC @ Ziggy’s
12/6 – Baltimore, MD @ Soundstage
12/7 – New York, NY @ Irving Plaza
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