Review & photos by Andrew Bansal
March 15th 2016, The Roxy, West Hollywood CA: Los Angeles prog luminaries Intronaut released their fifth full-length studio album ‘The Direction Of Last Things’ in 2015, which comes across in every sense as the pinnacle of their musical creativity. Following the release, they completed a successful North American tour supporting Between The Buried And Me and Enslaved, and are now ready to present their newest studio effort in its entirety to their own fans, with enhanced stage production to go with the music. Intronaut embarked on a North American headline tour with support acts Scale The Summit and North last Tuesday March 15th 2016, with a hometown gig at the aptly chosen Roxy Theatre in West Hollywood, and adoring local fans turned up in huge numbers to enjoy a full set from Intronaut, and an evening of intense music from the entire lineup.
Tucson, AZ sludge trio North are the opening act on this tour, and they began proceedings here with an excellent 30-minute set. They certainly stand out from the relatively much proggier Intronaut and Scale The Summit, which is by all means a good thing, as attendees on this tour can ease into the prog onslaught that beckons them after North’s set. North have played underground shows in Los Angeles at venues like Complex, and it’s great to witness them making the well-deserved transition to becoming a high-profile national touring act and playing in front of audiences this size. They succeeded in transcending the power and sonic intensity of a small room environment to this Roxy stage, and the crowd stood still in admiration, with their undivided attention towards the band. North is undoubtedly on a successful path through this tour, and ticket holders are well-advised to turn up early enough to catch their set.
North photos:
It had been far too long since Houston, TX instrumental prog quartet Scale The Summit toured or played a show in Los Angeles, and they were here to rectify that, starting their first tour in 15 months, and the first in support of their latest full-length endeavor ‘V’. They were allotted a hefty 45-minute set and they utilized it in full by presenting as many as five tunes off of the new album, three from the previous effort ‘The Migration’, and and extended live version of their traditional set-ending ‘classic’, ‘Origin Of Species’.
Scale The Summit proceeded through this 9-song set and for these four, it was all about the music, as not a word was spoken on the microphone until a quick ‘Thank You’ at the very end. Visual patterns fitting to the music were projected onto a screen in the backdrop, which is something Scale The Summit have done in the past. It makes perfect sense because their style of instrumental prog has the power to paint mental landscapes, and with this live presentation they are giving the audience a taste of their own visual interpretation of the music they wrote. The set was moving from strength to strength, as the band picked all the right tunes to put forth the best possible representation of their musical repertoire, and by the time they arrived at ‘Origin Of Species’, the audience was already overwhelmed. The band’s mini-hiatus from the touring circuit has clearly done wonders, as they seemed re-energized to play their own music, and what’s more, this mind-bending performance made this prog-loving Los Angeles audience realize that they certainly need a little Scale The Summit in their lives to titillate their senses every once in a while.
Scale The Summit photos:
Set List:
01. Blue Sun
02. Oort Cloud
03. Narrow Salient
04. Atlas Novus
05. Pontus Euxinus
06. Soria Moria
07. Kestrel
08. Odyssey
09. Origin Of Species
And lastly at 10 PM, Intronaut took the stage, delving into the new album ‘The Direction Of Last Things’ straightaway by playing it in order from start to finish. On this tour they’re presenting a new light show to accompany the music, and judging by this set, the lights fit in well and take the band’s live show to the next level. They only played 30-minute sets on the previous North American tour and even though that set comprised solely of the new material, it was also clearly noticeable this time that the band’s hometown fans were absolutely ready to hear the entire album live, much more so than last November. Besides, the sound quality at the Roxy is far better than that of the Mayan, the venue for that Between The Buried And Me/Enslaved/Intronaut show, and does full justice to this band’s Floyd-esque modern prog genius.
Here at the Roxy, ‘Fast Worms’ got the set to an ideal start, and songs like ‘The Pleasant Surprise’, ‘The Unlikely Event Of A Water Landing’ and the title song were the highlights, and these also happened to be the heavier songs on the album which garnered some mosh pit action in the center of the general admission floor, although the nature of the pit was more nerdy and hilarious than intense. After finishing this splendid rendition of ‘The Direction Of Last Things’ in its entirety, Intronaut returned for an extremely well-received three-song encore offering of ‘Core Relations’, ‘Milk Leg’ and ‘Literal Black Cloud’. Much like Scale The Summit and North did before them, Intronaut kept the crowd interaction to a minimum, and let their music do all the talking.
Overall, this was a show wherein all three bands embodied sonic perfection, and prog fans would be hard-pressed to find a better show to attend in a long time to come.
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Intronaut photos:
Set List:
01. Fast Worms
02. Digital Gerrymandering
03. The Pleasant Surprise
04. The Unlikely Event of a Water Landing
05. Sul Ponticello
06. The Direction of Last Things
07. City Hymnal
08. Core Relations
09. Milk Leg
10. Literal Black Cloud
Remaining Tour Dates:
3/17/2016 Nile Underground – Mesa, AZ
3/18/2016 Launchpad – Albuquerque, NM
3/19/2016 Bluebird Theatre – Denver, CO
3/20/2016 Aftershock – Lawrence, KS
3/21/2016 Tomcats – Ft Worth, TX
3/22/2016 Dirty Dog – Austin, TX
3/23/2016 Walters – Houston, TX
3/24/2016 Masquerade – Atlanta, GA
3/25/2016 Orpheum – Tampa, FL
3/26/2016 1904 Music Hall – Jacksonville, FL
3/27/2016 Rabbit Hole – Charlotte, NC
3/28/2016 Rock And Roll Hotel – Washington DC
3/29/2016 Marlin Room at Webster Hall – New York, NY
3/30/2016 Middle East – Boston, MA
3/31/2016 Bar Le Ritz – Montreal, QC
4/01/2016 Lee’s Palace – Toronto, ON
4/02/2016 Loving Touch – Detroit, MI
4/03/2016 Reggies Rock Club – Chicago, IL
4/04/2016 Skyway Theatre – Minneapolis, MN
4/05/2016 Goodwill – Winnipeg, MB
4/06/2016 Exchange – Regina, SK
4/07/2016 Skylite – Edmonton, AB
4/08/2016 Dickens – Calgary, AB
4/09/2016 Rickshaw Theatre – Vancouver, BC
4/11/2016 Crocodile – Seattle, WA
4/12/2016 Hawthorne Theatre – Portland, OR
4/13/2016 Bottom Of The Hill – San Francisco, CA