Review & photos by Andrew Bansal
March 19th 2016, The Roxy, West Hollywood CA: Raleigh, North Carolina modern prog masters Between The Buried And Me released their eighth full-length studio album ‘Coma Ecliptic’ in 2015, a concept piece in the style of a rock opera, pushing their boundaries even further than they’ve so successfully done on previous records. The band did two North American headline tours last year, and have set foot for another run in this part of the world this March-April, with support acts August Burns Red and Good Tiger, to present new material as well as to delve into the back catalog, deeper than they have on recent tours. Between The Buried And Me and Good Tiger visited Los Angeles for a gig at the Roxy Theatre in West Hollywood on Saturday March 19th, for an incredibly intimate evening enjoyed to the fullest by all in attendance.
Doors opened at 7 PM, and the show began promptly at 8 as the sole opening act Good Tiger took the stage for a 30-minute set. Featuring Elliot Coleman (ex Tesseract) and Alex Rudinger (ex The Faceless, Threat Signal) and former members of bands such as The Safety Fire and Architects UK, Good Tiger is a brand new entity formed in 2015 and completed their debut full-length album ‘A Head Full Of Moonlight’, slated for release on April 22nd. The band warmed up this crowd excellently for the headline act, and the most notable aspect of frontman Elliot Coleman’s performance was how much better of a fit he seemed to be for Good Tiger than he ever was for Tesseract. Coleman fronted Good Tiger with tremendous vocal delivery and stage presence, and his band mates backed him to perfection. As mosh pits were gaining momentum and intensity and the volume inside the Roxy was rising, there was no doubt that the Between The Buried And Me fans took a liking to Good Tiger and most of these people would go back to see this band whenever they visit again. A perfect prelude to the main attraction of the evening.
Good Tiger photos:
At 9 PM, Between The Buried And Me took the stage amidst deafening cheers from this packed house, and proceeded to put forth what turned out to be the finest performance the Los Angeles area has witnessed from this band. One can’t help but compare this set to the band’s previous LA appearance as headliners at the Mayan, and the two events are, in every sense, like night and day. This show at the Roxy was far better in terms of the performance, the set list, the crowd response, the stage, the fact that they weren’t outdone by the main support band (Enslaved at the Mayan) and most importantly, the sound quality. In all honesty, the Roxy is the best venue in town, and seeing any band at the Roxy is better than seeing the same band elsewhere.
Between The Buried And Me’s set lists haven’t included anything from albums released prior to ‘Alaska’ (2005), but on this occasion the band dusted off a track from the 2002 self-titled debut album, and presented a well-balanced set of tunes from all albums except ‘The Silent Circus’ (2003). Frontman Tommy Rogers was certainly in his element, as were guitarists Paul Waggoner and Dustie Waring, bassist Dan Briggs and drummer Blake Richardson. Between them, the quintet constitutes one of the most skilled groups of musicians existing on this planet, and while they’ve put on some memorable performances in the past, they needed the perfect stage and crowd to take themselves to their absolute peak, which they did on this occasion.
The fans were decidedly more familiar with the ‘Coma Ecliptic’ material than they were on the previous two headline tours, and not surprisingly, lost their collective mind upon hearing the older tunes. There was not a single dull moment to be found at any point during the set, and this was nothing short of a masterclass in modern prog. The Los Angeles-based prog group Intronaut have often been touted on this website for drawing parallels to Pink Floyd, but when it comes to Between The Buried And Me, their interpretation of prog, specially the stylings demonstrated on ‘Coma Ecliptic’, can be equated to a band like Queen, and Tommy Rogers is undoubtedly a modern-day Freddie Mercury in his own right.
Overall, attendees at the Roxy treated themselves to an absolute spectacle, and prog fans elsewhere in North America are strongly suggested to do the same.
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Between The Buried And Me photos:
Set List:
01. The Coma Machine
02. Foam Born (A) The Backtrack
03. (B) The Decade of Statues
04. Telos
05. Shevanel Cut a Flip
06. The Ectopic Stroll
07. Mirrors
08. Obfuscation
09. Famine Wolf
Encore:
10. Selkies: The Endless Obsession
Remaining Tour Dates:
Mar. 29 – Calgary, AB @ MacEwan Hall
Mar. 30 – Saskatoon, SK @ O’Brians Event Centre
Apr. 01 – Winnipeg, MB @ Garrick
Apr. 02 – Minneapolis, MN @ Skyway Theatre
Apr. 03 – Des Moines, IA @ Wooly’s
Apr. 05 – Austin, TX @ Emo’s
Apr. 06 – Oklahoma City, OK @ Diamond Ballroom
Apr. 07 – Peoria, IL @ Limelight Eventplex
Apr. 08 – Milwaukee, WI @ The Rave
Apr. 09 – Pittsburgh, PA @ Stage AE
Apr. 10 – Guelph, ON @ Guelph Concert Theatre
Apr. 12 – Quebec City, QC @ Imperial
Apr. 13 – Portland, ME @ State Theatre
Apr. 14 – Providence, RI @ Lupos Heartbreak Hotel
Apr. 15 – Philadelphia, PA @ Fillmore
Apr. 16 – Albany, NY @ Upstate Concert Hall
Apr. 17 – New York, NY @ Webster Hall