Last time I went to see Devin Townsend live was back in 2019, and it didn’t exactly go as planned, as I detailed in my blog post back then. Little did I know what absolute fuckery was about to come out of a wetmarket in Wuhan, China before long.
A couple years have passed, where mother earth was playing a very exciting game of Pandemic with real people. We’re not out of the woods yet, but things are returning to normal, and the disease is no longer considered quite as big a deal as it once was.
Devy’s back, let’s go!
When I saw Devin Townsend was returning to Oslo for his Lightwork tour, of course I just had to have tickets, and so I bought them.
Yay, Lightwork!
Turns out Devy was releasing a new album called Lightwork, and was promoting it on an album tour, including Europe. Sweet!
But the album release was pushed back, and Ticketmaster decided not to let me know that until quite a lot of time had passed. However, Mr. Townsend still went on tour – playing various older songs, and he’s got an amazing discography, so that shouldn’t be a problem. I was able to refund the original tickets, and buy new ones for the other tour, which it turns out he was doing along with Dream Theater.
Being someone who listened a lot to Dream Theater in the mid 2000s, I thought that sounds good to me, and I ordered tickets for me and my girlfriend, and planned a stay with some relatives living a quick train ride away from Oslo. That way I can see relatives, cut costs, and drive my own car most of the way, without having to deal with Oslo traffic and parking and all that jazz. Sounds like a win to me!
The logistics went perfectly this time around. No hiccups at all.
If anything went a bit wrong this time around, it might be that Devin Townsend was a warmup act for Dream Theater. His set wasn’t very long, and the audience was mostly there to see Dream Theater, which means they weren’t mostly there to see him, and I think they made that very clear unfortunately.
Devy must have picked up on it, because although he delivered a good show, he seemed almost depressed. Lacking some of the joy and spark I’ve come to appreciate about him. The technical aspect of the performance was great, and he played a very good setlist, so I’m pleased to have seen his show in it’s entirety – including finally hearing Deadhead live without having to leave the venue as it starts, as happened last time. But yes, something was amiss.
The evening devolved into Devy making constant fart jokes, and telling the audience he doesn’t care that they’re not excited, he gets paid either way.
We enjoyed the show regardless, but I hope to see a whole show of him at his best. Then again, he’s weary of touring now from what he’s said. Still, he’s supposed to be back in February 2023, and I might catch his show then.
In my teens I used to listen to Dream Theater daily, but that night they were not my cup of tea, to put it mildly. Being a prog band, it’s to be expected that some of the music gets too esoteric and technical to be enjoyable to most people, and while I like a lot of their discography, I simply didn’t enjoy them that night. It didn’t help that James LaBrie seemed to have gotten hold of some bad amphetamine, with his uncoordinated whirling and jogging around the stage. We left pretty quickly.
After ditching Dream Theater, we headed to a bar called Brewgata instead. Although a bit hipstery, I found it enjoyable regardless. We enjoyed some drinks and a little people-watching before we headed to the train and went home, feeling like the night was a good experience all-round, even though I was a little bit disappointed the crowd bummed out Devvy, which in turn made his performance a little bit less exciting for those few of us who were there for him.
Better than last time, but let’s hope next time is even better!