[swervedriver]

Are you going (or planning to go) to the Devin Townsend Project at the Hard Club in Porto?

Feel free to discuss anything related to this show here!

[swervedriver]

Did you see the Devin Townsend Project at the Hard Club in Porto?

Please post your reviews, setlists, photos and video links here!

Thanks!

Hey. This was my second time seeing Dev after his amazing first Portuguese appearance at the Vago Open air festival in 2011. I was happy to discover that he was going to play before Fear Factory (to get my anxiety in digging the show out of the way). The setlist was (as far as I remember):

Supercrush!
Kingdom
Truth
By Your Command
Life
Sunday Afternoon
Vampira
Lucky Animals
Juular
Grace
Planet of the Apes

There seems to have been some slight modification of the setlist compared to previous dates such as Kingdom, By Your Command, Life and Sunday Afternoon. I'm glad he played Life and Sunday Afternoon (for the wife's benefit) and the audience chose Planet of the Apes over Deep Peace. What I really wanted to see live though was Where We Belong and Regulator. The setlist doesn't conform to my idea of the perfect Dev gig, but I guess he chooses the songs based on personal preference - and considering this is a joint tour with Fear Factory, it seems logical to include more heavy tunes to appease many of the narrow-minded headbangers who were scraping their knuckles on the ground during the proceedings. And it's not only the merch guy (who didn't get lucky after all) who hates Lucky Animals. ANY Dev song could replace that one on the list - although watching headbangers do the jazz hands thing may well be worth the view from the stage.
Despite minor grievances with the setlist, the bands performance was top-notch. Dev is the finest showman in rock - always smiling and nodding and making his trademark goofy-faces. He's like the male version of Anneke Van Giersbergen (who doesn't do the goofy faces BTW). He even gave my wife (we were right in front of the stage) a predatory stare during one of the tunes - it's OK, she's hot and he's such a nice guy . After watching a Dev show, everything that follows just pales in comparison. I really like Fear Factory and they put on a great show (and I was surprised to see Burton not sing out of tune... too much) but compared to a Dev show, it's just 4 guys on stage playing their instruments. Dev's good nature is totally infectious and when you have good music, a good performance AND an incredibly strong rapport with the fans due to being a decent human being (and because you're hilarious - despite having the smallest penis in the room) - then you have the coolest rock show ever to grace the stage.
I managed to acquire one of Beavis' DTP picks by swapping it for a Dino Fear Factory pick I'd caught with the girl next to me, and then had it signed by the Beav himself, who was hanging out having a beer right after the show. About 1.5 hours after Fear Factory finished their set, there were still about 20 people hanging around the back exit of the club next to the buses. Me and wife decided to wait for a bit to see if Dev himself would make an appearance. And indeed, he did - and I can't say enough about how much of a decent human being that guy really is. Despite being bone-tired (and even mentioning the fact), he shook all of our hands and thanked us endlessly for being there. My first words to him - "You are awesome!". His reply " You are awesome!"
I got my Epicloud booklet signed by him as well as my cool new Epicloud T-Shirt. Of all days to forget to bring my iPhone, this was the one. But way cooler than having a souvenir photo (although making stupid faces with Dev is something to be cherished) is just shooting the shit with man for a few minutes. Despite being tired and surrounded by drooling fans, he calmly and authentically took interest in asking me about where I am from ("well, Canada, actually " and that extended the conversation a bit more, given the natural bond between Canadians . Upon hearing from my wife that my daughter was quite familiar with his back catalogue, Dev asked how old she was. The man is a totally genuine human being. The last thing I said to him before noting that he had a massive hole in the back of his jeans was to please come back to Porto soon. And he promised he would. And I know it will be amazing.