The Faceless Reportedly Play Shortened, Sloppy Set at Bay Area Death Fest; Fans Rage Online

So The Faceless were meant to close out Bay Area Death Fest in Berkley, CA last night (June 10), and while they did eventually perform, fans who were in attendance report that the show was a goddamn disaster. After arriving at the venue hours late, the band is said to have taken an unusually-long amount of time to set up, resulting in a truncated set of just five songs. Which would be a bummer regardless, but to just to salt the wound, the show was supposed to be a performance of Planetary Duality in its entirety. That album is a whopping thirty minutes long, and the band only played half of it. And somehow, it gets even worse: fan-filmed footage from the show demonstrates that guitarist/vocalist/mastermind Michael Keene was playing at a level we might politely call “sub-par.”

MetalSucks reader Henry W., who was at the gig, tells us(edited for clarity):

“Hello whomever it may concern,

“I just wanted to reach out and talk about how awful an experience I had at The Faceless show and how I feel cheated and lied to by the band.

“I flew over 400 miles and spent a lot of money on hotels this Sunday to watch The Faceless play ‘Planetary Duality’ in full.

“They didn’t show up until an hour after their scheduled set time, which I stayed for, then they took another hour setting up, just to only play 4 songs from the album. On top of that they sounded like complete garbage. They had no merch set up and Michael looked like he was strung out.

“I feel lied to and cheated. Michael assured the fans they would be there to play Planetary in full and what we got was not the album in full and it sounded horrible. Michael could barely play his guitar.

“I’m just glad Wolf King and Zenith Passage were there to steal she show and make it a little worthwhile, seeing as what I got from The Faceless was just being ripped off.”

The PRP has collected some other angry reactions from around the web as well:

“I only had to wait around for 1.5 hours after [The Zenith Passage] finished to be able to hear 50% of ‘Planetary Duality’ played terribly. This is the third time in ONE year that I’ve been burned by The Faceless’ antics (no show at [Summer Slaughter 2017] Anaheim and set so terrible at [Summer Slaughter 2017] LA that Ken [Sorceron, then the band’s vocalist] was throwing shade at Keene onstage).

“I sincerely hope that someday everything is turned around and I and other fans can see The Faceless play live again, on time and well, but enough with the lame excuses. It was astounding to me how indignant Keene acted when told that they were far too late to play PD in it’s entirety, and then later offering the crowd to choose what songs to hear but then overturning the decision because ‘[I] like ‘Ancient Covenant’ more.’

“I mostly feel sorry for this round of musicians that have signed their reputations over to this band. They all seem like nice dudes and are extremely talented, but I guess they knew what they were getting into. RIP The Faceless.”

https://www.instagram.com/p/Bj3-RhHnE6f/?utm_source=ig_embed

You can get The Faceless’ upcoming tour dates here, but… really, you spend your money on this band at your own risk. Nobody wants Michael Keene to be awesome again more than we do — when the guy is on his game, he’s a genius — but this is their umpteenth disaster in recent memory and it’s basically impossible to endorse going to see them at this point. Serious bummer.