Devin Townsend’s Summer Touring Band to Feature ex-Members of The Dillinger Escape Plan, Decapitated, etc.
Devin Townsend is known for providing the ultimate concert experience. He’s explained before that he’s ditching the typical way of doing tours and instead is using ever-changing lineups to keep it interesting. He’ll continue with that trend into the summer, unveiling a new live band that will feature former members of The Faceless, The Dillinger Escape Plan, Decapitated and more.
For his European tour last autumn, the lineup consisted of:
Guitar: Mike Keneally
Drums: Morgan Ågren
Bass: Nathan Navarro
Female Vocals: Che Aimee Dorval
Keyboard: Diego Tejeida
Auxiliary Guitar Loops: Markus Reuter
The following lineup performed on the 70,000 Tons of Metal cruise last month:
Guitar: Wes Hauch (Alluvial, ex-The Faceless, ex-Black Crown Initiate)
Bass: Kyle Konkiel (Bad Wolves)
Drums: Dirk Verbeuren (Megadeth, ex-Soilwork)
For his upcoming tour of North America (dates at the bottom of this post), which starts this week and will see Devin performing material from throughout his catalogue including Strapping Young Lad, the lineup will be similar to the one that went out in Europe last fall ( butwithout Markus Reuter).
After that’s done, Devin told us on The MetalSucks Podcast last week that he plans to trot out yet another lineup this coming summer to perform “a shit load of Strapping, a shit load of DTP, all of the stuff that people want to hear.” That lineup will be as follows:
Guitar: Wes Hauch
Drums: Kerim “Krimh” Lechner (Septicflesh, ex-Decapitated)
Bass: Liam Wilson (ex-The Dillinger Escape Plan)
Read Devin’s full quote below, where elaborates on the idea behind the setlist and the latest lineup:
“The next [touring] thing is Volume 2, which I’m starting with all these festivals — we’re doing Rock am Ring, Rock im Park, Bloodstock, Tuska, Wacken, and Hellfest. And that is a different group of people, which is an amazing group of people. I basically did a poll online and said, ‘What do you want to hear?’ from the entire catalogue, Strapping included. For the Volume 2 thing, which I will then bring to North America later, it’s those songs, which is a shit load of Strapping, a shit load of DTP, all of the stuff that people want to hear.
“For the summer, I’ve got a band — but it’s a four person band — and at this point it looks like it’ll have Wes Hauch, who played with me on 70,000 Tons of Metal cruise. He was in The Faceless and Glass Casket. Such a fuckin’ good guitar player, holy shit. And Krimh playing drums, who was with Septicflesh, Decapitated, and Behemoth. Super strong player and he can blast with the same volume as he does with the groovy stuff. It looks like it’s gonna be Liam who used to be in Dillinger Escape Plan playing bass. Really great guys, super confident players. Good vibes.
“I want that tour — the Volume 2 thing — to be completely different. I want it to be open to the audience and to say, ‘What do you want to hear?’ There’s 25 records full of shit. There’s Strapping, there’s Terria, there’s Ziltoid, there’s DTP, there’s DTB, there’s all this shit. Tell me what you want me to play, and I’ll play that. So, that’s the tour after this one that’s coming up.
He also spoke more about the reason for having an ever-changing lineup and a different experience for every tour:
“I got super bored of [playing the same setlists with the same people]. It wasn’t the music, it wasn’t the guys. It was just the treadmill. You put out a record, you go on tour, you hit the B markets six months later, same sets, same backdrop, same speeches between songs. I think there’s value to that, but as someone who’s easily irritated, let alone bored, I’m just like, ‘Fuck man, I don’t want to do that!’ If I gotta be away from home, I want it to at least be engaging for me, personally. My idea is now every time I do a tour I want it to be a different thing. Different people, different songs, different vibes, different intentions. I want it to sound great, to look great.”
If only more musicians would do this, the music world would be a better place. Instead we pay hundreds of dollars to see a set we’ve seen a bunch of times before, and we enjoy it because we’re suckers. But we want more.
Listen to the full Podcast episode below, and catch Devin’s tour with Haken and the Contortionist in North America that starts in just a few days:
Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed
27-Feb Phoenix Concert Theatre – Toronto, ON [tickets]
28-Feb Corona Theatre – Montreal, QC [tickets]
29-Feb Warsaw – Brooklyn, NY [tickets]
01-Mar Paradise Rock Club – Boston, MA [tickets]
03-Mar Theatre of Living Arts – Philadelphia, PA [tickets]
05-Mar The Underground – Charlotte, NC [tickets]
06-Mar Center Stage – Atlanta, GA [tickets]
07-Mar The Plaza Live – Orlando, FL [tickets]
09-Mar Warehouse Live – Houston, TX [tickets]
10-Mar Granada Theater – Dallas, TX [tickets]
12-Mar Cannery Ballroom – Nashville, TN [tickets]
13-Mar The Crofoot Ballroom – Pontiac, MI [tickets]
14-Mar Metro – Chicago, IL [tickets]
15-Mar House of Blues – Cleveland, OH [tickets]
16-Mar Rams Head Live – Baltimore, MD [tickets]
19-Mar First Avenue – Minneapolis, MN [tickets]
20-Mar Granada Theater – Lawrence, KS [tickets]
21-Mar The Oriental Theater – Denver, CO [tickets]
23-Mar The Van Buren – Phoenix, AZ [tickets]
24-Mar The Mayan – Los Angeles, CA [tickets]
25-Mar The Regency Ballroom – San Francisco, CA [tickets]
Editor’s note: an earlier version of this article incorrectly listed the live band for Devin’s upcoming North American tour as consisting of Wes Hauch, Dirk Verbeuren and Kyle Konkiel; that lineup was exclusive to the 70,000 Tons of Metal cruise. Additionally, Krimh was listed as an ex-member of Septicflesh but is in fact still in the band. Both mistakes have been updated.
