Venue: Mean Fiddler, London                                Date: 5/12/01

Having been impressed by his recent 'Terria' album, I decided to pop along to Devin Townsend's gig in London, although given his varied and sometimes bizarre career to date I was unsure what to expect!

Townsend certainly appears to have a pretty sizable fan-base, and the venue was reasonably busy by the time he hit the stage.  This guy certainly has presence! Appearance wise he certainly stands out from the crowd - sporting a mane of blonde frizzy hair cut the way Peter Gabriel did in the early seventies (ie a large bald patch at the front!); bug eyed and contorting his face into strange expressions, he also addresses the crowd in a bizarre preacher-like manner, alternatively insulting them (with tongue in cheek and not in a particularly vindictive way, I should add!) and getting them to show their appreciation by shouting louder, moshing harder etc.

Musically, most of the songs were very loud and very fast, with many presumably taken from his industrial phase with his Strapping Young Lad project, which had the effect of giving my ears a pummeling from which they didn't really recover. There was some variety on show, with bits of melody somehow managing to find their way through the barrage of guitar riffs and high-speed drumming, and some intriguing samples broke up the tracks, but this was obviously not a night on which Townsend was going to show his more sensitive and musically mature side.  Consequently the new album barely got a look in, with only 'Earth Day' being played in its entirety - and that lost something in here, as the sound system seemed to have been set up for maximum aural impact rather than allowing for the musical light and shade apparent on 'Terria'.

Probably the most enjoyable part of the show was the encores; one track of which sounded like a thrashed up version of a big band number, whilst for the final song Townsend asks if anyone's brave enough to come up on stage and sing the chorus - although only if they know the words!  One brave soul eagerly accepts the challenge, and appears to be having a ball on stage, which adds to the enthusiasm from Townsend and his band - a great way to finish off the gig.

Towards the end of the show Devin admits that he's found the gig tough going, particularly with regard to singing.  Well it didn't show, and you couldn't really fault him for effort!  Overall I'd say this was an entertaining gig, and the diehards certainly loved it, but those who are intrigued by his latest record and are considering going to see him in concert in the future be warned - Townsend live is a much heavier proposition than you may be expecting.

Tom