I thought I posted about the show I saw in Orlando last week here, but apparently not. The intention was to head to the vegan bakery up the street to buy a big ole box of goodies to give to Dev and co, however, the wife woke up with terrible stomach pains that had us visiting Urgent Care instead of the bakery. By the time we were done ruling everything crazy out, she started feeling better (I should stress that none of the symptoms were Corona-esque before going into the next part) and was hellbent on going to the show. By the time we got there she was in rock-out mode and all was well. We got there right as The Contortionist started and it was oddly cold for Orlando, so we didn’t bother hanging out by busses to meet anyone. And I’m glad we didn’t.
When Dev first came out, before a note was played, he informed us that he and half his band and crew were sick as dogs. They had a couch on the side of the stage so one of the guitar techs could just lay down after tuning guitars and just rest the guitars down on the couch for Keneally and the bassist (can’t remember his name) to grab. Dev apologized for his voice not being up to par and then put every singer in the world to shame with the rest of his performance. He had to bow out a couple times, leaving Keneally and Che to handle vocal duties for a section or two. These issues actually made the show that much more entertaining because of the way Dev and the band handed it. There was a lot of lemonade made on that stage that night and the audience drank it up happily.
Dev made it a point to say how the show was meant to be an hour or two of ignoring all the negativity going on right now and man, the amount of laughter and amazing musicianship made that goal 100% achieved.
Guitar tones were ridiculous. Very rarely have I been to shows where the guitars are just so clear and defined. And the drums....man, Morgan Argen is a fucking BEAST!!!!! I’ve been playing drums for a little over 20 years and there are some things he did that I just couldn’t figure out how the fuck he was doing it. In “Love?” he was doing some insanely fast double bass stuff and the hi-hat was still pumping up and down perfectly in time. The dude’s got a 3rd foot.
I’m so bummed that Dev had to cancel the rest of the tour to go home and isolate himself from his family to not infect them. I got into Devin back on Vai’s Sex And Religion album and have been a huge fan ever since. He’s probably my favorite musical artist and I just want the guy to have all the success he deserves. I was THRILLED to see the venue pretty full of people, all there for Dev as a headliner. I think his current output of positivity is MUCH needed in this world right now and it’s endearing to see it pull people together. The first time I got to see him was back in 2011, I think, with Cynic and Scale The Summit, he had just released Addicted and I don’t think the crowd knew who he was or didn’t figure out it was the guy from SYL. Barely anyone in attendance. To see about 1000+ people gathering from show to show to see him headline just warms my heart.