Nothing Exceptional Here
New York’s Coheed and Cambria are a bit of an odd-choice for Download’s main stage • especially considering how far they are up the bill. It is therefore no surprise when very few people turn up and nobody bothers to stand up at all for the set with the exception of the very front. There is still plenty of space for anyone to get near the front and the crowd could have happily performed in the second or even third stages.
With two female backing singers on stage the band perform a very bland set. Having seen Coheed and Cambria a few times before • my opinion remains constant and that is that the band are fantastic if you are a fan, but beyond that there is very little appeal for the masses and their live sets lack anything more than a note-by-note performance of their material.
Whilst their set may be musically tight and has nothing wrong with it the problem is that, for a band who have been playing since 1995 their performances lack any of the extra bits that take a live set away from just listening to a CD. There is very little crowd interaction, there are few differences from CD, and there is barely any movement on stage. The most interesting thing to a non-fan is Claudio Sanchez’s hair.
Their prog-rock and concept albums work fantastically. The music is great. The musical abilities in their performances are desired by dozens of other bands • but despite this today just hasn’t been their best day.