Meshuggah and Cynic LIVE

date:  Friday, 13 Feb. 2009
venue:  Station 4 in St. Paul Minnesota

I’ve seen Meshuggah live before and they put on a decent show, but this tonight was about Cynic. I can finally say that I’ve seen them play live, and they lived up to what I was expecting. With their hiatus over, and their new album, “Traced in Air” out they had a multitude of songs to play from. Their set list did contain mostly new songs, but had two older songs to make the true die-hard fans happy.

What I was looking forward to the most was the reaction of the crowd.  If you’ve ever heard Cynic, and you know their sound, it is fitting that they tour with a band like Meshuggah, but the intensity of the bands are miss-matched. I had read about the crowd turning on Cynic at some of their shows on this tour, and I was curious if that was going to happen here.

When they took the stage, I think the general reaction was, kind of luke-warm.  The die-hard fans were in awe of the musical talent they had longed to see live, and the people just hearing Cynic for the first time were just in shock to see the band play their distinct sound. The two emotions kind of canceled each other out, and the venue was left with a kind of stagnant air. At the end of the songs, the cheering and applause was nowhere near thunderous in volume. I think people cheered because the die-hard fans did, and other people didn’t want to stand still.

The result of their set in the end was leaving the crowd basically shell-shocked. People either had no idea what they just witnessed or were still trying to process it. Cynic is a band with the musical talent to completely hypnotize the audience and that is exactly what they did.  Their trance like songs allow the crowd to basically enter a dream state while staying awake.

The set list was as follows:
Nunc Fluens
The Space for This
Evolutionary Sleeper
Veil of Maya
Sentiment
Adam's Murmur
The Unknown Guest
King of Those Who Know
I'm But a Wave To...
Integral Birth

Closing the night was Meshuggah. They brought their crazy tempo math metal to the masses and left ruins in the wake. I think this was one of the most amazing set lists I’ve seen in a long time. With so many songs to choose from, they found a great mix of showcasing their newest material from “Obzen” but played many older favorites. The band sounded amazing, with great guitar solos, and thunderous drums (Tomas Haake plays like a mad-man). With a sold out show, the crowd was packed very tight, which didn’t leave much room for movement, though the front rows were filled with head bangers.  As for band energy, their music really spoke for them. Their songs are fast and heavy with tons of energy.

However the energy from the band was lacking slightly with little motion except the head banging of the guitars and bassist and Jens (the lead vocalist) with his facial expressions and arm movements. Despite that, the crowd ate up every moment of the band on stage. The venue never fell silent between songs.

Their set list was as follows:
Pravus
Bleed
New Millennium Cyanide Christ
Concatenation
Perpetual Black Second
Electric Red
Rational Gaze
The Mouth Licking What You've Bled
Lethargica
Combustion
Humiliative
Stengah
Straws Pulled at Random
Future Breed Machine

The bands sounded great, they played well and their unique sounds compliment each other, so the show scores a 3 out of 5.


Reviewer: Rob Lutterman
Feb 22, 2010

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