Progressive hardcore metal band Coheed and Cambria played celestially themed songs under the stars at Kennedy Plaza Saturday, along with alternative punk rockers Manchester Orchestra and experimental indie rock act The Dear Hunter.
The concert, the last of a summer series put on by WBRU, took place at the Bank of America Skating Center with a raging, chatty and intoxicated crowd and ideal weather.
The lineup catered to those who go to concerts to head-bang and mosh rather than sway and slow-dance. All three bands had comparable energizing, noisy, dramatized sounds, with heavy beats that took control of audience members.
Perhaps this explains Coheed frontman Claudio Sanchez's need to advise the crowd, "If there's not somebody there to catch the crowd surfers, try not to drop them from the edge."
Despite having a name recognizable to some only by its resemblance to Deerhunter, Boston-based opening act The Dear Hunter put on a strikingly haunting performance with surprisingly timed instrumentals, pounding percussions, harmonic vocals and jazz influences.
Next, Manchester Orchestra delivered their signature amalgamation of pop punk, indie rock and heavy metal to a predictably riled-up crowd.
Manchester Orchestra sounds far more emo — to use a hackneyed but fitting term — live than on recordings.
Fortunately, lead singer Andy Hull's grungy-yet-hyper image undercut any intimidation that his dramatically screamed lyrics might otherwise have evoked. His repetition of "I hope we both die, die, die, die" in the number "Turn Out the Lights" made it hard to restrain laughter. And his wide-eyed way of drilling "Don't kill yourself to raise the dead" into the audience during a Kevin Devine cover was enough to make those who hadn't previously considered the option contemplate it.
Nevertheless, the second act was fun to listen to, even when that fun was had at the band's expense. And some of their pieces, among them "Where Have You Been?" and "I've Got Friends," elicited compulsory rocking out.
Manchester Orchestra's last piece "Turn Out the Lights," whose lyrics repeat "the party's over," was misleading: After they got audience members jumping up and down, Coheed practically catapulted them out of the pavilion with electric guitars and flawlessly executed songs.
The headliners opened with "In Keeping Secrets of Silent Earth:3," also the title of the band's 2003 album and the third chapter of Sanchez's accompanying science fiction comic book series.
Coheed and Cambria tells "an epic star-scape story in multiple genres" including music, prose and graphic novel, according to WBRU General Manager Allen McGonagill '11.
The musical and visual progression of Coheed's songs reflected their otherworldly lyrics. Green beams of light emanated from the stage as Sanchez's lightning bolt-shaped guitar filled the city with electrifying chords.
To the audience's delight, the quartet ended the encore with their most well known song, "Welcome Home," featured on the "Rock Band" video game.
WBRU staff members were excited and relieved that their work had come to fruition. "It's a whole summer of planning and a whole day of setting this stuff up," Musical Director Sabrina Boyd '11 said.
"A lot goes into it that I didn't realize," said Station Manager Kelly Devlin '11, including "weird logistic things" like dumpster permits. "The city people are always grumpy."
The lineup choice, Devlin said, is based on what the station already plays and which bands are available financially and time-wise.
"We look for bands that we're playing that are current, modern, popular bands," Boyd said.
The station also deals with some quirky requests from bands, including Coheed and Cambria's request for several hundred feet of bubble wrap, she added. McGonagill said he had to retrieve a Wii game for the headliners and a lucky fan who won a contest to join them in the van.
The only major mishap the staff had to deal with was a concert onlooker from outside the pavilion throwing a beer can at Hull as he exited the stage. But once the station apologized, he was "completely fine with it and was cracking jokes and stuff," Promotions Director Alyssa Kichula '12 said.
On the bright side, Kichula also witnessed the Manchester Orchestra frontman's first "man kiss," which took place with a former WBRU member who now works for the band's record company.
She added that she felt the concert went "really, really well."
