- Aug 9, 2022

COHEED AND CAMBRIA (A Parent’s Perspective) Concert Review

Back in February of this year, alternative progressive rock giants Coheed and Cambria announced their North American headlining tour with Dance Gavin Dance and Mothica.

After recent allegations surfacing Dance Gavin Dance pulled from the “A Window of the Waking Mind Tour” and were quickly replaced by punk rock legends Alkaline Trio.

AUGUST 1st, 2022

The prog. rock giants Coheed and Cambria, punk rockers Alkaline Trio and aggressively angelic Mothica touched down in the steel city of Pittsburgh, PA at Stage AE.

At 5:30pm, Stage AE’s door opened to eager and wet punk rock patrons who were rained on, lining up around the block for the doors to open. Fans piled into the massive indoor/outdoor concert hall awaiting again for the first act MOTHICA who played an energetic set including tracks from 2021’s EP “forever fifteen” and 2022’s full length album “NOCTURNAL” with songs such as "CASUALTY", and"LULLABY”, as well as taking time to talk to fans in between songs about hopes, dreams, and life before closing out with tracks “SENSITIVE” and “buzzkill”.

After a brief intermission of punk rock bangers over the PA system, legendary punk rock band ALKALINE TRIO took the stage for a fast-paced, melancholy, emotional set of fan-favorite songs including tracks “Calling All Skeletons”, “Nose Over Tail”, “Time To Waste”, “Mercy Me” and of course closing the set out with “Radio”. In between songs, singer/guitarist Matt Skiba joked in between songs as the weather got worse that Pittsburgh was “crying on them” and how Stage AE was just across the road from where that Batman movie (referring to The Dark Knight Rises) was filmed and how they’ve seemed to “clean up all of Bane’s damages to the city”.

As ALKALINE TRIO’s set came to an end, in stereotypical fashion, the weather finally broke and the rain stopped pouring on an eager crowd awaiting the evening’s headliner COHEED AND CAMBRIA.

COHEED AND CAMBRIA took the stage just as the sun was setting. The weather was clear and the “Prologue” intro from 2018’s The Unheavenly Creatures hit the PA system to a thunderous steel city crowd. The band wasted no time diving straight into The Dark Sentencer” straight into “The Gutter” and “The Embers of Fire”.

Coheed dove through a twenty year discography playing a slew of tracks old and new like 2022’s “Shoulders”, “Beautiful Loser”, “The Liar’s Club” and title track from the album “Windows of a Waking Mind” while mixing it up with with fan favorites “In Keeping Secrets of Silent Earth 3”, “Blood Red Summer” and “The Running Free”.

Coheed and Cambria closed their set out with “A Favor House Atlantic” and the aforementioned “Windows of a Waking Mind” before a brief teaser intermission that dove into a powerful encore of “The Suffering” and of course closing out with “Welcome Home”.

This show meant a lot to me. I’ve been a fan of both Coheed and Cambria and Alkaline Trio for almost two decades, and I’ve never seen a “full set” of either band other than the 20 minute Vans Warped Tour sets which I can’t really count because I didn’t get the “full experience” so to speak. Both bands, as well as the angelic MOTHICA were all perfect in their own way, complimenting each other’s performance with each being more energetic than the last.

COHEED AND CAMBRIA featuring ALKALINE TRIO and MOTHICA are on tour now. Check out tour dates below!