CMJ '08: Prog Will Rock You

Out of all the headliners at CMJ this year, Coheed & Cambria sticks out like a sore thumb. You wouldn't expect a commercially successful prog-rock band to sit cozily alongside Broken Social Scene and Lykke Li on a festival bill. Not surprisingly, the majority of fans at Coheed's show on Wednesday night at Termnial 5 were ticket-holding teenagers, not music industry analysts with laminated badges. We decided to ignore the other showcases on Wednesday and check out Coheed because, well, they're a highly entertaining band with a deep catalog, and we needed some big dumb fun.

Coheed & Cambria are playing four consecutive nights this week, with each show highlighting one of their four albums. Wednesday was dedicated to "The Second Stage Turbine Blade," their debut disc that's decidedly more punk-oriented than their later work. Each song was a three-minute blast of power, with Claudio Sanchez lending his ridiculously high vocals and drummer Chris Pennie murdering his cymbals. The set was enjoyable, although the focus on a single album was a bit frustrating, since the band's writing and song structures have greatly improved over time.

Even so, the show was worth catching if only for the crowd's dedication: every one of Sanchez's lines were sung back at him, and at times we could barely hear the singer over the wave of giddy, shouting fans. It also helped that Coheed is one of the more technically proficient acts in mainstream rock, with split-second progressions that dazzled. Although last night didn't makes us fall in love with "The Second Stage Turbine Blade," we could appreciate the energy in the venue, from the stage to the pit to the rafters, and enjoyed seeing something special take place. -- Jason Lipshutz