Coheed and Cambria Explore a Decade of Music in Three Hour Set in Royal Oak

Friday night, progressive rockers Coheed and Cambria brought their Neverender: Second Stage Turbine Blade Tour to the Royal Oak Music Theatre.

The tour is in celebration of the 10th anniversary of their Second Stage Turbine Blade debut album and is an extension of their infamous 2008 Neverender four night concert series in which the band played one album per night.

This time out the band is doing a nationwide tour that features a acoustic set, Second Stage Turbine Blade in its entirety and a encore set with a mix of songs from the rest of their catalogue.

The tour is being promoted as an evening with Coheed and Cambria and this was certainly true on Friday night with no openers and a full three hour set from the band with one intermission.

The tour's format is a great way to allow the band and its audience to explore and immerse themselves in a decade's worth of music and the sold out Royal Oak Music Theatre crowd certainly seemed to be engaged and enjoying themselves throughout.

At times the crowd got a little out of hand as the barricades were close to tipping a few times.

There was one scary moment before the show as one audience member suffered a seizure up front but the security kept things under control and the show continued on.

Doors for the show opened at 7 p.m. and the band promptly took the stage at 8 for their 40-minute acoustic set which was highlighted by their performances of "Here We Are Juggernaut", "Milkfoot" and "Wake Up", which had the entire venue singing along.

There was a small intermission afterwards before the band returned to the stage to perform their debut album as the strains of "Second Stage Turbine Blade" played before Coheed and Cambria began "Time Consumer".

Many of the songs had not been heard in years and throughout the set audience members were smiling and sharing their excitement at seeing some of their faves for the first time.

It was also obvious that the band was enjoying playing the songs as they were on fire throughout and vocalist Claudio Sanchez's voice was at its strongest.

After closing the set with the hidden track "IRO-bot", the band left the stage amidst chants of their name before returning for their encore.

Sanchez began the set by asking the crowd if they thought the show had been as awesome as he thought it was and when the response was a little lacking he jokingly said, "I guess you guys didn't like it. Now you're gonna have to suffer through this!"

He then launched into the beautiful "Far" which had the crowd reaching for their lighters.

The rest of the set was a nice mix of songs from the rest of their albums including the popular "Welcome Home" and closer "Black Rainbow".

After Coheed and Cambria left the stage, the crowd began to yell for one more song and the band complied returning to perform "Elf Tower New Mexico" as a "gift" for them and a final close to an amazing evening.

In the end, the tour format is one of the best I've seen and it would be nice to see other bands follow in their footsteps and give their fans everything they deserve and are looking to see.