I was stoked when I first heard Devin was coming back on tour after his pseudo-retirement period, as I had lost all hope of seeing him live at least once in my life. I missed him the last time he came here in 2005 with SYL and I promised myself I wouldn't miss him the next time he'd show up in Montreal. It took a long 5 years but it was absolutely worth it! The youtube videos simply don't do any justice to what I saw last night. In fact, many people I've talked to afterwards said Devin stole the show. He was on point with absolutely everything: his guitar playing, his stage presence, his vocals (I don't recall him fucking up even once, and the part in Kingdom where he screams "There is no worry, I'm fine!" was the most emotional thing I've heard in a long time) his interaction with the crowd, everything was great. HUGE props to the lighting crew as well, the visuals were awe-inspiring.
Scale the Summit's bassist came in as a guest for Truth and nailed it like a pro! Scale the Summit was the surprise of the night for me, much more technical than I expected and they just reek of young talent. Cheers for these guys.
Cynic was pretty good, except the last time I saw them (with Meshuggah) was much better because at least they played 50-50 on their two albums. Last night they played very few songs from Focus which was quite a disappointment for me, seeing as the two albums are very different.
I had read on the forums that people were meeting Dev outside the venues after Cynic, so I took a peek with one of my friends and it payed off huge... I got to meet the man himself and Ryan (which was on a quest finding rolling papers, which I found quite funny) Dev gave me an autographed guitar pick of his (he had only 5-6 to give), my friend got his white tshirt signed (the bastard!!!) and we took a picture together:
I'm on the left, my friend's on the right. Before leaving I shook his hand and he gave me a quick hug, which made my night! Very humble guy, taking his time to chat with his fans with such admiration... EDIT2: I've heard that he said something about an upcoming project with Mikael Akerfeldt, but I cannot really confirm if this is true or my friend's misunderstanding. Sorry for getting your hopes up.
In conclusion, great night, awesome show, and Devin is one helluva cool guy!
EDIT: I have to add, I instigated not one, but two huge moshpits at By Your Command. The awesomeness of this song with live drums was too much for me to contend.