Devin Townsend
Bexhill De La Warr Pavilion
Heavy Devvy levels Bexxy.
Devin Townsend’s shows are never for the faint-hearted, and the madcap Canadian’s debut in Bexhill-on-Sea begins in a typically oddball manner with his expression of gratitude to driver Mark for cleaning the tour bus’s toilet. “It was clogged for two days, and he got down on his hands and knees, right up to his elbows. Thank you, Mark!”
Townsend is on the final lap of a world tour on the back of an album that saw him return to the Royal Albert Hall amid triumphant scenes.Townsend brings out a Theramin concealed within a child’s toy octopus, and the squalling noises it emits cause him to grin like a pantomime villain. The vocals fall on the listenable side of demonic, rarely resorting to growls although predominantly of the sandpaper variety. Late on, the introversion offered by serves to render the tumultuous bombast of and all the more explosive and skull-crushing.
