The Contortionist Megathread

[ngrungebb91]

Just got back from seeing these guys play a third time...wow! They played amazingly. Although the singer does act a bit weird as if on a mushroom trip while on stage, they absolutely slayed. Amazing sound, good set list...TIGHT TIGHT! On the other hand...Intervals (who we were looking forward to seeing as well), maybe the worst live event ever. 12k range high end, ZERO low end on stage, instant headaches. Plus, more backing tracks then anyone probably has idea of...bass, drum loops, backing vocals, some main vocals, & A TON of guitars. Like, I gave slack to Josh Travis about this in the past (though he completely rectified this last time I saw them), but what Intervals did was INSANE. Before the set they were doing play back on the pro-tools sessions to front of house & tried to get the sound guy to cut sound before the song began but failed to stop it & what we heard when the song cut in...was the fricken song, loud guitars, bass, drum loops. WAY louder than their guitars, WAY WAY louder. So the three of us left the show stoked even more on the contortionist but unfortunately all of us have lost fan status for Intervals. We made it through 1 1/3 songs from their set & then headed outside for the rest. Instant headache from all the high end, someone please dial in their axe-fxs (no other band had this issue). I am not trying to trash these guys, amazing players & decent tunes...but man that was one of the worst live experiences I have had ever.

Totally agree on how the singer acts. Saw them while on tour with Periphery. He is an amazing singer...but I swear he was on an acid trip, just looked SO weird and moving oddly lolol. Nonetheless, they did a great show.. especially when they kicked in Flourish.

 

[Taylord]

I saw them in ABQ a few days ago. 3rd time seeing them and they were amazing. The encore was insane. Cool that they played an equal amount from all three records. My only question was why Cameron plays with his back to the crowd haha.

 

[JustMac]

He's a shy guy

 

[TIBrent]

That dude SLAYS! Cameron is an underrated king.

 

[Nykur_Myrkvi]

Regarding Lessard's strange stage presence, I've seen a lot of people act really strangely while they sing and usually I just find it endearing. It brings out some character.

Like Lessard, the dude from Twenty One Pilots, Arnór from Agent Fresco, Björk, Kata from Mammút.

 

[jjfiegel]

Good buddy Elliot had some weird presence when I saw him with TesseracT.

 

[Nykur_Myrkvi]

Good buddy Elliot had some weird presence when I saw him with TesseracT.

Nah man, he just had some sweet dance moves.

When I saw them he did some great dancing to those grooves, I loved it.

 

[gunch]

Never listened to their first two EPs before Exoplanet what am I in for

 

[jjfiegel]

Nah man, he just had some sweet dance moves.

When I saw them he did some great dancing to those grooves, I loved it.

When i saw them he like got down on the floor and crouched and i even think he laid down at one point.

 

[tbb529]

Never listened to their first two EPs before Exoplanet what am I in for

Apparition is mostly older versions of Exoplanet songs with a different singer. There are 2 tracks that didn't make it to Exoplanet but are in the same style as the rest. Not bad, but Exoplanet is definitely better.

Haven't listened to the first EP too much but it's very -core.

 

[-One-]

Never listened to their first two EPs before Exoplanet what am I in for

Well, they have three, but the first one, the Sporadic Movements EP, was recorded under the name At the Hands of Machines, and sounds very similar to their first release as The Contortionist, the Shapeshifter EP, which blends mathcore, hardcore, and deathcore, but isn't djenty, and doesn't have the long, drawn out, melodic passages from Exoplanet. There are (bad) clean vocals on a couple of songs, and the vocalist's highs aren't really my thing, but he has some decent lows, and pretty insane gurgles (even if they are inhaled). Apparition is pre-Exoplanet versions of Oscillator, Flourish, Advent, and Expire, with one song that didn't get re-recorded (Apparition/Predator), and a new outro to Flourish (Eyes: Opened), all done with a different vocalist/keyboardist. It's pretty good, but there are no clean vocals at all on this one (the only Contortionist release with only harsh vocals).

 

[Nykur_Myrkvi]

When i saw them he like got down on the floor and crouched and i even think he laid down at one point.

Then you missed some great moves. I think there are videos of him dancing to some tracks off of Concealing Fate around on YouTube.

Edit: Pretty sure this is what I was thinking of but I can't be bothered to find it in there.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tdWALftf_6E

 

[jjfiegel]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3XubmIB-w3U

He kinda does the crouch thing in this video but I dunno. I was at this exact show. Maybe I'm remembering it wrong. Or he only did it during the softer songs.

 

[codync]

That dude SLAYS! Cameron is an underrated king.

He's really great. His three or four note rhythmic solo in Causality is so sublime, one of my favorite Contortionist moments. I tend to turn my back and try to zone out when I play with my doom band, I could see it to the Contortionist. I'll have to check out those early EPs based on the description up there, those all sounds pretty great to me.

 

[Khoi]

Here are some of my live shots from the Anaheim show last Friday. They were fantastic!

The full album can be found here: The Contortionist, Intervals, Polyphia (Anaheim, CA) - Imgur

 

[spawnofthesith]

Great pics


I was at the Denver show, and all I cam say is holy. ....ing. Shit. I've seen them every time they've been to Denver since 2011, and this was quite possibly there best show yet. Their set felt very long which was amazing, abd they played the perfect blend of music from their albums. The experience was transcendental to say the very least...

 

[vilk]

Seeing them tonight in Chicago!

 

[7soundz]

While this may be costly, I would really like to see The Contortionist release a high quality performance DVD similar to what BTMB recently released.

 

[SmackyChot]

So what are these guys running gear wise? Anyone get good looks of everything?

Last time I saw them, Robby had a Laney (not sure which), and Cam had a Mesa Dual or Trip Rect. I couldn't tell from where I was. I am guessing they run a OD in front as well.

I'd like to figure out specifics, cause their live tone is just INSANE. Completely blew Periphery and Intervals tone out of the water.

And believe they are using the JB+Jazz pickups in those beautiful LACS's

Anyone care to add?

 

[spawnofthesith]

So what are these guys running gear wise? Anyone get good looks of everything?

Last time I saw them, Robby had a Laney (not sure which), and Cam had a Mesa Dual or Trip Rect. I couldn't tell from where I was. I am guessing they run a OD in front as well.

I'd like to figure out specifics, cause their live tone is just INSANE. Completely blew Periphery and Intervals tone out of the water.

And believe they are using the JB+Jazz pickups in those beautiful LACS's

Anyone care to add?

Robby is playing a Laney ironheart with a g major for fx, Cameron is running a dual rec