After missing the chance to see Haken with Leprous (still kicking myself for that one), I had resigned myself to not being able to see them for another couple of years until their next album was out. When they announced a short tour to support their Restoration EP, I jumped on that shit immediately.
Acoustically speaking, the venue (I saw them at the Token Lounge in Detroit) was good but not great -- there were a couple of sound/mixing issues that came up, especially during Haken's set, but they weren't bad enough to derail anything.
Tiles: It was fitting that Detroit's version of Rush opened the tour in their hometown. They're opening song was incredible but the rest of their material wasn't quite as memorable, but the guys kept things pretty entertaining. The highlight of their set (and the show in general, honestly) was Mike Portnoy coming out at the end to play a cover of "The Spirit of Radio" with the band, which was dope as hell. After seeing them live I'm definitely going to give their albums another spin.
Imminent Sonic Destruction: These guys are very new and have only released one album so far, but I really enjoyed their funny mix of slammin' breakdowns and progressive instrumentation. Unlike Tiles who kind of made me sad (especially when Mike Portnoy mentioned them opening for Dream Theater like 20 years ago), these guys clearly having a great time just performing, and it was hard not to like em'.
Next to None: Mike Portnoy has a son named Max who is also a drummer, and Next to None is his band, and they are all 16 year old kids. I had never heard them besides one Youtube video that I didn't like, and I wasn't a huge fan of the stuff they played, but their cohesiveness and playing ability can't be denied (for whatever that's worth). It was a strange mix of Periphery/The Contortionist riffing and the usual mix of clean/screamed vocals, with a bit of noodling thrown in for good measure. Once these guys get more practice at songwriting/arranging they should be pretty interesting.
Haken: The boys from the UK were what everyone came to see, and they did not disappoint. Despite missing their lead guitar player (apparently Richard Henshall's flight got delayed?), these guys really delivered, both performance-wise and setlist-wise. There were big numbers like 'Atlas Stone" and "In Memoriam", deeper cuts like "Shapeshifter" and "Drowning in the Flood" (maybe not a deep cut), but the thing that took it over the top was the back-to-back performance of "Crystallized" and "Visions", both of which were incredible, as were the guys themselves: Ross was totally on point, Ray Hearne was a total monster on the drums, and Diego's keytar solos were ridiculously awesome.
So yeah, pretty badass show.
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