When you put three titans of progressive rock and metal on one bill, the result is a full-blown sonic expedition. Mastadon and Periphery paved the road, Coheed and Cambria destroyed the map.
Monday, May 26 on the Broadview Stage at SPAC, Coheed and Cambria, Mastodon and Periphery took fans on a journey that felt like a head-first plunge into alternate realities, dreamscapes and the loudest corners of your subconscious.
Periphery opened the evening with deadly intent. It was precision-engineered chaos. Rhythms that made your brain double-take. Vocals that soared high above the storm. They didn’t ease the crowd in, they lit the dynamite’s fuse on the night. If you came in expecting a warm-up act, you were sorely mistaken.
Their set was tight, confident and a massive warning shot for what was coming. Then the stage turned black and the Mastodon machine awakened.
If Periphery was a scalpel, Mastodon was a war hammer. The band stormed the stage with a sound that felt like tectonic plates grinding together. They opened with “Tread Lightly” and the earth immediately started shaking. Riffs roared. Drums cracked like thunder. This band doesn’t play songs, they conjure an atmosphere.
You didn’t listen to Mastodon, you stood in the middle of their hurricane and hoped to survive it. By the time they launched into “MOTHER PUNCHER,” the crowd was fully swallowed whole. The visuals behind them twisted like a fever dream. Strange, hypnotic and a little unsettling in a fun kind of way.
At the crescendo of it all emerged Cysquatsch, the now-infamous nightmare Muppet. A towering, chaotic creature that lurked across the stage like it had clawed its way out of the band’s weirdest heavy metal themed Sesame Street acid trip.
Half mascot, half monster and fully unhinged. It stalked the musicians, raised its arms to the crowd, and sent everyone into a frenzy of WTF delight. It was metal theater at its most bizarre and it works.
Then came the headliners. Coheed and Cambria, returning home. You could feel it in the air before they even struck a chord. This wasn’t a normal stop on a tour, this was a homecoming.
The moment Claudio Sanchez stepped into the spotlight, that truth hit like a lightning bolt. His voice, instantly recognizable, piercing and powerful led the charge through a set that was equal parts intergalactic saga and emotional reunion.
The band opened with “Yesterday’s Lost” followed by “Goodbye Sunshine” and the hometown crowd erupted like the song was a part of their DNA. Guitar work shimmered. Harmonies wrapped around the amphitheater like soundwaves in orbit. The band’s chemistry was locked in, tighter than ever, totally in command.
The emotional weight? That came from drummer Josh Eppard, pounding the kit like a man possessed. He was proudly rocking a Glenmont, NY t-shirt in front of thousands. It was a gesture that hit harder than any drum he could swing at. A nod to the neighborhood. A wink to the locals. That shirt said what words couldn’t: this is where I come from and we’re here to burn it down – in the best way possible, of course.
About midway through the set, Coheed threw in a surprise: a hauntingly powerful cover of Danzig’s “Mother”. A moment that blurred generations. It was raw, gritty, and unforgettable.
When the opening notes dropped on the encore “Welcome Home” the amphitheater shook with recognition. Thousands of voices roared into the night. Fists in the air. Lights in the sky. It was catharsis. It was communion.
For so many in attendance, Coheed isn’t just music. It’s mythology. It’s memory. It’s a story they’ve lived through, screamed through and grown up inside.
The night was emotional. Epic. A little weird. Loud as hell and completely unforgettable.
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