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Catch this tour: Meshuggah's 25th Anniversary

photo by Greg Cristman

Yesterday, Meshuggah announced twelve U.S. live dates, comprising their 25th anniversary tour. It doesn’t look to be quite the fan-pleasing affair that last year’s “A Night of Nile” tour with its double sets was, but this Meshuggah tour isn’t a standard tour, either. Per the press release, the band will be performing songs from their entire discography, and might air some rare songs that haven’t been played live in years. There’s also a poll for fans to select, presumably, the one (1!) song from each album or EP that will be played live. Catch Thirtythree, the I EP, and the Pitch Black EP are not on the poll. (One hopes that I can’t be selected because they’re automatically going to perform it.) The poll closes tomorrow, April 2.

With a fan poll in play and only one song per album selectable in said poll, I’m worried that we’re just going to hear the obvious fan favorites rather than actual rare songs. It’s also not clear how long the band’s set will be. Two of the dates are actually festivals (including a hard-to-imagine Bonnaroo appearance), so unless they vary set lengths, we’re probably getting an hour of Meshuggah’s finest Borg grooves.

When I voted, my preferred songs totaled ~44 minutes, perfect for an hour set plus some stage banter and “Pitch Black.” (Who am I kidding? They won’t play I.) To save you the time and effort of voting for songs other than the ones I want to hear, here are my choices by album:

Meshuggah EP – “Cadaverous Mastication”
Contradictions Collapse – “We’ll Never See The Day”
None EP – “Gods of Rapture”
Destroy Erase Improve – “Future Breed Machine”
Chaosphere – “Corridor of Chameleons”
Nothing – “Perpetual Black Second”
I EP – Please play it, Meshuggah, or I’ll be 🙁 forever
obZen – “obZen”
Koloss – “The Demon’s Name is Surveillance”

For admittedly lazy predictive purposes and to give the appearance of professionalism, based on last.fm playcounts, here are the tracks that will be selected via the poll:

Meshuggah EP – “Cadaverous Mastication”
Contradictions Collapse – “Paralyzing Ignorance”*
None EP – “Vanished”
Destroy Erase Improve – “Future Breed Machine”
Chaosphere – “Sane”**
Nothing – “Rational Gaze”
obZen – “Bleed”
Koloss – “I Am Colossus”***

* Each song has a lower play count that the one before it, except for “Choirs of Devastation”, which has the second highest play count. Apparently people can’t sit through this album.
** I’m shocked that “New Millennium Cyanide Christ” didn’t have the highest play count. Shocked! “Sane” has been played over 10,000 times more.
*** “The Demon’s Name Is Surveillance” was only played 777 times. The next lowest was “The Last Vigil”, with 26,682. This has to be an error.

If you haven’t seen Meshuggah live, here’s my attempt at convincing you to go: no band in metal history has used rhythm as effectively as Meshuggah. As with funk, Meshuggah’s music isn’t really about the melodies and harmonies, but rather the interlocking interplay, rhythms, and complexities of the instruments and vocals. Within heavy metal’s context, Meshuggah has also mastered the art of percussive force. Nowhere is that mastery clearer than in a live setting. Meshuggah is metal for the body and the mind; the last time I saw the band, people danced as the speakers smashed them with air.

At this point, I have to mention that Between the Buried and Me is opening for all of the non-festival dates. So: hey everybody, Between the Buried and Me is opening for all of the Meshuggah 25th Anniversary’s non-festival tour dates.

I guess Meshuggah could’ve gotten one of their djentlette offspring to open, but why heed Moses when you can just walk up the mountain and talk to God Himself?

— Richard Street-Jammer

Dates:
06/06/14 The Wiltern – Los Angeles, CA

06/07/14 The Regency Ballroom – San Francisco, CA

06/09/14 Ogden Theater – Denver, CO

06/11/14 House of Blues – Dallas, TX

06/13/14 Bonnaroo Music Festival – Manchester, TN

06/14/14 Pop’s – Sauget, IL

06/15/14 Vic Theatre – Chicago, IL

06/17/14 The Fillmore – Silver Spring, MD

06/18/18 House of Blues – Boston, MA

06/19/14 Sound Academy – Toronto, ON – CANADA

06/20/14 Amnesia Rock Fest – Montebello, QC – CANADA

06/21/14 Best Buy Theater – New York, NY