Tesseract + Unprocessed + The Callous Daoboys
20 January 2024 (Barcelona)
Organised by: Resurrection Fest
Venue: Apolo
Writer: Monique van der Kolk
Photography: Jordi Amela (@amela_photo_concert)
You could barely fit a pin in Sala Apolo 1. At three-band bills, there usually isn’t this many people from the very start. But it’s clear Barcelona’s metalhead music lovers are thirsty for this cocktail Resurrection Fest has put together for them.
Atlanta sextet The Callous Daoboys have the honour of opening this much-anticipated night. Dynamism and positive energy; sparks fly off the stage. The good vibes between the band members are addictive and contagious.
Carson Pace has a powerful stage presence, and his voice is well backed by his bandmates — special mention to Amber Christman, who handles the violin with real skill, and Maddie Caffrey, a genuine machine on her heavy metal guitar.
There’s no doubt about it: The Callous Daoboys are one of a kind, and they earn every bit of the applause the crowd gives them at the end.
The second support act are Germany’s Unprocessed. As the lights go down, a certain tension builds in the room. And we soon find out why: the moment the opening track of their set kicks in, the crowd goes wild, throwing themselves fully into the first notes of “Hell” in the dark. It’s clear this crowd knows exactly what’s coming tonight.
Manuel Gardner, the band’s frontman, shouts “Bounce! Bounce! Bounce!” and the madness begins. This quartet’s music leaves you open-mouthed. Fresh, virtuosic and original are just a few of the adjectives that describe their work.
The quartet is down a member tonight, with bassist David Levy out sick — but the other three give it everything and then some. While the bass lines fire off in sequence, drummer Leon Pfeifer and guitarist Christoph Schultz prove they’re first-rate musicians. And out front, Manuel Gardner does magnificent damage to both his guitar strings and his vocal cords.
Unprocessed sign off with their song “Haven”, to their fans’ sadness, but met with plenty of enthusiasm.
Apolo turns its lights back on and the last wait begins.
The crowd settles into place, and finally, after five years without setting foot on Catalan soil, Tesseract arrive. And what an arrival! You can tell they’d been waiting for this moment. Singer Daniel Tompkins even remarks, “Barcelona, this is, so far, the biggest crowd we’ve ever played for.”
Presenting their new album “War Of Being”, they come across energetic and fully committed. A live show the way it should be: great sound, every instrument exactly where it needs to be. But at a few points in the vocals, you can tell Tompkins isn’t at his best — he tells us he’s got a throat infection, about the worst thing that can happen to a singer on tour. All the more reason to praise his professionalism and his drive to give it everything.
As the Brits’ set goes on, we get to enjoy Acle Kahney’s guitar solos and a rock-solid rhythm section from Mr Postones and Mr Williams — the barefoot Williams’s playing doesn’t leave anyone indifferent. What a show!!
Towards the end of the concert, Tompkins announces they’re heading back in time, playing tracks from earlier albums. The beautiful “Juno” signals the set is drawing to a close, but of course there’s an encore: the floor of the venue bouncing underfoot, Tompkins ends up in the middle of the crowd, and we close out the night with “Concealing Fate, Part 1” and “Part 2”.
An unforgettable night. Great musicians who leave us wanting more, so here’s hoping they don’t take another five years to come back!!
Tesseract + Unprocessed + The Callous Daoboys