Pen & Page

Coheed and Cambria frontman Claudio Sanchez.

The reputation of Claudio Sanchez as a sincere and exceptional musician is only exceeded by his thick, spiraling hair that obscures his face in performance.

At one point in Thursday’s Coheed and Cambria performance  at the Babcock Theatre, the musician and writer pulled back his characteristic long hair streaked with blond bolts and grabbed an acoustic. He performed a skin-tingling rendition of “Pearl of the Stars,” from the band’s newest record, “Year of the Black Rainbow.”

The band is touring on “Year of the Black Rainbow,” the final saga in a series of comic books written by Sanchez titled “The Armory Wars.”
Sanchez, known for his distinctive vocalist and epic sagas told through song, began the set with the battle cry “In Keeping Secrets Of Silent Earth: 3,” and the venue shook.

Coheed and Cambria in performance at the Babcock Theater in Billings on Oct. 14, 2010.

“Man your battle stations. We’ll have you dead pretty soon,” Sanchez sang. Reverberations ricocheted through the theater, covering the room with thick, dense sound. Long blue shadows were cast upon the audience, and the Armory Wars began.

The correlation between Sanchez’s comics and the music is extraordinary. Within the walls of his lyrics he’s created a world that is like none other, a world that comes to life on the page, and yet when Sanchez sings, he opens doors to other worlds that are just as amazing.

Coheed ended their set with “Welcome Home.” Sanchez strapped on a double-necked guitar and mainlined rock through the instrument, at one point playing behind his back and then offering the guitar to the audience to strum.

Sanchez offers up his guitar to the crowd to play.

Local opener Past Mars played exactly 15 minutes in an opening slot that was coveted by several local bands. The fallout over the slot seemed miniscule on the day of the concert, and only a few hecklers brought bad blood to the venue. Crowd turnout was less than expected for a band as impressive as Coheed and Cambria.

Prog rock group Coheed and Cambria perform Billings Babcock Theatre on Oct. 14. (Photo by Chapman Baehler)

New York indie prog-rock group Coheed and Cambria will perform in Billings on Oct. 14 at the Babcock Theatre. In a unique process, the band will choose its opener from local acts for each of the 16-city tour dates, including Billings.

“When we first started touring, local bands were a very important part of the process,” said Coheed vocalist Claudio Sanchez. “Almost every tour had local openers on each show, but now it’s much more common to have a set national package of bands touring through all the cities. While that can be easier at times, it makes it tough on local bands, and local scenes haven’t flourished like they once did. Hopefully this helps bring awareness to some good up and coming music.”

Bands that wish to perform post a link to their music on Coheed’s Facebook page. They then get their friends and fans to “like” the link. Coheed and Cambria will select a winner out of the top three “liked” bands in each market.

The Billings performance is open to all ages. Tickets are $29.50 (plus applicable fees), available now at Ernie November, Rimrock Mall, by phone at 800-514-ETIX or online at 1111presents.com. The band also performs Oct. 16 at the Wilma in Missoula.