Automata II with BTBAM and Tesseract

photo by Chuck Johnson.

Automata II with BTBAM and Tesseract

@ The Glass House

After balling up and throwing the paper fast food bag on the floor of my sedan, I open the fountain drink and pour in a dangerous amount of Evan Williams for someone who has an hour drive to fuck some stranger from a copulation ("dating") app after the show that will later flake on me. No concert venue accepts EBT for cocktails so I'm stuck making my own good time. They tell me the Chick-Fil-A is homophobic. I'm just surprised to hear that chickens have the brain capacity to know and separate what gay is. I'm previewing Tesseract's live album that I stole off YouTube and halfway through my drink I'm already feeling unwell. Is it the homophobic chicken spreading bigotry through my nervous system or is it the hard alcohol I'm chugging in my Prius at age 32? The world may never know. The show is starting now and I'm not in the mood to stand through another dinky prog instrumental band that makes me embarrassed for their dads. But I'm excited to write something for you to ignore since you just clicked on this thing to look at the photos. And I don't blame you; I do the same thing.

I walk into the venue and Astronoid is wrapping cables. I have perfect concert timing. Please e-mail me if you clicked this link in hopes for a description of Astronoid's set and not for photos of prog rock musicians making very concentrated facial expressions.

The show is sold out and the stage looks like a laser tag arena in the soundproofed barn that is the Pomona Glasshouse. I hit the merch booth upstairs next to the restroom. Tesseract doesn't have any CDs for sale due to UK taxes and I'm disappointed due to my stubborn need to continue purchasing music in the same format I have my entire life.

Tesseract opens with "Luminary," the first track from their recent disappointment of an EP. Not actually a terrible song, but they quickly got things on to the right track with a little melody from former vocalist Ashe O'Hara, "Of Mind - Nocturne." Current vocalist Daniel Tompkins' in-ear monitoring system looks like if they rebooted Ghostbusters again. They establish dominance with their third song by playing "Deception - Concealing Fate, Pt. 2" THE GODDAMN HIT, this early in the set. Mad men. Tompkins goes for it and surfs the crowd.

Is being clean-shaven an English thing? Bands from elsewhere in Europe usually have beards. Tesseract is the band you bring home to mommy that will promise to bring you home by curfew and won't even try to finger you. I want to make fun of Tompkins for kicking off "King" with a foot stomp because when you can play in these time signatures, you are a DORK, but he's hitting every operatic note. He's trying to sell these newer songs by pulling a move like he's trying to get a gas leafblower started. I'm loving it and doing my dumb hip-hop hand raise.

Between the Buried and Me starts with an instrumental. Frontman Tommy Rogers plays on the keys that I'm told he's been using since around the Alaska era. His long mane and facial hair make him look like a handsome Neil Fallon or Jared Leto if you didn't want to knock his lights out. He doesn't act like your typical metal vocalist. He carries himself in a way of a graceful conductor, unconcerned with peacocking.

Everyone in the crowd has pleasant smelling hair.