Coheed & Cambria: Then and Now
It’s amazing how you see bands grow-up and evolve in front of you. You witness their sound change and how amazing they keep their identity through the years. Time, however, can be such a demanding mistress. Sometimes, time deteriorates a rock-out musical group and at the end of the day, it doesn’t look pretty.
Boo.
Bands such as Blink 182 (although they’re not together anymore), A.F.I., New Found Glory, and Thrice have aged beautifully; captivating their audience with fresh new beats time after time and at the same time reinventing themselves to captivate new fans but not alienating old ones.
On the other hand, bands such as Fall Out Boy and Taking Back Sunday have fallen from grace and have done nothing but gain my ire as time dwindled by.
The focus, however, is Coheed & Cambria. These guys have been together since around 1999-2000 under the monicker of "Shabutie" but in 2001, they changed their name to Coheed & Cambria. Anyway, I found a video of them during their very early years. Check it out:
The first song is Time Consumer and the next one is Delirium Trigger.
The next video, is another live video of Time Consumer, but this was during one of their biggest gigs (Starland Ballroom). This was during 2004.
The first obvious difference you’ll notice is Claudio’s hair. In a span of 3 years, the size BALLOONED. Well, if you haven’t had a haircut in 3 years… well… it’s pretty much common knowledge. However, the essence of the songs in both videos is ever so present. Time Consumer IS Time Consumer. However, their stage presence in the first video was… appalling at best. Hahaha. Give ‘em a break it was 2007. Plus Claudio and Travis (the other guitarist) was much thinner.
So letith be a lesson to ye ole kiddies: if you’re in a band, don’t forget on thing… THE MUSIC. Years may flood by, strings may be twanged and broken, weights might shift, public image may contort but don’t ever, ever compromise musical liberty for what the fans want or what society dictates as "cool music".
What’s cool doesn’t always make it right.