Images: Between the Buried and Me, Animals as Leaders, Tesseract November 23, 2011 at the House of Blues

The decision to have Animals as Leaders open for Between the Buried and Me deserves honorable mention itself. Enjoying this pairing requires only that you A) enjoy heavy music and B) can be inspired by precision. With a hint of theatrics, Animals as Leaders greeted the House of Blues Las Vegas stage by means of “An Infinite Regression,” the introductory track from the recent album Weightless. Illuminated by their requisite graphic screens flanking the drum stage, Animals’ set included “Isolated Incidents” as an effectively subtle, mood setting score and “Cylindrical Sea,” which led into “CAFO,” the hit from 2009’s self-titled full length. By hit, I mean that prior to this summer, if anyone said “You have to hear this band!” they immediately, and justly exposed you to “CAFO.” If you enjoy Animals as Leaders, I must insist that you check out founder Tosin Abasi’s former band Reflux. Just do it, you’ll see…

Short intermission…then, things got fanatical. The crowd braced themselves when Between the Buried and Me’s guitarist Paul Waggoner welcomed himself with the light intro of “Mirrors,” and as singer Tommy Rogers approached his keyboard, the building itself seemed to erupt. The creators of BTBAM were gradually joined by the rest of the team, abruptly slamming into “Obfuscation” completing the opening of 2009’s The Great Misdirect. To tie it together, we were treated to a genuine indulgence mid-set, a clustered masterpiece including segments of “Alaska,” “All Bodies,” “Arsonist,” “Shevanel Cut A Flip,” “Aspirations,” “Fire For a Dry Mouth,” and “Lost Perfection: Anablephobia.” About 10 minutes later, we all came out of it, following BTBAM into “Viridian” and then into an encore featuring “Mordecai.” After which, mesmerized fans drifted toward the door in a haze from one of the best couplings of talented, creative bands and the most exciting song choices I’ve ever seen.

-Mike Law

Photos by Tyler Newton | http://500px.com/spottedlens