Last night I made the drive over to Val Air Ballroom in West Des Moines to catch Coheed and Cambria on their This Is Our War run, with The Home Team opening. Short version: worth every mile of that drive, and then some.
Let me get the awkward part out of the way first, because I’ve already had this conversation with myself about a dozen times since the encore ended. I went in already knowing who The Home Team were. I knew they were good. So when people around me spent the first three songs doing the slow conversion from “who is this?” to “okay, this is great,” I was a step ahead of them. The band did not surprise me with how good they were.
What surprised me was the crowd.
The energy in that room during The Home Team’s set was more intense than the room during the first part of Coheed’s set. I’m not exaggerating, and I’m not saying it to knock Coheed, because I’ll get to them. But there was a stretch during that opening set where the floor was moving as one thing, and it took Coheed a while to catch up to that level. My best guess is that this isn’t how it goes every night, and here’s why I think that: The Home Team looked genuinely stunned by it. There’s a specific kind of grin a band gets when a room exceeds what they expected, and they had it. The guys up there were feeding off us as much as we were feeding off them, and that loop is not something you can fake or schedule. When a band seems that honestly thrilled to see a Midwest crowd losing its mind on a Saturday night, it tells you the night was special.
And Then Coheed
Here’s the thing, though — the comparison isn’t really a comparison, because the two bands aren’t playing the same game. Coheed’s show is a production. Fog, the LED wall, all that saturated purple and red washing over everything, and a set that pulls from the whole Amory Wars universe. The light show was legitimately amazing, the kind where you catch yourself watching the rig instead of the band. And Claudio’s voice — I don’t know how it still sounds like that, but it does. The reviews coming out of this tour keep saying his vocals are as strong as they were a decade ago, and last night I heard nothing to argue with.
The set did exactly what a Coheed set is supposed to do. Older staples, newer material from Vaxis – Act III, the crowd carrying the choruses hard, and a closing stretch anchored by “Welcome Home” and that double-neck guitar, which remains one of those “I’ll remember where I was standing” moments. Everyone on that stage came ready to play. Nobody mailed in a single minute.
Why the Bill Works
The more I’ve thought about it, the more I think the night worked because of the contrast. The Home Team’s set is melody-forward, pop-punk-heart-on-its-sleeve energy — immediate, warm, hook after hook. Coheed’s set is intense in a different way: darker, heavier, more theatrical, more prog-scale. The high-energy vibes of The Home Team didn’t compete with that intensity coming off Coheed. They set it up. By the time Coheed hit their closing stretch, the room had already been at a full boil once and knew how to get back there.
That’s the ideal two-band bill, honestly. You’re not getting one good show and a warm-up act. You’re getting two bands with different jobs, both doing them at full commitment.
The Verdict
Worth the drive to see both of these bands, no hesitation. If this tour is coming anywhere near you on the remaining dates, go. Catch The Home Team’s whole set even if you think you’re only there for the headliner — especially if you already know them, because watching a room full of people figure out what you already knew is its own kind of fun. And stay for every minute of Coheed, lights and all.
Some nights you drive home from a show replaying one song. Last night I drove home replaying the whole night.
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