| The Retinal Circus | |
| Type: | live |
| Artist: | Devin Townsend |
| Cover: | The Retinal Circus cover.jpg |
| Recorded: | October 27, 2012, at Roundhouse, Chalk Farm, London |
| Genre: | |
| Label: | HevyDevy |
| Producer: | Devin Townsend |
| Chronology: | Devin Townsend |
| Prev Title: | Epicloud |
| Prev Year: | 2012 |
| Next Title: | Casualties of Cool |
| Next Year: | 2014 |
The Retinal Circus is a live album by Canadian musician Devin Townsend. It was released on September 30, 2013, in Europe,[1] and on October 29, 2013, in North America.[2] The audio and video material were recorded at Roundhouse, London, on October 27, 2012, when Townsend performed a special one-night-only concert celebrating and covering his 20-year musical career.[3]
In November 2011, after performing a series of special Devin Townsend Project shows, Devin Townsend revealed his plan to perform a one-off concert in London, England, that would cover his musical career from mid-1990s up to that point. Townsend stated that he wanted to create a "more than musical" show which included a storyline, multiple performers and special effects. Later he said that the concert would be recorded for future release.[4]
The concert lasted approximately two and a half hours, and it was divided into two parts, with an intermission in between.[5] The band consisted of the same personnel as the recent years' Devin Townsend Project line-up, and the special guests were Anneke van Giersbergen and Jed Simon, with Steve Vai hosting the show via pre-recorded video projected onto screens. The setlist was focused heavily on material from Epicloud and a few other albums from Townsend's catalogue; the setlist included no songs from Terria, Accelerated Evolution, Ki and Ghost. Townsend also performed, against his then-current principles,[6] two Strapping Young Lad songs. He later stated that this was because of the career-spanning nature of the concert, and playing those two songs was a "closure for him and Strapping Young Lad".[7] He also wanted to "respect the legacy of the band" and to reconnect and perform again with Jed Simon.[8]
The concert was one of the most prepared Devin Townsend shows ever, with over a year of pre-production, and it was recorded in high definition with a higher budget and a more professional approach to production than the previous live release, By a Thread. 5000 people saw the sold out performance, and the concert was also streamed live through Livemusicstage.com.[9]
The Retinal Circus was released as six different versions. The standard editions feature either a double-CD, double-DVD or a Blu-ray. The Blu-ray version includes the whole concert on a single disc. The digipak edition features both the CDs and the DVDs. Two limited edition box sets were also released: a "clown box" featuring all five discs of the standard editions, limited to 5000 copies worldwide, and a "monkey box" featuring all five discs with a 40-page book, signed lithography print and fan merchandise, housed in a vinyl sized box with a pop-up of the Retinal Circus stage. The "monkey box" edition is limited to 2500 hand-numbered copies worldwide.[10] [11] The album was a chart success in some countries, with the double-DVD version peaking at No. 1 in Finland.[12]
All track lengths taken from the CD release.