An Audience with Devin Townsend

An Audience with Devin Townsend lands at Exeter Phoenix on 4 September 2026. Canadian multi-instrumentalist and producer Devin Townsend has carved a singular route through heavy music and its fringes since the early 90s. First noticed as the vocalist on Steve Vai’s Sex & Religion in 1993, he forged the abrasive charge of Strapping Young Lad with Heavy as a Really Heavy Thing and City, while opening a wider solo universe with Ocean Machine: Biomech, Infinity and Terria. He later explored new phases with The Devin Townsend Band, then the Devin Townsend Project, moving from Ki to Ghost and Deconstruction, before the melodic punch of Epicloud and the widescreen textures of Transcendence. Alongside, he unveiled the hushed Americana of Casualties of Cool with Ché Aimee Dorval, and continued in solo mode with Empath, Lightwork and PowerNerd.

On stage, Townsend moves from dense riffing to airy atmospheres, stacking harmonies and electronics around a voice that shifts from roar to clean lines. Under the banner An Audience with…, he digs into his catalogue and the craft behind it, blending songs, anecdotes and finely honed arrangements for an evening that traces the breadth of his work at Exeter Phoenix.