Coheed and Cohesion and Cambria: The Prog-Rock Legends Pack a Punch on North American Summer Tour

Powerhouse progressive rock group Coheed and Cambria launched an amphitheater tour last summer co-billed with iconic emo-pop band Taking Back Sunday. The 25-date trek across the United States and Canada featured a dazzling arrangement of lasers and lights, a giant inflatable sunglasses-adorned skull, and support from a robust Cohesion audio system.

Long revered by fans for their intricate arrangements, complex narratives, and electrifying performances, Coheed and Cambria treated fans to plenty of hits old and new. The set featured singles from their latest album, including “Goodbye, Sunshine” and “Blind Side Sonny” alongside beloved classics such as “A Favor House Atlantic,” “Blood Red Summer,” and “In Keeping Secrets of Silent Earth: 3” plus a boisterous encore of The Killers’ “Mr. Brightside.”

“They’re a powerful band that melts faces off,” said FOH Engineer and Production Manager Scott “Shreddy” Edwards. “They’re all super-talented guys, and I want that to be heard. When they decided to go bigger and carry their PA, Cohesion fit right in. I always want the best representation for how this band should sound.”

Clair Global deployed the PA, which featured Cohesion CO10 mains and side hangs. The tour’s typical configuration used fourteen CO10 on each main hang, though occasionally the line length reduced to twelve or extended to sixteen, such as for the show at Toronto’s Budweiser Stage in August. Side hangs, where applicable, used 10 CO10 per hang.

“We’ve gotten great throw on this main array. Today, at 300 feet, it was nice and clear,” said System Engineer Steve Hupkowicz before a show at Philadelphia’s Highmark Skyline Stage at the Mann. “The power and versatility of the CO10 are really nice. I tend to leave alone the low-mids. I get all the headroom I need. I’m a ‘less is more’ person, so I hang fewer than most. People tell me how many they put up in a room, and I think, ‘I did that with 2–4 fewer in the same room.’”

“The CO10 immediately surprised me,” said Edwards, who added that he appreciated the tonality and throw of the speaker. “I once did a show with [Cohesion CO12] on the mains and CO10 on the sides, and I thought it was good. Then I had one show where we just flew CO10, and I said, ‘This is awesome.’ The next tour, I took out all CO10 and loved it. The CO10 is exactly what I’m looking for. They’re punchy. They’re smooth.”

The subwoofers for the summer tour were originally intended to be flown, but venue architecture and staging often required reconsideration of that design. Hupkowicz and Edwards agreed that moving the subs on the ground would aid in consistency night to night, so six Cohesion CP218 II+ were placed on either side of the stage in cardioid configuration.

Six to eight Cohesion CF28 were spaced across the stage every eight feet for seamless coverage of the fans in the front. Hupkowicz, as the SE on the 2025 tours of Mary J. Blige and Keyshia Cole, had previously used the fill speakers. “I usually push them hard, and they’re a great-sounding, powerful box that I don’t need to hack much at all. They rip.”

Joining Coheed and Cambria were indie rockers Foxing, on their final run of touring, and fellow suburban New York icons Taking Back Sunday. Dan Stork, the FOH Engineer for Taking Back Sunday, shared his thoughts on the Cohesion PA before the Philadelphia show: “I’m trying for a rock-forward mix, but ultimately, people also want to sing along, so I have to get [frontman] Adam [Lazarra] above the rest of the mix. I’ve found that I’ve been able to push a lot of top end without it getting hissy or noisy, which we really need because Adam moves so much. It sounded very clear and precise. The PA has been punchy in the low end for the drums and bass, and then it has a lot of bite in the mids without any ‘honk.’”

The tour was a celebration for Coheed and Cambria on three fronts: the thirtieth anniversary since the group’s founding in 1995; the twentieth anniversary of their celebrated Good Apollo, I’m Burning Star IV, Vol. I: From Fear Through the Eyes of Madness, their best-selling album; and the March release of their eleventh studio album, Vaxis—Act III: The Father of Make Believe.

“I’ve been happy with all the shows. It’s not just me saying it—we get 20, 30 people a night saying how awesome it sounds,” summarized Edwards, who has worked with Coheed and Cambria since 2008. “You know, the band goes off what people tell them, so it’s been great. They’re comfortable with us, and we’re comfortable with them. We’ve had the same crew for quite a while, and we know each other very well. We must be doing something right!”

The summer tour was the second of Coheed’s three consecutive tours in 2025. “The Infinite Arc” tour, which preceded in May, was a five-week run across the East Coast, Midwest, and American South accompanied by heavy-metal icons Mastodon. In October, they ventured across Europe on the “Welcome to Forever” tour, with Haken joining them for the final five dates in the United Kingdom.

Coheed and Cambria returns to touring later this month, with global stops in the U.S., Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and the U.K. to close out the year.