I saw some band called Dark Tranquillity perform at Sauna Open Air last saturday. There were quite a lot of enthusiastic DT fans around, in the frontrow I met the guy with the Haven-tattoo on his leg that appeared recently on the DT homepage, among other people who seemed to recognize the bandmembers and who sang old DT-tunes while we were waiting for the band to start. The weather was hot as hell (I must've sweat several gallons during the festival), but the band-members seemed very cool as they were fixing things on the stage.
They started strong with Terminus and continued to blast away for an hour or so with mostly newer songs. The audience was very much into it, singing along to almost every song. The playing was as flawless as I could hear and Mikael as animate and energetic as always. It was a rather standard performance, I believe, with nothing unusual going on, but even on their routine-level the guys delivered damn well. Most of the songs were fast headbangers, but the few slower moments worked very well in my opinion. The highlight of the set was Inside the Particle Storm; it was almost surreal when the audience suddenly went silent during the intro, holding their breaths to sing along with Mikael a few moments later.
The setlist was as follows (it should be quite correct, but I'm not 100% sure):
01. Terminus (Where Death Is Most Alive)
02. The Lesser Faith
03. The Treason Wall
04. The Wonders at Your Feet
05. Blind at Heart
06. Final Resistance
07. Inside the Particle Storm
08. The Endless Feed
09. Focus Shift
10. Punish My Heaven
11. My Negation
12. The New Build
Later in the evening I had the privilege to spend a few hours with the guys. I've said this before, but it always catches me by surprise to see how down-to-earth and casual they can be. I had some great discussions about the band's past, present and future, Mikael's thoughts about religion, as well as a multitude of other topics, some of which were truly hilarious. I also had a very nice chat with Martin B. that started on poker and studio-work and then somehow turned into him encouraging me to pursue my future plans (thanks). Overall, it was a very nice evening on top of a great festival, and I can't wait to see them again.
-Villain