Last Fair Day Gone Night Tour 2011

[HumanScum]

i’m rather disappointed with the fact that a celebrative tour (i mean, it wasn’t just a regular set of gigs…) was organised in such a small area.
yes i’m aware it did cover a few countries, but the spots covered were really sooo close that it was almost like staying in a same country.
and yes i know people flew all the way from US/elsewhere to attend but some of us really have strict and unflexible schedules and couldn’t afford the trip.
i know it’s not the band’s fault but i really do think the places could have been ‘distributed’ better…

of course it’s nothing personal, i just needed an excuse to rant

I signed on this forum mainly to lurk infos about some of my favorite bands and i never thought to post or take an active role in the community, but fuck, I am really pissed off and bitter on how this celebrating thing has been organized, and I'm amazed about the fact that almost no one in here is pissed off too!

I'm really happy for you if you made it at one of the shows (and this is what is generally called "lying") but i doubt that all the people here had the opportunity to attend a gig, because my dead dog could have done a better work at organize this tour, and i mean now, not when he was alive.

It seems to me that they didn't give a flying shit about "celebrating" anything with fans and just went for max money, a show like that would have been sold out even in cambodia but why do that when it is much more simpler place 5 fucking shows in a radius of about 400km counting on the fact that a lot of people will attend two or even three of them.

Well my sincere compliments to those who came up with this, mission fucking accomplished, whatever their mission was, to make a lot of money out of this or to piss off as much people as possible.

 

[Nightmare_Heaven]

guess i'll give my thoughts.

I don't really enjoy gigs anymore tbh, but i got given a spare ticket at the last minute and decided fuck it, i'll go anyway. I do think the setlist could have had more "kvlt" songs, I was hoping for ones like Day, Rainroom, Black Erotica, maybe even Scarlet Heavens, but i'm all about the wishful thinking. I don't enjoy LFDGD all the way through but seeing Chrome, Tonights Music and The Future of Speech was good. On Brave, the vocals were intense (more on this in a sec) and this was probably the highlight of it all for me. I Break, Right Into the Bliss, and Dissolving Bonds were nice suprises too. Again, vocalwise Jonas was on top form, both growling and singing. His best performance out of the 3 times I've seen the band (and I'd rank this 2nd best, after all the first time is destined to be the best forever it seems). The rest of the sound was very good also.

Any criticisms I could aim here are certainly not at the band. This last.fm page http://www.last.fm/event/1805113+Last+Fair+Day+Gone+Night+-+An+Evening+with+Katatonia has several people voicing the same kind of things I was thinking. I want to get lost in the sound, not be part of some social night out, and before you say it, yes I will just stay at home and listen to the records next time. This is unfortunate as I always felt Katatonia the ideal band to transport the listener to another dimension in the live arena. I did like the lighting (apart from when they blasted the house lights a fuckload of times, just why?)....needs more smoke, maybe? Whatever, oh well. Thanks for playing Brave.

brief afterthoughts:

I) had i gotten blazed before coming to the gig, i probably would have written different things. My bad for being sober at a concert, never the smartest idea in retrospect.

II) was suprised to find myself being asked for ID and almost getting turned away. Wierd as i was getting into death metal gigs in proper shitholes a couple of years ago no problem, and my friend who saw Swans at the Koko didn't get IDed. Not as hairy as everyone else there, I guess. although that again raises contradictions, as death metal gigs in proper shitholes are always full of beards.

III) Merch was a tiny bit lacking perhaps...suprisingly the one girly shirt on sale had the most interesting design to my eyes, but I'm not that much of a fag. No BMD shirt opportunity wasted goddammit GODDAMMIT.

 

[Dauthus1973]

Again, the show was great. The best one sound and performance wise out of all (8+) Katatonia shows I've seen. I saw the die-hard forum people walk around, but I never really talked to anyone except MadTinus and Nymphx before, so I let everyone be. I can relate to the opinion that the atmosphere has become more mainstream and more "normal". But it is also inevitable, I guess. Still had a rather good time.

About the amount of the shows and the locations... it would be very hard to please everyone without doing an intensive tour. This way it was exclusive. And keep in mind that they didn't had to do anything.

Setlist thing: No songs off of Viva Emptiness? I was surprised.

 

[Lisra]

Snip

Why would we be pissed off? We went and had a killer time.

Yknow, you play shows where you can get gigs, right? That must have been what they could get, because on the last tour many, many shows sold out, as were many now. If profit was the main idea, the venues would have been bigger? The tickets more expensive? Much, much more merch? Because it was obvious that the merch supply couldn't keep up with the demand even at the second show. Much missed profit there, too.

I'm sad too when I can't see the bands I love because for reasons only known to them they play on the other side of the bleedin world rather than next to me, but raging like that just makes you sound butthurt.

What performer wants to piss off his audience?

 

[Skaldir]

Dude, not everyone is as depressed as you! :3

FML

No, they didn't forget to play it, it was some synthie (?) backtrack thingie that was way, waaay to quiet. Luckily it was more audible in Zaandam, but everyone I talked to agreed that it still didn't work. I really love "Right Into The Bliss" live but they should've just played that lead on guitar like at Summer Breeze back then...


Congratulations on having succeeded in hiding from me!! ;D


I'm back now and don't feel like doing any of the things I'm supposed to do, so I'm gonna spam you guys:

Still hungover after a devastating night out I made my way over to Cologne to meet up with Cis. Also met Unicorn in the break, but sadly we were spread out all over the venue and didn't really party together. Katatonia on stage had some magic effect on me because I suddenly turned sober again - awesome! Had not checked the setlist online before but the LFDGD set was amazing. Always loved the album, now I feel like I love it even more. And I thought it was a lot of fun to get a whole album as a show... cool, I'd like a set for every album but it'd probably get boring, I guess.
Second set had me confused at first, who would've expected "Brave"? Moreover I wouldn't have expected it to sound that good, but it was great! Personal highlight of that set was "Wait Outside", though, and such a bliss to finally hear "Dissolving Bonds" live! Now I can die happily. Or maybe not completely because "Right Into The Bliss" weirded me out for mentioned reasons and all in all I felt like compared to the first set, the second was less exciting.
Anyway, it was an amazing night that got me all hyped up for the Zaandam show!

But first Cis & me dropped at my place in the suburbs to hang out for a bit before it was time to head for the Netherlands! Have to post this because it's hilarious:

Moving closer to the border we spontaneously decided to crash at Unicorn's place for some quality time and good music. Thanks for your hospitality, bro, hope we didn't disturb you too much! ;D Feel invited to stay over at my place if you wanna join us in Bad Ö!

Zaandam was somewhat interesting (ways going in circles, strange architecture...) and smaller than expected. And very unexpected were also the people we met there... Vincent! Thanks for the meal, so happy to have met you there~! And Martijn! After all, we finally got to see Katatonia together!
And our sexy friends from the States of course! Although I'm sorry I caused a "Aha-Moment" when it turned out that Swany is a girl!! Haha!
No surprises setlist-wise, but not less awesome either. Probably even more fun because of the damn good atmosphere, all the lovely people and just because Katatonia on stage is almost always overwhelming. But it was fucking hot... I really thought I was going to melt.
And as LDS already said, it was like the internet got real in front of the stage... seeing new people from da internet right next to you is always wtf!?
Afterwards I was asked which of both shows I liked better and after considering it for a while, I'd say I liked the Zaandam show better. It was more energetic although I wouldn't say the sound was much better than in Cologne and the lights annoyed me at times. Whatever, these few days were still the best about 2011 so far and I cannot wait to see the next show (whenever and wherever that will be)!!
Thanks everyone for the great time! Especially Cis for keeping me company and Katatonia for these amazing shows!

And as Cory requested... here's proof of how stunningly sexy everyone had turned after the show! (Yeah, Gorik, where were you?!)

Great review and pics.
I like that Martijn is developing the horns to something more "classy".

 

[Anthony3]

The video I shot at the shows turned out pretty awesome. Coming soon..

 

[Vincent J.]

I'm sure your being bald helped you from being recognized!

 

[Anthony3]

 

[Anthony3]

 

[Vincent J.]

Anthony... Thanks man! You were right. These video's are incredible.
Katatonia have improved so much through the years. These performances are nearly perfect!

 

[stefan86]

Back from London yesterday. 14 hour sleep and now I'm human again. Gig was insanely awesome. A lot of songs I've never seen and been wanting to see for years, and Jonas sang better than I ever seen him

 

[downandunder]

Holy fuck Wait Outside, Dissolving Bonds, Brave... I wish they had played those when I saw them Guess I'll have to see them on the new DVD coming soon

Those youtube videos sound excellent (thanks Anthony3!)!!!

 

[stefan86]

Yeah, setlist was INSANE. Covered pretty much all the songs I've been whining about for five years

 

[Cis]

Soooo.... Cis has come from Kata- heaven back down to earth.

Cheers to everyone I met within the last couple of days.
Very special thanks to Swany and Unicorn for hospitality & company, to Vincent for the pizza, to Martijn for the beer, to the Americans for being sexy and last but surely not least, thanks to Katatonia for amazing shows, pics and chats and to Sodomizer in particular for ... well, I'll just say for being a rockstar

Like pretty much everyone I loved the setlist, especially the songs that have never been played before. A couple of really good surprises there, that's the way I like it!! I think my favourite was probably Promise Of Deceit.
I was a tiny bit disappointed that they didn't include any DODS- songs. It would have been cool to get a little bit of everything. I can accept the VE- excuse though, because Wait Outside was fantastic!
The Right Into The Bliss- thing was indeed kind of weird. But since Katatonia have plenty of great songs, they can afford to rape one of them, I guess
However, all in all I'm super happy, I had a great time and I can't wait for the next road trip!

@ the shy people: Don't be shy! It's ok to say hi to someone you recognize from an internet forum. Seriously.

And thanks for sharing the pics and videos, Swany & Anthony!

 

[HumanScum]

Why would we be pissed off? We went and had a killer time.

so you're saying that everyone in here but scarlet, byron and me, had the opportunity to go to one of the shows? or just that this place is so full of "fanboism" and elitism that every critcs will fall into nothing due to people ignoring it because "i was there, i don't give a fuck"? (being the second most likely i actually appreciate your reply)

Yknow, you play shows where you can get gigs, right? That must have been what they could get, because on the last tour many, many shows sold out, as were many now. If profit was the main idea, the venues would have been bigger? The tickets more expensive? Much, much more merch? Because it was obvious that the merch supply couldn't keep up with the demand even at the second show. Much missed profit there, too.

I'm sad too when I can't see the bands I love because for reasons only known to them they play on the other side of the bleedin world rather than next to me, but raging like that just makes you sound butthurt.

What performer wants to piss off his audience?

Yeah, i sound butthurt because I am, because there is a slight difference between "play on the other side of the world" and "play five very special anniversary gigs in Europe" (taken from their site) with "Europe" being a spit in one corner of the goddam continent, I wouldn't have anything to say if instead of five shows clusterd up like this they had made ​​just a single one, or spread a bit the gigs, there are a lot of big cities out there that are easier to reach from a lot of different places, munich, berlin, lyon, wien... (sorry athens, you're not on the list...) And I don't believe that they didn't find a gig in any of those, unless they didn't even try obviusly...

So why shouldn't I be butthurt when after many years of support to one of my favorite band they reward me (and a lot of other fans) with something like this half-assed tour?

Sure thing that no performer wants to piss off his audience, and in fact I'm not pointing my critcs to katatonia but towards those who organized the tour that probably don't give a shit about the audience as long as they can continue to milk money from them.
And believe me, you'd be pissed off too...

 

[Helge-Uwe]

I would have liked it if the shows were being spread all over europe too. I live in Vienna (Wien) but it was too wishful to think they'd be playing their special show here anyways.

So we flew to Zaandam (and more important Amsterdam ^^ ) for 4 days and to watch the concert. It was simply amazing, BRAVE (!!), I break, the whole LFTGD album, Wait Outside and so on. Perfect.
The voices weren't perfect, admittably, but all in all it was OK. Katatonia is simply not THE live band, but the music is far too good to hide it away from audiences. A very big thanks to the band & crew that they made this happen. Setlist-wise it could've been better though (why so much new songs? no DODS? no VE?) but I won't complain. I could've sworn they'd play Scarlet Heavens

Next time I want to see Brave Murder Day being played in its entirety though

 

[MadTinus]

I like that Martijn is developing the horns to something more "classy".

More classy..? Rather the opposite Just look up the lyrics to a song called "The Shocker"..

 

[Skaldir]

More classy..? Rather the opposite Just look up the lyrics to a song called "The Shocker"..

"two in the pink, one in the stink" or "two in the goo, one in the poo"

wft?

 

[Filth]

snip

i had actually come across these on blabbermouth a moment ago and have been watching them ( http://www.roadrunnerrecords.com/blabbermouth.net/news.aspx?mode=Article&newsitemID=157156 )

Great quality vids, cant wait for the DVD when they release it.

 

[MadTinus]

"two in the pink, one in the stink" or "two in the goo, one in the poo"

wft?