I'm in the very back of the pic (quite dark), slightly right from the middle, with the grey Katatonia shirt on
And me next to Martijn with the grey Katatonia shirt... looking fucking perplexed! I left the crowd eventually due to my dimintuitive stature (couldn't see a THING!) and proceded to headbang on the stairs to the point where I almost fell down them (that boat was rocking on various different levels I can tell you...)
The show was quite simply spectacular! I really enjoyed the jazz/slow-tempo rendering of 'Harvest' and 'The Drapery Falls' (perhaps because I've just learnt that song in its entirety including the solo
) but the most stunning (I was quite literally rooted to the spot - completely immobilised with amazement) of all these was without question 'Heir Apparent'. What a magnificently dystopic(word?), doom-ridden song... Has that really cool kinda token dissonance that Opeth have mastered so well. Have to say Akesson has really become part of the furniture in this respect; twisted soloing there and loved the medieval-sounding picky bits coupled with the other-worldly time signatures, altogether very malevolent to the ear.
Other highlights pertaining to Opeth included being recognised by the man himself, Mikael Å - who as Martijn can testify - approached me for a hug and not the other way around : P (apparently I'm on the upcoming dvd, chatting a bunch of crap, we can only presume :zombie
I had another opportunity to speak with him on the day of departure as well.
I've gotta say, at a festival where the stars are constantly beleaguered by fans, the guy was very down-to-earth and puts himself out as being readily approachable by all. He introduced me to Anna - his wife and Mirjam who was dozing nonchalantly in her pram : ) I asked whether Anna was enjoying the festival and remarked on how nice it was that they could spend time together as a family in a so-called 'business' context. I wanted to ask her other questions, more personal in nature like what things she did while the band were away doing heavy duty touring, but she dissappeared not long after concluding me to deliver a fairly cheesey fan speech to her husband about my Opeth tattoo and how in a life full of incertitudes(sp?) Opeth had always remained a constant etc. etc. ; )
Me and my friends also got to speak to Martin Axenröt - who I can confirm, as Melloboat folklore has it - is an extremely good humoured and humble guy! He joked around with us for a bit and then once again...
"we are not worthy" time came about once more and I basically said how much I was looking forward to hearing his unique contribution to new Opeth material as opposed to him having to live in Lopez's shadow these last few years. I also tried to press him about Bloodbath issues, like whether they'd be playing in Germany this August : s He seemed relatively clueless but hey! fingers crossed...
Listening back to some of the cds I purchased at the Mello-market rekindles my love of the whole experience. I bought a 'Promise & the Monster' cd (sooooo fucking glad I did, because I missed their performance in an effort to get to the front for Katatonia), the new Anekdoten 'A Time of Day' - this band are a dream to see live! The live music especially takes you to very emotional thresholds of experience. I bought Fredrik Thordendal's Special Defects 'Sol Niger Within' for my boyfriend who couldn't make it but is heavily into that sort of thing and who I suspect would have wanted to see the Mats/Morgan all-star team. Finally, I bought Trettioåriga Kiget's 'Elden Av År' which was a bit of a stab in the dark having only seen and heard of them at the festival, but just hearing it now, so glad I undertook the risk : D Really love 'Night Flight' which I seem to remember them playing live as well as 'Möte'.
Made some really fantastic friends on the boat and hung out with some pretty special people including Mattias from Katatonia who is unusually nice and very talkative : )
Needless to say Comus were amazing after 25 years of keeping a low-profile or indeed any profile at all on the music scene! I particularly enjoyed watching them while checking out their old-school band pics on the over-head projector and it is absolutely beguiling how well-preserved Bobby is!
That's about all I can remember for the moment. Can't wait to see that dvd and would be intrigued to see who plays next year... maybe Paatos and if Comus can be revived, then maybe Landberk can be in a similar manner? Maybe E.S.T will play or Espen Jørgensen??!?!
...suspense...
Camille
