Quick thoughts on the Worcester, MA show 10/30/2005

[MetalManCPA]

The doors opened at 7PM, and I got there around 5:45 figuring there would be a line. To my surprise, I was first in line. Therefore, once entering the venue, I got my favorite spot. There is a railing (wooden and around 1 foot thick) that is right behind the floor/pit. I was sitting dead center stage, and since the railing is a level above the floor, it's an unobstructed view to the satge, and quite close too. Anyways, the show:

Fireball Ministry - straight forward, nothing special rock. Looked like a biker band. Kind of boring to me but the crowd received them well. All of their songs sounded alike.

Nevermore - Warrel was awesome for the simple fact that although his voice seems destroyed (a fact he stated towards the end of the show), you didn't notice it while singing. All night during the non-singing portion of songs you could see him struggling. The disappointment to me was with the sound board. The bass and the drum bass was turned up too loud, and muddied the rest of the music. It was difficult to hear Warrel sing or clearly hear the guitar work which was still great.

Opeth - as always, I felt they put on an awesome show. Same track list as with previous shows. My personal favorite track played was Deliverance with Baying of the Hounds right behind. The rest of the songs were equally great. Mikael played the crowd really well and had a lot of fun. The new drummer (Axenrot) does a phenominal job, or should I say the fill-in drummer for now. Also, Mikael taught us the basics of death metal singing, and got us prepared for a sing-a-long (In My Time of Need). I'll see them for a 6th time when they come back February/March.

 

[a síctia]

Also, Mikael taught us the basics of death metal singing,

Could you explain it a a bit better? Haha seems funny

 

[soundave]

He did the basic call and response thing. He did a grunt, we did a grunt. He went, "Aaagh" and so did we. He told us to sing as high as possible, like King Diamond (he said he'd opt out) and we did. It was hilarious. Mikael was great with the crowd, telling people to "Hush, hush," when he was trying to say something and people were shouting over him. What I loved most about seeing them play was how much fun Mikael seemed to be having. You can tell that he just LOVES what he does.

 

[Sickman]

Definitely a great show. I was sitting about one level down from the bar-level, on the far right. Fireball Ministry wasn't as bad as I had thought they would be. But like the original poster said, I had a little trouble telling the songs apart. When Nevermore first started playing (Born), the mix was terrible. All you could hear was the bass and the drums. But they seemed to tweak it a little bit throughout the song and it sounded a little better. And I think overall, the most impressive thing of the night was watching Jeff Loomis. It was kind of cool to see the people in the audience look at each other in amazement at what Jeff Loomis was doing. And of course Opeth were quite enjoyable as well. One complaint was that I could barely hear what Mikael was saying between the songs. Partly because people were constantly shouting and partly because Mikael is a pretty soft-spoken guy. "Face of Melinda" and "The Baying of the Hounds" were probably my favorite tracks of the night. "When" was awesome too. But during "Face of Melinda," it seemed like everyone in the crowd was talking amongst themselves. It made it kind of hard to hear a lot of the first half of the song.

One other thing that pissed me off was that I paid $15 to park in the lot directly across from the Palladium. But when my friend and I were walking back to the end of the line, there was a parking lot right there that only charged $5.

 

[BurningSky]

I dont know if anyone else saw this one kid, but he was absolutely hilarious. I actually missed part of the show just watching him. He was quite the portly fellow, and would constantly jump up and down screaming "OPETH!!" holding his hand to his mouth like its a microphone. He seemed wasted out of his mind. I asked the girl that he was with if he was on drugs, but he wasnt. He fell down like 3 or 4 times, one time falling on the girl. He also licked the girls face a couple times, which was sickening and hilarious at the same time. Seriously, all the kids around me were just watching this one guy because he was out of his mind drunk. After they played deliverence he shouted out "DELIVERENCE!" as if to request it again... I don't know if anyone noticed this guy, but he was hilarious.

 

[T-Rat]

hiya
yes, a great show.
def. a few too many talkative people at times.
luckily, i found the 5-dollar parking. and it was just as close.
that sux.
mike's lessons were classic. he's so goofy, i love it.
quite clear he's having a blast.
did anyone stay for the signing?
i wanted to say hi to mendez again, but my "date" was being a tried old man.

 

[LostInFog]

i agree with your thoughts on nevermore's slightly muddied sound, but they were the highlight of the show for me. they rocked. opeth seemed quieter overall, soundboard-wise.

did anyone else notice axenrot losing control of the double kick a couple times, particularly during the first verse of deliverance? i thought opeth was great still, but i feel i have seen them better. most of the songs were played slower than on the albums. i think this was so they would be easier to play (perhaps mostly for the double kick lines). But then, most of the time, axenrot was tearing it up. i loved the little death metal drumming lesson they gave. mikael was very funny, when i could here him. the dialogue between songs seemed real muddy where i was standing, which was probably ten feet to the left and 5 behind where you were, matalmanCPA. still a decent spot.
other times i have seen opeth the growling and screams were much higher in the mix, and lat night they didn't sound nearly as good (to me and my guest.) the clean parts, however, sounded perfect, and the harmonies sounded clearer than ever before.

my favorite song by opeth that night was probably blackwater park. it was also taken down a notch but it grooved really well. Face of Melinda was very nice too.

Overall, definitely worth driving from VT to.

 

[Dark Thane]

Good show, the sound was aweful though. I couldn't hear what Mike was saying between songs and the show was really quiet overall, and this was down on the floor too. Other than that it was cool.
I got there around 8:15 and parked in the lot behind the place, the dude said happy halloween you can park for free.

 

[opeth8]

Nevermore was great. His voice was definitely a "hamburger". The guitarist had some great solo's.

Opeth was very good. I agree that the volume was low. Vocals didn't come through very well. I understood most of what he said between songs except when people were screaming over him. Usually his voice towers over the rest of the music. Maybe next time they will visit another venue, but Mikael seems to like it there.

I thought TGC was awesome live. That song has become one of my fav's on the new album.

 

[Bungle]

I just parked down the road for free. Only about a four minute walk, but I'm a cheap bastard. I think I paid $15 across the street for Suffocation/Behemoth, never again.
The show was good and lighthearted, but I've definitely seen them better. Note, that is not a complaint! And LostInFog, I'm glad I'm not the only one that noticed the songs were played slower. The sound sucks there, too. They need to play Lupo's in Providence. The sound is so much better, even though the setup sucks now that it was moved to the Strand. But Worcester brings the crowds, so I understand that.
My highlights were Mikael's bantering, which was again hard to understand, but what I heard was hilarious, "Face of Melinda," "Baying of the Hounds," "When," and "Bleak."
Can't wait for February/March!!

And apparently I'm the only one who sees nothing in Nevermore. Maybe it's because I've only seen them live and haven't heard their studio stuff, but they do nothing for me. I'd rather listen to Sanctuary's Into the Mirror Black album.

 

[winters epilogue]

The floor was the most packed it has ever been for Opeth. It actually kind of ruined the beginning of the set. The band sounded great, but I could not make out Mike when he was talking. I ended up leaving the floor (after rocking out oh-so-very hard to When) and standing on the stairs. The death metal drumming lessons and vocal lessons were excellent. One of the highlights of the show. I find that I like The Grand Conjuration a lot more live than on the record. Mike did some eerie screams/growls right before the end, set the mood for a creepy song. Oh, and it was great when Mike (or Bubba Smith, as he called himself) had on a great orange hat right before they played Demon of the Fall (it was actually this girl's hat who I met afterwards, it is her birthday today, and she was drunk as hell). I saw I had messages on my phone so I went to go get those after the show. So, I came back and was waiting outside the tour bus because I thought that was where the signing session was going to be...then I saw some people with signed stuff, so I walked back up and inside and this dude was like "Can I help you?" and I said "Yes, is the signing session downstairs?" "Yeah, but it's over." "Oh, damn." "Yeah, and there's no re-entry anyways." This left me kind of shocked. I know they are jerks while a concert is going on saying you cannot come back in no matter what...but the show was over, it was a signing session. Blah, lame.
So I stood outside the tour bus for awhile just so I could give a wave to the band members. Mendez said he would be back out, but that did not really happen. Ohhhh well, at least I met them back at the SOtU.

Overall, pretty good, not my favorite, but Opeth did sound great when the Palladium sound system was not killing it.

 

[MetalManCPA]

...the sound was aweful though....

I've been to many shows at the Palladium over the years, and I would say last nights show was close to the worst sound overall that I've heard there. There was really no clarity to any of the music all night.

Also, although it was crowded, I was expecting more people. I've seen it more packed at the Palladium.

 

[dew]

The sound was awful for Nevermore, definately, but I didn't think it was that bad for Opeth. Maybe it was too quiet for people in the back, because I was right up front and it sounded great.

 

[umasser2004]

This show was fucking amazing. I was front and center, pressed up against the gate by the massive wave of people behind me. Best songs of the night include Bleak, Face of Melinda, and When. Mikael was hilarious all night and the crowd was awesome. Nevermore was fucking insane, and I caught their setlist when the roadie threw it towards the crowd. Here is a priceless picture that I got of Mikael.

 

[Bungle]

HAHA, that's great! I started walking to the back before "Demon of the Fall" so I didn't see him with the hat on by the time I saw the band playing again. I did see that hat being passed along all night in the crowd.

 

[dew]

HAHA, that's great! I started walking to the back before "Demon of the Fall" so I didn't see him with the hat on by the time I saw the band playing again. I did see that hat being passed along all night in the crowd.

The moral of the story: Never go anywhere until they start taking down the set.

 

[Bungle]

This is true, but I wanted to walk to the back for the last song so I could get out quicker. The wife was tired. But I did hear the whole song and saw half of it.
I hate getting old and being responsible. haha

 

[colin007]

how many people were there? i saw dream theater there last year and it didnt seem that crowded. was the pit pretty insane?

 

[Bungle]

Pit wasn't insane, from where I could see, and it was pretty packed. Oddly enough, though, it was more packed when they came through on the Lamentations tour. I thought it would be sold out this time.

 

[Reclusive Strike]

Best show I have ever seen. Period.

I thought Fireball Ministry sucked, but my God, their guitarist chic is so hot.

Nevermore were pretty great, but yea, their sound was fucked up especially at the beginning of born. Their guitarist fucking pwns, he was shredding like mad.

Opeth, what can be said? They were fucking amazing. My only gripe (besides them not playing The Moor) was that Mike's microphone could have been turned up a bit more. Otherwise, it was brilliant. I didnt really notice them slowing their songs down except on Baying of the Hounds and When.

Best songs of the night: Demon of the Fall, Deliverance, Baying of the Hounds and Blackwater Park.

I can not wait to see them again :hotjump: