Something that's been bugging me lately...

[KennonKun]

By the recent interviews Mikael has done recently, he has mentioned that he has been sick a lot on tour due to being in close quarters with so many people, and constantly going into different climates, warm and cold, etc. Maybe that is why things aren't as perfect as you hoped they would be?

Every band suffers this when they tour. Every singer will be in close quarters with other people. You're acting like Opeth is the only band touring the United States to move from a cold state to the beach in a matter of days. All bands do that, and their singers' voices are normally tighter than Mike's voice. Then again, on February 15th Mike said they'd been doing a lot of crack cocaine and heroin. Maybe that has something to do with his cold.

 

[Sfarog]

Every band suffers this when they tour. Every singer will be in close quarters with other people. You're acting like Opeth is the only band touring the United States to move from a cold state to the beach in a matter of days. All bands do that, and their singers' voices are normally tighter than Mike's voice. Then again, on February 15th Mike said they'd been doing a lot of crack cocaine and heroin. Maybe that has something to do with his cold.

"OMG on march 12th 2003 he had a pink shirt. I hate pink shirts. and on March 19th, (just 7 days later) at precisely 9:57:03PM he mispronounced "reckless". SHIT! I mean ... How dare he?
Not to mention the April 5th when he did a few notes at end of the song an octave higher! Must be the fuckin mustache! or the cigarettes!
I'm sure Melinda will give to thim after the current tour"

I mean.. c'mon... grow up..

 

[KennonKun]

Grow up = Conform my opinion to Sfarog's?


Nah.

 

[Sfarog]

Grow up = Conform my opinion to Sfarog's?


Nah.

I was going more towards the ridicule of your nitpicking of live performances in microscopic detail rather than disagreeing with your opinion.

 

[Miller High Death]

Every band suffers this when they tour. Every singer will be in close quarters with other people. You're acting like Opeth is the only band touring the United States to move from a cold state to the beach in a matter of days. All bands do that, and their singers' voices are normally tighter than Mike's voice. Then again, on February 15th Mike said they'd been doing a lot of crack cocaine and heroin. Maybe that has something to do with his cold.

First off, I haven't heard these bootlegs and don't even know where to find them. For all I know these bootlegs might actually be good. All I was doing was coming up with a logical reason to hopefully explain why Opeth may not have sounded so great on these bootlegs. Getting sick on a tour sounds like a logical reason to me (to not do a perfect show). So what if many bands experience the same problems. Does that mean that Opeth have no excuse for sounding less than perfect? Are you trying to say that Opeth just flat out suck? Ah, who cares! Opeth sick or not are still one of the best live bands out there.

 

[KennonKun]

Okay, Sfarog.

Here are all the audio Opeth bootlegs I own.

04/10/01
04/23/01
05/06/01
06/30/01
11/30/01
12/04/01
12/07/01
01/31/03
02/09/03
03/12/03
05/02/03
05/11/03
05/21/03
06/28/03

Some of them are pretty bad bootlegs, some of them are great. 04/10/01 and 05/06/01 run too fast, 06/28/03 just plain sucks. I'd say that all the shows are great, except for a few on the BWP tour. My only real complaint this whole time has been Mikael's voice. Sometimes Martin Lopez drums with more energy one show than he does the other. Sometimes Mike and Peter play a few wrong notes. Those aren't bad, but when I read reviews of, say, Led Zeppelin bootlegs, often the person writing the review speaks of how well they pull everything off. The thing is, Led Zeppelin rehearsed. Regardless of their amazing live energy, I wish Opeth would rehearse more, even though the shows I attended were near perfect.

Okay... I'm nitpicking.

 

[Sfarog]

Okay, Sfarog.

I wish Opeth would rehearse more, even though the shows I attended were near perfect.

Okay... I'm nitpicking.

Ok, you're obviously obsesed with the topic, while I know nothing about it really. I mean I dont care if they make a few mistakes here or there really. As long as albums sound ok, and emotion is put into the live show, 'tis all I can ask for as music lover.

I like the fact they dont over-rehearse this stuff. Makes them want to play it more live as oposed to being even more sick of the same material over and over again.

 

[Nikodemus]

Opeth ROCK live.

On Michaels voice, NOBODY goes from crazy death vocals to sweet clean like he does. IT IS FRIGGIN' UNIQUE. Ahhhh, the disaster of humanity's imperfection...

Every band fucks up live.

Bootlegs at www.sharingthegroove.org

Just briefly, I think it's an accolade when a band can reproduce it's studio sound in a live situation...

 

[Korlich]

I´ve been to one Opeth show and it was almost perf. Mike did "Fuck up" ones with the clean vocals during Bleak but really that´s a minor flaw (it goes to show they are human I guess). And apart from that I heard no flaws whatsoever. When watching the DVD I have however noticed many small flaws and while it´s not something you pay attention to at first, it does bug you in the long run. My conclusion is that if you listen just to find a flaw then you´ll eventually find it.

 

[Protected Witness]

The obvious answer here is that you are listening to these bootlegs on mp3 instead of the incredibly almost accurate and completly near perfect .shn format. Nevermind the fact that bands fuckup when they play live due to not being able to hear themselves in the monitors, being drunk, hungover, tired, sick, thinking about something else, screaming their voices raw, wondering which groupie they're going to nail, contemplating going to the doctor to see about that rash that has appeared on this tour...and a number of other unpredicatable variables.

Nevermind that these bootlegs were probably made by some internet nerd that thinks he is cool for recording a band's performance (without asking them) with one shitty ass microphone into a dat, so he can go home and normalize it and put it on sharingthegroove.org with all the fancy information about which near perfect audio extracting device he used to put said shitty recording on to his computer, so he can get cool scenester points for releasing crummy bootlegs that are "Grade A sound quality...you can really hear those kick drums."

Mp3 is what makes Mikes voice flub, and Peter's guitar go out of tune. Right, Mark? Right Jeff?

*(In case you missed the Mp3 vs. shn bootleg fiasco from last month, this post is a big joke...or otherwise me ranting/being an asshole. Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain...Torgo made me do it...)*

 

[Protected Witness]

And on a serious note:

They are human, folks. Mistakes happen sometimes. Maybe they should practice more.
The two times I've seen em, they were on fire, so I can't complain.

On a more serious note:

Steven Wilson mentions tuning up Mike's vocal takes on the Documentary (Master's Apprentice) with auto tune. Now THAT should bother you purists.

 

[ChrisEmerson]

the DVD show was the most perfect ive ever seen them.. hardly noticed any msitakes. but in an interview mikael said he had to rerecord over the mistakes... you just dont notice it live when you are there.

 

[Nikodemus]

In referenced to Steve Wilson 'tuning up' the vocals, I agree that it is a shitty practice that is becoming all to commonplace due to the big $$$ spent on studio hire, time, etc. A lot of these incredible bands these days heavily edit stuff, particularly drums, using Pro-Tools or other software.

In regard to www.sharingthegroove.org, there are PLENTY of great quality bootlegs using either SoundBoard recordings, or dual recordings (1 at each speaker) mixed in stereo... And as far as permission, what band is going to give a fuck about the few who go to all the trouble to record their show on their (almost always) substandard equipment, when any fan who is keen enough to download these 250Mb to 4Gig files of bootlegs is definately going to go out and buy and live CD's or DVD's that come out in the stores.

One last note. People who SELL bootlegs should be fucking shot. Same goes for those fuckers who print their own shirts and sell them outside concerts for $10.

 

[KennonKun]

04/10/01, 05/06/01, and 11/13/01 are the only shows I have that are sourced from mp3s. Quit making assumptions and grow up, Niel. I'm sure you know all the tapers of the shows I own, I'm sure you know what they think of themselves, I'm sure that you know what equipment they used. Did you really feel the need to write a paragraph of bullshit, and, on a side note, say "Mike is human" as your fallback for being totally wrong about the show sources? Guess what! Opeth doesn't always play a good show 'cause they'd rather get drunk! Even Mike says on half the bootlegs I have "Hey, we're totally fucked up, sing along so you don't notice my mistakes" and it's the truth. The shows I attended were great, but I have the right to be slightly irritated.

 

[mot-]

What's so bad about MP3 with VBR and a high encoding rate (256 kbps) ? Works fine for me, and ive got good ears.

And Niel: Youve got some very fine stuff there with that "Die" project.

 

[MFJ]

I saw them on the Fair Judgement tour, and it seemed flawless to me...

but then again, I had been standing in same spot for about 9 hours and hadn't eaten or drunken anything in about literally a day.. the whole thing was a blur. But man, that was a great show from what I remember.

 

[Protected Witness]

04/10/01, 05/06/01, and 11/13/01 are the only shows I have that are sourced from mp3s. Quit making assumptions and grow up, Niel. I'm sure you know all the tapers of the shows I own, I'm sure you know what they think of themselves, I'm sure that you know what equipment they used. Did you really feel the need to write a paragraph of bullshit, and, on a side note, say "Mike is human" as your fallback for being totally wrong about the show sources? Guess what! Opeth doesn't always play a good show 'cause they'd rather get drunk! Even Mike says on half the bootlegs I have "Hey, we're totally fucked up, sing along so you don't notice my mistakes" and it's the truth. The shows I attended were great, but I have the right to be slightly irritated.

The first post was a joke. I guess you had to be there. Unless you are Mark or Jeff, then don't read it.

 

[Land Of Grey And Pink]

Its ok for all the rude, screaming fans to be drunk...but not for the band? considering they still put on a very good performance despite being hammered? once again...youre nitpicking.

 

[segaszivos]

I don't intend on being a stick in the ass, but I've been to a shit load of concerts and I must say that Opeth doesn't really put on a good show. They play the music perfectly, but they don't really entertain people otherthan music. This isn't a bad thing, but why go to a concert if its going to be the same thing as the album?

I'd like to see them put on a better show than "Hello, this is Opeth" and "This song is <insert song here>" and "We already played that song" and "we don't take requests".... I know that they can do better.

 

[Sfarog]

I don't intend on being a stick in the ass, but I've been to a shit load of concerts and I must say that Opeth doesn't really put on a good show. They play the music perfectly, but they don't really entertain people otherthan music. This isn't a bad thing, but why go to a concert if its going to be the same thing as the album?

I'd like to see them put on a better show than "Hello, this is Opeth" and "This song is <insert song here>" and "We already played that song" and "we don't take requests".... I know that they can do better.

yeah Mendez should be jumping off of cabs doing splits in mid air while peter walks among the crowd with his guitar and lets people play a note or two.

also: michael should spit. live.