This is the third identical post I've made about this show, but it was too awesome for me to contain on just one forum:
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To use a few abstract comparisons I made while chatting about this show:
"Opeth was an overflow of boiling liquid metal poured into my veins and then solidified, and subsequently smashed to pieces by their force of awesomeness."
"Opeth smashed my brain with a hammer and then swirled it up into a smoothie, took a chug, then spit it back out at me."
(on being asked "Did they play Deliverance?")
"Yes. Yes and it piledrove me into the 2nd layer of the earth's crust."
So that aside, I'm really pumped (and at the same time, beaten to death/ worn the hell out) after seeing my first Opeth concert, the 2+ hour show at the House of Blues in Chicago. If for some reason any of you were there, I was the blonde/long/curly hair kid with the Deading Tour PTree shirt, standing in the middle & back of the floor most of the time.
The setlist was:
Under the Weeping Moon
The Night and the Silent Water
The Amen Corner
White Cluster (This is where things reeeaaalllyyy started getting good)
The Leper Affinity (The first song where I hurt from headbanging so severely during it)
A Fair Judgement
Deliverance (OMJESusTAKEMENOW)
Windowpane
Closure (w/ extended METAL ending)
Ghost of Perdition (I can die happy now that I've seen this live)
Baying of the Hounds
The Grand Conjuration (another extreme headbang-fest)
--------
Demon of the Fall (yeah... if you've seen Opeth you've seen it and you know how crushingly perfect of a closer it makes).
Mikael spoke between every song, in his very passive and yet hilarious voice, responding to many things in the crowd and doing a great job introducing the songs. Almost mesmerising to hear him speak. Just because, you know, this band from Sweden that is just so monumentally awesome was there in front of me playing these so extremely metal and yet beautiful songs, it was definitely surreal/euphoria like. Though physically it wasn't, I was so active with the headbanging of many kinds and many other arm/upper body/foot motions that I'm sore all over now. I'm pretty sure I used muscles in my neck I never have before in my life.
Also some of the guys standing in front of me had way too much beer, one of whom definitely threw himself around too much and barfed up a bunch of it... yummy. Fortunately that was late in the show, and I moved away from the mess/stench to the very front for the end of TGJ through the closing of the show.
So... there's my story."