Thoughts on Boston show

squeegee your third eye

Johnny salutes you
Dec 16, 2002
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Hell yeah. It was like Opeth on VHI Storytellers. I was in 6th row or so. Mikael was very warm and charming and smooth with the banter.

There was a lot of humor and intimacy in Opeth's set as people yelled out and heckled and Mikael responded, taking it all in stride. At one point, there was a lull, and he said, "It's so fucking quiet," and people start cheering, and he prompted the whole place to go nuts. And the Extreme comment ("If you don't shut the fuck up I'll play More than Words by Extreme) was hilarious. He must know Extreme is a Boston band, from Berklee in fact.

Personally, I prefer his stage charisma to Steve Wilson, who's more edgy and wired, like he just drank a pot of coffee, while Mikael's more earnest and laid-back. While they're both sincere and perfectionist personality types, Wilson's more clever and ironic in a British way, whereas I find Mikael more soulful and grounded, maybe a bit buttoned-down and in-control, but mellow and affable, which I think is so cool for a death metal singer.

My highlights were Benighted--what acoustic guitar!--and Melinda. To Bid You Farewell was good, but they played it with clean electrics and I missed the rich acoustic tone of the album. I don't mind that they skipped Death Whispered a Lullaby and Ending Credits. My only criticism of Damnation live is that IMO Martin overplays and hits the drums too hard sometimes for such delicate material. There's no need to precede the chorus of In My Time of Need with a power ballad fill.

Mikael's singing was spot on. He has his limits (like the high notes on "Hope Leaves") but he navigated the melodies adeptly. The dude on keyboards filled in the sound on the old tracks nicely, especially on Face of Melinda, which was spot on AMAZING (more banter: before Melinda somebody yelled out "Jazz" and Mikael said something like we don't play jazz, but this is next track is our closest to being jazzy, though since we're playing at berklee , we better not pretend to know how to play jazz, or you'd all say "get the fuck off stage"). At first I thought the keyboard player's harmonies, like in Windowpane, were a little off, but in the end he won me over. His voice is lower and gruffer and provided a nice contrast with Mikael's pretty, melodic style.

P Tree was surprisingly heavy. In fact, I was hoping for at least one of the mellower tracks, Like Heartattck in a Layby or Collapse the Light Into Earth. They lost me a little in the second half, since they happened to play songs I don't much care for, like Wedding Nails, Russia on Ice, and Strip the Soul. Just a personal preference. I was hoping for Even Less, Creator has a Mastertape, Sever. But I'm not complaining--they still sounded fantastic.

In a way, I must admit, P Tree stole the show, probably to an objective observer unfamiliar with the bands. I mean, P Tree just rocked, doing their best material straight-on, no holds-barred, while Opeth were bascially playing with one hand tied behind their back. Now if Opeth had mixed in Drapery, Demon, Advent, and Bleak with their mellow set, then it would be a more fair comparison of the bands, and Opeth would have held their own more in terms of energy. By the inherent nature of choosing do a mellow, not so technical show, they almost deliberately stayed in the shadow of P Tree, who just tore up the place. Plus, P Tree had a screen with a multimedia show, which also elevated their set.

In sum, though, I pity the sad fool who won't be able to catch these shows. Years from now, fans of these bands will look back on this as a classic tour. At few points, I closed my eyes listening to Benighted, Rid the Disease, Melinda, and it sounded like the kind of classic live album from the 70's you'd treasure and play again and again. Opeth needs to do a live album.
 
Damnit, damnit, damnit. I really wish I didn't have to work on the 24th, when they're in Cleveland. Bah. Here's hoping for a second leg of the tour, and a performance at a venue close to me.
 
give me more details of the first part of opeth's set up to benighted...i showed up late and i've been beating myself up ever since....what else did mikael say between songs etc...
 
Hmmm... banter. A lot of stuff in response to people yelling, like "I love you," he'd say "We love you too," stuff like that, not a lot of memorable lines, just friendly, good vibes. He spent time explaining what kind of show they were doing, what they normally do, general banter like it's good to be in Boston and we usually play in Worcester, who here was at Worcester?, general audience interaction like that. I'll post again if I think of anything else. The Extreme comment was the most memorable quip.