7th december opeth/barcelona concert

mikael akerfeldt is a hacker. with music, that is.
his ability with humor is to be classified elsewhere. though :)

this was december 7th, barcelona.
yet another opeth concert. but there's no new release.. nothing new to promote. they'd probably enjoy it. as a musician, I would. and within the crowds there, I certainly did.

There was a pretty large feeling of deja vu for most of us there. On a certain 10th of december 2005 Opeth performed a fine concert in a sold out Apolo conert hall. That was last year, in the "ghost reveries" tour.

Thus I came with different goals this time. Opeth is always an experience in music. I always learn something new listening and trying to grasp the multiple facets of their music so I decided not to talk too much about this and take the chance to attend alone and just experience it.

I guess nobody expected that the concert would sell out as it did last year. If you attend a concert for a second time there must be a good reason for it. In my case its simple. I'm pretty sure I'll go to all opeth concerts in my city. I simply enjoy their music too much. For some people it may have been that they just didn't go to the first concert anyway. So I guess many people there would have discovered opeth within the last year. And then there is still a different type of crowd there. Opeth, with their fusion of jazz and progressive rock elements, also attracts people who are more into that style and, maybe by friends' advice or newspapers, will just decide to go. It's these kind of crowds that can give you more interesting opinions. however, this time I didn't take the chance.

Now, not only is opeth music quite notable for its complexity and variety, but also are the concerts quite singular. Since opeth write multi-sectioned songs often lasting more than ten minutes, it's usual that the audience will applaud and cheer on the base of sections, not necessarily on the songs ending (which, of course, is still greeted with the larger dosis of enthusiasm)

Compared to last year, I think the set-list almost didn't change. The first song "ghost of perdition", the last one "grand conjuration" and the extra one "deliverance" where played last year in the exact order. In addition, the classic "when" was also in the show, but not "demon of the fall", which used to be a classic, now that I think of it. Another difference was last years' inclusion of "under the weeping moon" a song from their first album "orchid" which they didn't usually play. Instead, yesterday's show included the great "Black Rose Immortal". Impressive

what I noticed is that Aekerfeldt continues developing his ego as frontman. I can't remember that in my first opeth concert -during the "deliverance" tour- aekerfeldt used to make so many jokes with the crowds between the songs. that was repeated yesterday, although not so much as last year in which he told some weird music-related jokes almost between every song. probably he noticed that it was boring some of the folks after all. I wonder if that development comes with the success that has been following opeth since the "blackwater park" album

the performance of the songs yesterday was very good. The Apolo hall has in general very good sound quality, and that applied mostly yesterday. However, I'm sad (and I don't know if this applies to all spots int the hall or just where I was) but Peter Lindgren's guitar was almost inaudible during most of his solo parts. Also, Per Wiberg still doesn't have a very strong image within opeth. I wonder if that is intentional?

Opeth are now retiring into a period of inactivity to work for their next album. We'll have to be patient..

There's a certain detail seen here
The pen must have slipped to the side
And left a stain
Next to his name
She knew he was gone
And isolation
Is all that would remain
- From "Isolation Years"