They were amazing. I saw them in Chicago w/ DT and they were awesome, but last night they played in a smaller venue (The Pageant if you are familiar with the St. Louis). It is my favorite venue. It is small, but big enough for a good crowd. They performed the songs perfectly, and Axenrot was amazing on drums. I don't know where that dude gets his stamina. They played for about 1 hour 45 minutes (not long enough, but it never is with a show that good) and played all different songs from the Progressive Nation show, which was surprising. I thought it would be an extended set of that show, but it wasn;t at all. I don't think they played any of the songs they did in the Prgressive Nation show. I like when bands change things up like that. I guess my only gripe would be that they didn't play Ghost of Perdition, but they did play The Lotus Eater (which I was really hoping for.) Hey, you can't have everything.

 

Great show.

 

 

 

Baroness was horrible. The sound was bad, and the guitars sounded out of tune. It seemed to me like they were trying way too hard to be progressive. They would go into cool sounding double leads, than resort back to noise. It was just bad, and I didn't get it. I listened to a couple songs online, and thought they were pretty cool, and was really dissapointed.

 

High on Fire was one of the worst bands I have ever seen. I am not one of those people whp have to have thier music progressive, but I have a limit. One of thier songs was literally the same five or six notes over and over again. They were too loud, and the sound was horrible. You couldn't make sense of the "Guitar solos."

 

I don't get where these crappy bands come from, especially when they are paired up with a great band like Opeth.

 

I thought Baroness was good, you have to keep in mind they arn't really a prog band so much as a stoner/sludger metal band, and if you were a fan of that genre you would realize that they sound exactly as a live stoner metal band should sound. High on Fire are fun, they are like the AC/DC of death metal, if you didnt take them too seriously and moshed you sould have had a great time in the pit, it was BRUTAL and so much fun.

 

As for Opeth themselves what can I say, the show was amazing!!!! It was definatelly one of the best shows I have seen. Oh, and there is nothing more rediculous than being in a crazy pit during the jazzy bit of lotus eater.

The Birthing

Isak

Rays on Pinion

Red Sky

Wanderlust

 

Heir Apparent

The Grand Conjuration

Serenity Painted Death

Hope Leaves

The Lotus Eater

Bleak

Night and the Silent Water

Deliverance

Demon of the Fall

The Drapery Falls

 

As for the Opeth songs, I think it is actually completely correct, though I could have sworn they played Hex Omega. They played all of them. Serenity Painted Death was awesome, I love that song. Like I said, The Lotus Eater ruled, and them opening with Heir Apparent was awesome. There were two songs I didn't know, which must have been The Night and Silent Water and The Demon of the Fall, because I haven't heard Morningrise or My Arms, Your Hearse. Deliverance was awesome, I really like that song--the whole album really. Like I said, that list looks completely correct, except of Hex Omega, but I could be mistaken.

 

Something else I forgot to mention in my OP was how great Akerfeldt is in concert. He is hilarious. He mentioned they were going to play something off Morningrise, and everyone started yelling out song names, and when he heard one of the names he said, "You just want to hear that one because it is 22 minutes long. I don't remember all of it." He is just a great performer. Really love how he doesn't take himself so seriously (which you would never guess from the music).

Opeth rocked. It was definitely Akerfeldt and his helpers but they all played flawlessly. Are you going to the remains of Yes in December?

 

Some of my favorite songs on record did not work as well live. Lotus Eater is one of my favorites and it just wasn't as powerful as I'd hoped. You might have heard me yelling out for Hessian Peel, but I don't know if it would have been as cool live as it is on record because it stays quite for so long. Hope Leaves also was good, but not as good as record. They did not play Hex Omega. Lotus Eater and Heir Apparent were the only songs from Watershed.

 

On the other hand, Drapery Falls which is a song I initially loved and lately had burnt out on, was unbelievable live. Bleak (same album) was also phenomenal. The Morningrise song was also quite good.

 

The mix was not set up for Mikael's clean voice very well. It was a little buried and so wasn't as striking as it is on record. The dragonvoice is a force of nature. Makes one wonder if he made a little trip to the crossroads...