Opeth @ The Monarch, Austin (10.16.2008)

Having recently broken my show-going drought with a steller The Sword/Clutch performance, I was definitely jonesing for some more live music. As fate would have it, just twelve days later Opeth was coming to town along with High On Fire and Baroness. Opeth is one of my favorite bands of all time, I had seen them four times before, and they have always put on a killer show.

Just as importantly, I was definitely looking forward to catching Baroness. They popped up on my radar a few years ago when I randomly caught them opening for either The Sword or Isis. They showed a lot of promise, so I picked up their two EP's. Really good progressive metal type stuff, longer songs with lots of shifts, I was impressed. Then they seemed to disappear, I heard nothing whatsoever about them for years. I figured they must have broken up, which bummed me out. Then, last year, they popped up out of nowhere with another EP and an excellent debut LP. They ended up coming to Emo's in Austin earlier this year, so I was pretty excited and went to catch that show. Unfortunately, while the energy and set were good, the show was held in the small inside area and the sound was absolutely terrible. It was pretty disappointing, so hearing that they were coming to Austin again definitely had me pumped. This current show was to be held at The Monarch, a brand new venue in Austin, so I had my fingers crossed that the sound would be much better. Add that anticipation to the knowledge that Opeth would also be sharing the stage, and I was primed for a kick-ass night of progressive metal!

Last night came, and I was stoked! But then, tragedy struck.

I missed Baroness.

Ahem, let me state that again.

I FRIGGIN' MISSED BARONESS!!!! NO!!!!

The worst part is that, when it comes down to it, its my own fault, albeit there were two things working against me. First of all, the show was advertised as "doors at 7pm, show at 8pm", pretty standard. Typically, this means the show will actually start in the 8:15-8:30 range. Now, normally I still aim to get to shows by the advertised start time, just in case. But this night I happened to be running a little behind, and I ended up rolling in at 8:20. As I approached the venue, I could hear muffled bass and drums, the show had already started! When I actually got up to the place, I ran into my second problem: the slowest will call line I have ever experienced. My guess is that this venue holds about 1500 people, not exactly an arena. The line was long, I guess, maybe 50-75 people or so in front of me, but still that's nothing in the grand scheme of things, this should have taken 10 minutes max. As I was standing there, time slipping away, my only hope was that maybe Baroness had just started when I got there, and that I would only miss a couple songs if the line would hurry up. But 8:30 passed, and then 8:40, and just as I finally got to the box at 8:45, the music stopped. I looked at the sheet taped to the box window and sure enough, "Baroness: 8:00pm". DAMMIT!!! Who actually starts a show on time?? Gah, like I said though, ultimately it was my own fault for not getting there in time. I was bummed to say the least. I made my way inside and to the bar to get myself a beer to cry in.

[Interesting note: While I was in line, I briefly met one of the dudes from Made Out Of Babies. He saw my Red Sparowes shirt and mentioned that he played in a band with a guitarist who plays for Red Sparowes, and we talked for a couple minutes. Seemed like a decent guy, didn't catch his name.]

Anyway, I got into the auditorium, and just a couple minutes later High On Fire took the stage. The main guy came out yelling about "Yeah! Alright Austin! We're High On Fire! Woohoo!". He seemed so pumped, I figured I'd check it out for a bit just for the sheer hilarity. I made it through like their first 3 or 4 songs, and that was about all I could take. They were pretty bad, and not even in a funny entertaining way. Although, the bassist did remind me a bit of Nigel Tufnel (these go to eleven), which I did find hilarious. But overall they did nothing for me, so I ended up wandering out to the parking lot to call a friend from Dallas who had left me a message earlier. Catching up with him was a far better use of my time.

OK, after a supremely disappointing night so far, I was damn sure ready when Opeth took the stage. They came out without a word, launched into their set, and two hours of pure ass-kicking redemption ensued.

The setlist:

01. Heir Apparent
02. The Grand Conjuration
03. Serenity Painted Death
04. Hope Leaves
05. The Lotus Eater
06. Bleak
(A Fair Judgment teaser)
07. Face Of Melinda (first half)
08. The Night And The Silent Water
09. Deliverance
10. Demon Of The Fall
11. The Drapery Falls

Talk about turning a frown upside down, that set absolutely destroys! The new material from Watershed was excellent. "The Lotus Eater" was particularly well done, every odd twist and turn of that song was perfectly replicated. And I must say, "Serenity Painted Death"? Are you kidding me? I never thought I'd see that one live, I was really blown away. The old standbys "Bleak", "Deliverance", and "Demon Of The Fall" were all as crushing as ever, and the pace of the show was nicely tempered with "Hope Leaves" thrown in early, and then later the combination of "Face Of Melinda" (mellow first half only, no rocking ending) and the heavy'ish but slow "The Night And The Silent Water". They also managed to throw a teaser of "A Fair Judgment" in there, playing only the part that starts with "Leave it be..." and ends with "A fair judgment deserved". Although I thought it was pretty cruel of the band to give us that lead-in and NOT bless us with the soaring guitar solo that would normally follow.

Overall, the sound was pretty darn good. It was not perfect, the first couple songs in particular were a little muddled. It sounded as if the guitars were just a little too quiet and the bass was not quite as clean as it should be, so it all got slightly drowned out in a wash of lower frequency stuff. They seemed to get this sorted out fairly quickly though. "Serenity Painted Death" sounded pretty good, the mellow accoustics of "Hope Leaves" were perfect, and when they returned to heavy form on "The Lotus Eater", everything sounded fantastic.

Akerfeldt's mic was perfect from the start, and his vocals were really on. I'm always impressed with how effortlessly he can switch from the rumbling death metal growl to his excellent clean singing voice. He literally makes this shift from one lyric to the next, always staying in tune, never missing a note or stuttering to make it all work. His vocal power and smooth transition are utterly astonishing, as many times as I've seen Opeth, this never ceases to amaze me.

Performance wise, all the guys seemed pretty into it. Strangely enough, I think Per Wiberg was the most insane of all the guys, he was in back thrashing his head around the entire time. Not to diminish his role in the band, the textures he lends to the songs have a profound impact, but I guess when you're only playing about half the time it lends more opportunity to headbang. Mendez seemed like he was in the zone for most of the show, getting into the grooves and keeping time perfectly with Axe. Axe was great, he was an absolute flurry of arms and hair, and never missed a beat. Akesson, even though he felt a bit more like a role player than a core figure in the band, was still pretty active and ripping things up, and even lent some vocals on "The Lotus Eater".

And Akerfeldt, what do you say about this guy. He truly IS Opeth. He gets into every song as if its fresh and new, even the older tunes he still plays with such passion and seems to really enjoy himself. His commentary between songs was hilarious, as always. There was a funny little accoustic ditty about "Welcome to the concert....with Opeth....from Sweden" that he played really quick after "The Grand Conjuration". He spent a couple minutes explaining this t-shirt that the band were all wearing. It was a face apparently created by combining the facial attributes of the five band members. "This is not an ugly dude, this is five ugly dudes". His lead-in to "The Lotus Eater": "we really like this song, because its f****d up". Heh, his dry sense of humor was at its usual best. In his typical Akerfeldt fashion, he always seemed very confident in himself, almost borderline full of himself, but somehow avoided ever falling completely into that pit. He always seems truly gracious and sincere when thanking the crowd, and he clearly loves coming out and busting his butt to put on a good show for the fans. He's just one of those guys that walks the line between cocky and confident, and by putting his energy into showing everyone how great the music can be as opposed to simply how great HE can be, he always seems to fall just on the right side of that line.

However, I must admit, even in the midst of such a gloriously executed show, a twinge of sadness would still periodically hit me. This was not the same Opeth I was used to seeing, faces had changed, it felt a little different. The last two times I had seen them, Lopez had been out for health reasons, the first time replaced by Gene Hoglan and the second time by the now-permanent Axenrot. It didn't bother me at the time, it was "temporary". Seeing him on the drums this time, knowing that Lopez was gone, it just felt weird at first. It took some getting used to. Throughout the course of the show, though, it all kind of sunk in and settled. And when it did, it felt just fine. Lopez may have been a madman, but no one should underestimate Axenrot. This guy is good, really good.

Fredrik Akesson, on the other hand, still feels a bit strange to me, in some undefinable way. Technically he is good, he can play, and he seems to enjoy it, I guess. There is just something a little weird about it, he doesn't seem connected to the music like Peter Lindgren did. Maybe its just because most of the material is Lindgren's, or at least from a time when Akerfeldt's writing was influenced by Lindgren, and not by him. I will say, I was really bummed when I heard that Lindgren was leaving the band, much more so than when they lost Lopez. I felt that Lindgren was a bit of a counter balance to Akerfeldt, that his influence on the sound was always more than what it was made to be. I always thought he was more than just some stooge who would play what Akerfeldt told him to play, that he had ideas and influences of his own, and that Akerfeldt respected him enough to work with him and listen to him. I sort of get the impression that Akesson is simply a talented guitarist who does what he is told. I hope I'm wrong, its just the feeling I have. Only time will tell, I guess.

Despite that occasional odd feeling that would creep in here and there, it was an absolutely stellar show through and through. The last thing I'll talk about is my personal highlight of the show, which to me perfectly illustrates why Opeth is so great, and it involves the manner in which they closed the show. It never would have occurred to me on my own, but "The Drapery Falls" is an absolutely amazing song to close on. When the song culminates in the very restrained mellow verse "spiralling to the ground below...", where the intensely built up potential energy is held and held and held, and then furiously unleashed in an explosion of guitar and drum roll, only to be just as quickly reeled back in to repeat the restraint/furious release dynamic, that is exactly what the pinnacle of a live show should be. It makes you hold your breath with the anticipation of the climax you known is about to come, and you somehow seem to linger there in total awareness and clarity for an immeasurable moment, and then it knocks the breath from you with full force. The soaring sustained note and the flowing lead-out that follows perfectly rides the residual adrenaline rush, gradually transitioning the song from the power of the climax to its final logical conclusion. Its long enough to bring you down gracefully, but not so long as to drag. When the song finishes, and you know the show is over, its not a letdown. It feels good, it feels like everything has been taken care of. Its satisfying.

Ah, another amazing Opeth show in the books. They haven't failed me yet.

Clutch + The Sword @ Stubb's, Austin (10.04.2008)

Good god I needed this show. In the six months since my daughter's arrival robbed me of catching Ministry and Meshuggah in Austin (on Ministry's last tour ever, no less!), I've hit the worst concert-going dry spell I've had in years. The last band I caught was The Mars Volta on April 10th, five days before the aforementioned robbery, so to say that I was in need of a show would be a bit of an understatement. Luckily for me, Clutch was coming to my rescue, and as if to ensure that the live music resuscitation was complete, they were bringing hometown favorites The Sword along with them. I couldn't wait!

This past Saturday, the two bands rolled into Stubb's on a perfect early-Autumn Texas night. The temperature was in the high 60's, a nice breeze was flowing through the place, the High Life was nicely chilled....it was the makings for a great night. And oh my did they light the place up!

The Sword went on about 8:15pm, after Graveyard had done an opening set (I know nothing of Graveyard, and did not catch their set). J.D. Conrise greeted the crowd with "We're The Sword, and we're from HERE!", to which the crowd went nuts. They then wasted no time launching into a steller set:

01. Celestial Crown/Barael's Blade
02. The Frost Giant's Daughter
03. How Heavy This Axe
04. Iron Swan
05. Fire Lances Of The Ancient Hyperzephyrians
06. Maiden, Mother & Crone
07. To Take The Black
08. ? (Some Kiss cover)
09. Freya
10. The Horned Goddess
11. The Black River
12. Winter's Wolves

Clearly, this was no warm-up band routine, this was double-bill material. I've literally seen The Sword more times than I can remember, and I'm almost positive that this is the longest set I've seen them play. Nicely rounded off with five songs from Age Of Winters, six from Gods Of The Earth, and a random cover thrown in there. I would have rather seen another of their own songs instead of the cover, but hey whatever, it was still rocking.

It was so great to see The Sword playing a venue like Stubb's, the sound was spectacular! Every other time I've seen them (save one) its been in a small packed venue, where the sound can be very hit or miss. The last couple times were mostly miss, with the guitars cranked so loud and distorted that everything pretty much just got lost in a wall of noise. Not so on this night, the sound was immaculate. The drums and bass were clean and rumbling, and both guitars were nicely balanced, with the higher lead stuff coming through clearly over the monolithic crunchy rhythm. Conrise's vocals were a little off here and there, as usual, but were within the mix enough that they weren't a distraction. Visually, for the first time that I've ever seen, they actually had a light show going on. Nothing too extravagant, mind you, but some basic swirling and strobing lights appropriately placed to lend a bit more texture to the medieval metal ass-kicking. I thought it was well done. And as far as energy goes, it seemed like the guys in the band were really excited to be playing back in Austin again. Their rise over the past couple years has been nothing short of meteoric, traveling all over the world with some pretty big bands, so seeing them reconnect with such an obviously appreciative Austin crowd was great to see. Overall, a mighty fine performance.

Next up, Clutch! Fallon et al came on a little after 10pm, and played until 11:45pm. Here is the setlist:

01. Small Upsetters
02. Ship Of Gold
03. The Elephant Riders
04. You Can't Stop Progress
05. Power Player
06. The Devil & Me
07. The Great Outdoors
08. Smoke Banshee
09. ? (Something instrumental I didn't recognize)
10. Basket Of Eggs
11. Eight Times Over Miss October
12. Burning Beard
13. Child Of The City
14. ? (Another instrumental number I didn't recognize)
15. The Swollen Goat
16. White's Ferry
17. La Curandera
(break)
18. Texan Book Of The Dead
19. Cypress Grove

Definitely a short set, by Clutch's standards. The two other times I've seen them were of the "An Evening With Clutch" ilk, where they play two full sets in one night for a total of 25-30 songs. Being that this was a three band night, it made sense that they would have to cut it back to a more earthly set. Aside from the length, I will also mention that it would have been nice to have more material from Robot Hive/Exodus, which is my favorite Clutch album. But I knew that they had kicked out their apparent drunkard of a organist, and aside from a couple dates where they borrowed Per Wiberg from Opeth (!), I hadn't heard of any replacement yet, so I figured the RH/E material may be limited a bit.

But no matter, those minor details aside, I thought the set they put together was fantastic. They definitely hit my personal favorites from the latest album (From Beale Street To Oblivion), particularly with the fun rocking of "Power Player" and some awesome jamming on "White's Ferry". From their back catalog it was a great mixture of solid standby's ("Texan Book Of The Dead", "The Elephant Riders", "Burning Beard") and nice surprises ("La Curandera", "Smoke Banshee", and "Basket Of Eggs", hell yeah!). The pace of the set was great, excellent energy paced by a nice constant groove. They jammed out on a few tracks, in true Clutch fashion, but never wandered too far out into the weeds.

Fallon was his typical preaching self, continually walking back and forth across the front of the stage as if giving a sermon, stopping regularly to properly punctuate his points. I gotta say the first time I saw him with the beard I thought it looked pretty nappy, but it definitely lends some kind of undefinable awesome character to his stage presence. Not that he needs it, but it somehow lends some additional credibility to his wit. Sult, as usual, was an immovable object at the side of the stage, even while continually tearing the entire Stubb's audience a new one with his guitar. Gaster was pretty animated on the drums, granted in a very controlled fashion for the most part. He did get a couple short drum solo opportunities, which were just long enough to be cool but not so long that it got boring. As with The Sword, the sound was tip-top, with every instrument and the mic perfectly balanced. I couldn't find one fault with the sound, gotta love Stubb's!!

The crowd was loving it, the vibe was electric all night. Seeing as there is a definite stylistic difference between The Sword and Clutch, I kind of expected that there would be some people only interested in one band, who would go nuts for one half of the show but be fairly unenthusiastic for the other half. Nope, no way, not even close. The entire audience, which was at least as large as any I've ever seen at Stubb's, was rocking the whole time. Everywhere I looked, people were jumping and singing along, pumping their fists and beers in the air. Both bands clearly fed off that energy, kicking it up a notch every chance they got. As Fallon said at one point "Everybody havin' a good time? If not, its your own damn fault." Amen, brotherman.

Six months without a show. This was easily worth it....