The first part of the blog was written last night, Wednesday March 4th :
Just got back from the Opeth concert. It was a great show (of course), but they played a rather weird set, full of obscure songs. I guess you'd call them "deep cuts" off various albums, like "Moon Above, Sun Below" from "Pale Communion" or "Nepenthe" from "Heritage". They did play "The Leper Affinity" off of "Blackwater Park", one of their heaviest and best known tunes from a fan favorite album, and they closed with their long time encore, the tour de force "Deliverance", but overall it was an unusual set, with equal parts folk, metal and progressive. They played for two hours, which breaks down to 110 minutes of music if you account for ten minutes of Mikael's humorous banter in between songs.
I left for the North Hollywood Metro Station at 5:30pm and arrived at 6:20, about ten minutes longer than it would normally take due to extra traffic. There was a Red Line train all ready to depart, which was cool. I got aboard and was at Hollywood and Vine just three stops and eight minutes later. The only bummer was that now I had a lot of time to kill. The doors to the Hollywood Palladium were due to open at 7pm, but the opening band - Graveyard - weren't due to come onstage until 8:00. I didn't wanna stand around at the venue for an hour and a half (shades of last night at the Moose Lodge, haha), so I took a walk down the street to Amoeba Records, to browse around but also to visit that store one last time at it's original location before it moves to a new joint down the street in June. There is so much to see at Amoeba that you could spend all day (and a lot of money) in there. If I was younger and still building up my record collection I would probably do so, but as things stand I've got nowhere to put any more CDs in my Tiny Apartment. Getting out of there is gonna be Goal Number One when the time comes. Also, I've still got a few dozen albums that I bought and only played once or twice due to time constraints over the last few years, so I need to catch up on the music I already have, rather than purchasing more at the moment.
I left Amoeba at around 7:30 and moseyed back over to the Palladium. Inside, the floor was filling up. The concert was general admission, so I didn't wanna be on the floor anyway. Too much moshing and besides that there's always the Tall Guy Factor. If you're 5' 9" you don't wanna get stuck behind a Giant, and they always seem to turn up at concerts in small groups and they're always in front of you. That's why I prefer the balcony, so I headed straight for the stairs and got myself a good spot on the railing at a 45 degree angle to the stage. An unobstructed view, hooray!
Graveyard came on at precisely 8pm. I love it when things run in a timely fashion. I also love the name Graveyard! :) They weren't what you'd expect, however, given their name. Instead of death metal, they played a mixture of space rock ala Hawkwind, psychedelic acid rock and slow blues. Like Opeth, they are Swedish and are trying something different rather than the same type of metal you've heard a thousand times. They were almost like a 1960s band, actually. They had that type of sound and were very good musicians. I found the singer's voice a bit harsh, like sandpaper, but overall I enjoyed their set. Opeth was very generous to give them 50 minutes. Most opening acts only get 30.
After a half hour intermission, Opeth came on at precisely 9:20 and launched into the first song on "In Caudia Venenum", their latest album. You can look up the title, it's in Swedish which means I don't have it memorised (and I'm too lazy to look it up at the moment). Mikael sings the new album entirely in Swedish, doing so for the first time and it sounds great even though you don't understand it. He also recorded an English version but I prefer the Swedish because the syllables fit better, they sound more natural because the songs were written that way. Anyway, the album is Mega, the best one they've made since they went progressive ten years ago. I think Mikael is a musical genius. Like all the best bands, Opeth has a sound all their own, the chord structures and vocal melodies are inspired by things like Swedish folk music, so you're getting a very different take on things from Mikael, who is an excellent singer as well as a brilliant guitarist, capable of a soaring high tenor or the gruffest of death metal growls. Lead guitarist Fredrik Akesson is also insanely talented, moving effortlessly through the complex progressions and the changes in tempo, tone and volume. He can also shred with the best of 'em and like Mikael, he can sing lead when necessary in a similar tenor voice.
It was not a pump-your-fist metal show, though the band was cooking in places and the mosh pits slammed at times. When Opeth play at their highest level of energy, on the songs that demand it, they are the heaviest of metal bands. But they are also as technically intricate as a band like Rush, and they have many interludes - almost in every song - where the volume drops down to comparative whisper as Mikael plays through a lilting acoustic passage. These poetic sections break the show up and give it variety and a softer, more pensive dynamic that forces even the moshers to stop and listen. It was interesting to watch them "stop and start again", in their moshing circles, when the songs would shift gears from hard and fast to slow and quiet. From my perch in the balcony, it looked like a swirling eddy in the ocean of fans below. The mosh whirlpool would whip up, only to die down again a minute later. Such are the changes in Opeth's music.
It was a great freaking show, as always. They finished up at precisely 11:20pm. Mikael thanked everyone; it was the last show of the tour and he said "we're flying directly to Sweden, if they'll let us back in", a reference to the coronavirus. He said it would make a great name for a thrash metal band. :)
I walked back up Argyle Avenue, passing the site of the old General Film plant where Dad used to work in the early 1960s. I got to the Metro Station by 11:30, was back in NoHo by 11:45 and was home 30 minutes later (no traffic at night, hooray).
It was a very successful evening and a wonderful show, the 8th time I've seen Opeth since 2011. Now I am back at Pearl's, settling in for a two week stint of 21/24 hour days. I get a three hour break each afternoon, but other than that I'm in the house with Pearl. I bought a new blue ray player to use here, so we'll have movies. I've gotta set it up, and get settled in general, so I'm gonna do all of that, and I'll see you tonight at the Usual Time. Have a great day!
Tons of love! xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)
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