Hi everyone! Since the old "love of live" thread is (apparently) pretty much dead, we might as well have a new one. Let's start with Naglfar.
Enjoy!
We don't have a concerts thread, so I'm going to post this in this thread. Anything goes, rite??? =)
Also, I posted this in the DT forum. But I want my loves here to see it, too!
Gonna give a little battle report...
I was at the Enslaved / Opeth show in New Jersey last night (May 1st, Starland Ballroom). For those of you who were there, I was the spritely dirty blonde standing behind the main sound gear wearing a Vertebrae hoodie (it had the best view in the place, other than the front and up at the bar). For some reason there was an odd combination of fat guys, teenage hipsters with their girlfriends, and regular metalheads at the venue.
Enslaved opened, and their first three songs had huge sound problems. Enslaved's one of my favorite bands ever, so I was digging the show, but their sound guy was frantically moving around dials and levers trying to fix whatever the fuck went wrong. To make matters worse, you couldn't hear the lead guitarist, and the lead guitarist himself tried to fix the sound from the amp on the stage. I know... sometimes guitarists do stuff with their amp, but in this case it was a running battle. This was their set list, like, literally. Their sound guy gave me his copy at the end of their set:
1. Intro from F.O.H. (cd/ipod/mp3)
TO THE COAST
2. ... directly into Ivar guitar-chords as intro for
FUSION OF SENSE AND EARTH
3. ... directly into Ivar guitar intro w/ Grutle talks
RUUN
4. ... directly into Herbrand synth intro w/ Grutle talks
AS FIRE SWEPT CLEAN THE EARTH
5. Grutle talks
GROUND
6. Grutle talks
THE WATCHER
7. -Grutle talks, then Arve guitar intro
ISA
NO EXTRAS (I'm assuming this means Enslaved doesn't get to do any encores)
The first couple of songs, up to As Fire Swept Clean The Earth, were really a wash. You couldn't hear very much except the drums and some guitar, and it felt loud in a bad way. Fire went as badly as possible, with the guitarist finagling his amp, the sound guy trying to fix it, resulting in some feedback and a huge whomp from the bass. Once they hit Ground the band got its shit together and at least the last three songs were pretty amazing, especially Isa. They only played six songs, though! =( Enslaved needs to add Return to Yggdrasil and maybe one of their oldies to that set!
As for Opeth's setlist:
Heir Apparent
Ghost of Perdition
Godhead's Lament
The Leper Affinity
Credence
Hessian Peel
Closure (super fucking deluxe ultra prog metal edition)
The Night and the Silent Water
The Lotus Eater
Deliverance
Opeth was... wow. I hadn't been to a show where a band gave their everything like that in a long, long time. They were SO GOOD. If you're not a fan of their last three albums, yet you've never seen them live, that's really the antidote for "getting" their newer sound. The intensity and heaviness that is perhaps not captured on their albums simply kicks your ass live. Closure had what seemed like an eternity of just Opeth jamming on stage added to it, and the crowd was basically in disbelief at the band's sonic assault on them. I think we earned ourselves Deliverance as an encore, although Opeth may have just done the whole "walk offstage and come back to rev up the crowd for the real last song" act. Akerfelt likes to talk to the crowd, also... every time there was a pause between songs, he would give the crowd music advice and make cracks about NJ / Bon Jovi. And he called himself cocksucker. At least he claims he has a jacket that says as much on the back. Their sound, overall, was excellent. Opeth simply oozes musicianship.
All in all, great show. If Enslaved gets their sound together for the rest of the tour (it was the first show of the tour), it will be one of the best venues this year. Highly recommend.
Enjoy!