Opeth, part 3
The Opeth posts continue today with more images from the Chico show. I apologize to those of you who couldn’t care less about Opeth and promise that tomorrow will be the final installment before returning you to your regularly scheduled program.
Mikael had his normal, hilarious comments between songs on this evening. I can’t do them justice here, but I will mention a few just to bring a smile to the faces of those who were there and happen to be reading this.
He mentioned it being their first time in Chico and how he understood Chico to be a “party town.” (We found this to be true as well as both bars we went to were packed all afternoon on a Wednesday when school was in session. The campus seemed much less active than the pubs.) Mikael said he was induced to drink a pint during the afternoon, and then a quart, but it had all worn off by show time, he thought.
Someone in the crowd said something about meatballs so Mikael responded with a discussion on Swedish Meatballs and how to cook them. (I was particularly amused as my son still talks about how wonderful the Swedish Meatballs were that he had in Gotenberg, Sweden last summer.) He then got really sidetracked and ended up giving a full recipe and cooking techniques for making some sort of fish that is bound to please your significant other.
Mikael also knew that people from Chico wouldn’t be huge fans of Los Angeles so, to get the crowd going, he said something about receiving a fax from Los Angeles before coming on stage that said Chico’s fans sucked, couldn’t make a lot of noise, or something to that effect. Of course, everyone went nuts at this suggestion, and Mikael replied that he will have to fax LA back to let them know they are wrong.
Another one that comes to mind is before the encore. The band is gone for a really long time before coming back. Mikael runs to the mic and apologizes for taking so long. It wasn’t because we weren’t loud enough; it was because he had to wait in line to take a leak. Then, when he introduces Martin Axenrot, the drummer, he said that Martin probably didn’t even wash his hands after pissing at the break, but he’s still going to play anyway.
Fredrik, shown above and below, performed a guitar solo. It was a bit strange as it wasn’t part of a song. The solo was more of the old school variety where the singer, Mikael in this case, merely announces that it’s time for a guitar solo. Fredrik plays it and it didn’t turn into the intro of the next song.
What I thought was funny was something I noticed when I looked at my pictures. I took about a dozen photos from the beginning to the end of the solo, and in every one the security guy is watching the solo rather than doing his job. I don’t have any other pictures from the show in which security is watching the band. Apparently this guy in the red shirt is a fan of guitar solos.
Here is the aforementioned Martin “Axe” Axenrot, the drummer who doesn’t wash his hands after going to the bathroom. It doesn’t seem to have affected his love life however. He is dating the very beautiful, Nathalie Lorichs, who, unfortunately, was not on stage like Wayne Static’s wife was the week before.