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Oakland has a curfew of 11:30 p.m. on Friday and Saturday nights. Opeth finished things up promptly at 11:30, but it seemed a shame to just go home with my all access pass still in effect so I headed back up to the stage for some photos of the now vacated Fox Oakland Theater.
This photo is actually five pictures taken vertically with an ultra-wide angle lens and then photomerged together in Photoshop CS5.
In just 48 hours I will be on the road, heading south into California for the third time in the past month. This time it will be to photograph Mastodon, Opeth, and Ghost at the beautiful Fox Theater in Oakland. Next week I’ll publish some of those pics here.
Today’s photo of Opeth is from the Getaway Rock Festival last summer in Sweden.
I have seen these three bands a combined nine times in the past few years so it’s only fitting that they are touring together. I’ve been in the photo pit for all three too. Now the question is, since they aren’t coming anywhere near me, do I make a road trip to bump the nine times to twelve times? Hmmmmm…. Sounds like a fun evening but a long drive.
Tickets are now on sale so check the tour dates to see if they are coming to a town near you.
Mikael Åkerfeldt at the Getaway Rock Festival
Opeth’s new album comes out in a few days. You can listen to it on NPR already here. I have listened to it twice and don’t really have much desire to listen to it again. Not that it’s “bad.” There just isn’t anything about Heritage to get me excited or want to listen to it on a regular basis. If I had to compare it to something I’d have to say Deep Purple. I like Deep Purple, owning several of their CDs in fact, but like Opeth’s “Heritage” my Deep Purple CDs sit and rarely get heard.
Now if you are into classic progressive rock, or Damnation (although this doesn’t sound too much like Damnation other than the clean vocals) is your favorite Opeth CD, then you will probably love Heritage. For me, I like variety, tempo changes, and at least occasional heavy elements. I’ll have to stick with Opeth’s older works for the time being. What will Opeth’s next offering be like? Will they return to form? Only time will tell.
Mikael Åkerfeldt of Opeth
Opeth was brilliant as always at the Getaway Rock Festival. Unfortunately, Mikael spoke all in Swedish (of course, since the festival took place in Gävle, Sweden–less than a couple hours north of Stockholm), which meant that while everyone else was laughing at his between-song comments, I couldn’t understand a word. Apparently he is as funny in Swedish as he is in English.
Opeth at the Getaway Rock Festival 2011
The setlist was:
The Grand Conjuration
Face of Melinda
The Lotus Eater
In My Time Of Need
Master’s Apprentices
The Drapery Falls
Hex Omega
I thought it was a bit short considering they were headlining. Also, Hex Omega seemed like a strange choice to end the evening (morning actually as it was almost 2 a.m. when they finished). It would have been great had they come back out for Deliverance and/or Demon of the Fall, both of which would have ended things more nicely. I’m also sad to see that they no longer play Baying of the Hounds. I don’t think I have heard it the last three times I’ve seen them now.
Of course, I could never say they played too long or even just enough. Two or three hours of Opeth would be fantastic.
Martin Mendez (bass) and Martin Axenrot (drums)
Fredrik Åkesson of Opeth
Joakim Svalberg (new keyboardist)
The new keyboardist sounded fine. I always enjoyed Per Wiberg’s headbanging.
This far north, the night never gets fully dark in early July. The sun sort of sets (just before midnight), some orange moves along the horizon (for an hour or so), and then the sun begins to rise before 2 a.m. This last photo was taken at 1:30 a.m., and it only got lighter from this moment on. I could actually see the sun by the time I got back to my hotel just after 2 a.m.
Opeth plays through the sunrise
As I mentioned last time, O-EAST in the Shibuya area of Tokyo is an excellent venue. Nestled between about a dozen love hotels, don’t be surprised if you see Japanese business men (サラリーマン) in full suits and ties show up at weeknight shows. I saw several on this evening. They hadn’t even loosened their ties or taken off their suit coats to see Opeth. Perhaps Opeth shows should become completely formal in the future.
Getting to Shibuya was, by far, my shortest commute to see Opeth. It took me about 10 minutes on the train, followed by a 5 minute walk from the Hachiko Exit to O-EAST. Normally I have to drive all day to see Opeth. If you count the miles from my home base of Ashland, Oregon, rather than my current home in Tokyo, I have traveled over 21,400 miles to see Opeth. Of course I was already in Denmark when I went to Metaltown in Sweden, but even so, for the four Opeth shows I’ve gone to in the states, all included an overnight stay and, combined, logged more than 2,000 miles on my car.
I took one video which you can view below. It begins with Mikael talking and messing around with the crowd for the first minute and a half. The song Opeth then dives into is “Leper Affinity” off of Blackwater Park, perhaps their best CD. I apologize for the shakes during the first half of the video. The floor was vibrating. I adjusted my feet for a better foundation during the second half of the video so it looks much better. My TZ7 seems to take much better video (and pictures) when it is zoomed to the max.
If you do not like heavy music, but still want to take a peek, then I suggest jumping in at the 5:10 mark. When it gets too heavy jump ahead to 8:50 to see the end.
Enjoy!