Hmmm. I predict epic people watching at this event. Hessian Obsession style! Will report later on the male-to-female ratio of the crowd. Educated guess: 9 to 1. But I could be wrong..
These men will also be performing. JT is so excited he is going to wear his thrifted Opeth sweatshirt!
Post-Metal Recap: I did not follow the dress code! You are supposed to wear a black hoodie w/ black band t-shirt peeking out to what we will now classify as an 'adult metal' show. I wore a bright red jacket. Totally NOT COOL! The male-to-female ratio seemed a little closer to 19 to 1. Yet there were no 'bro' vibes, such as at the Slayer show I saw a while back. A very polite audience. The sound was terrible, but the venue was nothing more than a glorified airplane hangar, so that was to be expected. Not to be expected, however, was the volume of the show. So quiet! 'Casino Level', as we call it around here. You could comfortably chat to your neighbor while someone was shredding their guitar onstage. Weird! Also.. apologies to the Swedish band Ghost, but I honestly thought they were playing Duran Duran's 'Rio' for a moment, which was confusing with all the dark robes and face paint and whatnot. Points for theatrics and costumes and incense, but dudes.. you gotta up the metal if you want to be ghoulishly frightening! Then Mastodon played for an hour and it was 'good', I just got bored. I think when you're playing 120 downstrokes per minute or whatever, it impedes your stage presence somehow. SO it was especially surprising to me when the final band, Sweden's (again! the swedes with their polished impeccable shit. i'm a swede, i need more of that discipline) Opeth actually held my attention. They are really good! What made them rule, most of all, was the singer/guitarist. Not only did he wear a KISS t-shirt, he was ridiculously polite and funny and charismatic and self-depricating, and stopped between each song to take on one or all of those characteristics instead of just blasting through the set. MEHHHHHTALLLLLLLLLL!
oh -- also the drummer of Opeth was a shirtless flaxen-haired unicorn, which only added to the unexpected awesomeness.
