# Opeth/Dark Tranquility/Devin Townsend Review



## eleven59 (Mar 1, 2006)

Holyshit!

Alright, so I get there half an hour before the doors open and there's a bit of a line, but not ridiculously long, about the usual size for that venue with that kind of lineup at that time of the night. I get inside, and the place has definitely been converted to a country bar (lots of auto parts signs everywhere). 

Devin Townsend Band:
Alright, first off, this was the band's last night on the tour, and someone on the crew decorated all of their gear with pictures cut out of porno mags. The stage was just covered in it  The band clearly didn't know this before coming out because they all had a good laugh when they got out there. There set was:

Truth
Regulator hbang
Gaia
Pixellate
Vampolka
Vampyra

As soon as he took the stage, it was clear: This is where Devin Townsend belongs. Fuck, that guy had amazing presence. A little background information about live shows in my town. In my town, people ignore the opening act (other than me and a small number of other people). People don't show up until halfway through the opening act or some time after usually, and tonight was no exception. Usually people just stand around looking bored and calling for the headlining act minus 3-4 people up front who actually like the opening act. 

This show was a huge exception. Never, and I mean _NEVER_ in my life have I ever seen an opening act get the crowd going, and Devin Townsend Band did so flawlessly. I know I wasn't the only person singing along with the songs (but I was the first one to cheer for the opening riffs of pretty much every song, earning me a grin in my general direction from Mr. Townsend more than once  ). I was in awe the entire time, with a huge grin on my face. 

Devin Townsend is hilarious. Considering his set was almost equal parts instrumental, vocal, and talking to the audience, I've never seen an audience so fixated on the stage. Some of my favourite Devin Townsend quotes from the night:

"There's a cock on my wah pedal!"

"Your rock is only equalled by your roll, mine are parallel!"

In the beginning of Vampolka he did an interpretive dance to show his appreciation of our support of the band (sort of a goofy jig thing  ) and in the middle of Vampyra he did a monologue about how he didn't get laid until he was 19 because he was a Dungeon Master in Dungeons and Dragons and spent all day playing guitar (which he demonstrated with some random shredding). Near the end, someone yelled "Skullet power!" from the audience and Devin grinned and nodded back at them 

Devin Townsend is a brilliant guitar player. That guy's soloing and riffing is just so fucking beautiful. Every note is perfect, and his tone was better than everyone elses that night. Totally fluid and god-like. He was playing a stock, natural-finish LTD SC607B through a Dual Rectifier (modded so I hear) and a 4x12 and 2x12 Mesa cab. The other guitarist had a standard scale, burst finish LTD SC607 and a Mesa Stilletto through a Marshall 4x12 (couldn't hear him most of the night though). On Vampolka and Vampyra, however, they switched over to a Gibson SG w/ EMG in the bridge (Devin) and a LTD Viper of some sort (other guy). 

Dark Tranquility:

Yawn. They could have been a local band for all I knew. Everything was so fake and not really that great. Totally upstaged by DTB. The singer had ok presence, and the band was ok, but seriously I know a few bands locally who could have put on the same show and done the same job (better in fact). The crowd was going crazy for them, but I was bored as hell. Everything looked routine and over-planned. Like they were well-studied in the art of stage presence, but it all came over as really fake and as if they didn't really care. DTB was completely over the top, but totally honest and real. You could tell he was just having a great time being on stage and entertaining people, Dark Tranquility seemed to feel they didn't need to try. The lead singer came over and hugged and kissed a couple 14 year old girls standing literally right next to me at the end of the set, who promptly started crying and saying "Oh my god" a lot. 

Clearly, I don't remember the setlist.

Gear wise: Gibson guitars with Duncan pickups through Mesa heads and V-Amps (yes, V-Amps) running in front of them. The bassist had the nicest sound out of the entire band (Warwick through Ampeg, can't beat that). 

Opeth:

These guys were everything Dark Tranquility wasn't. They came off as just a bunch of guys who love making music. Half of the time the singer had his eyes closed, and everyone was completely into the music as if there wasn't even an audience. 

I can't remember the exact setlist, but they opened with "Ghost of Perdition", and played lots of stuff from the new album (Baying of the Hounds, The Grand Conjuration), Blackwater Park (The Drapery Falls), Still Life (I wanna say "Benighted"), My Arms Your Hearse (Not sure, just remember him mentioning it was from this album), Orchid (Under The Weeping Moon, and something else). The ended with "The Drapery Falls" and since it was hard to get on and off stage at the venue (small-ish stage, lots of gear) they stayed out for an encore of "Soldier of Fortune" (Deep Purple cover, completely spontaneously) and "Damnation".

In the middle of the first song someone threw ice at Mikael and he commented on not being happy about that after the song was done. After the second song he commented that he was still mad about having ice thrown at him, but the rest of the crowd deserved a good show. After the next song he said he was starting to feel happy again  People were yelling things at the stage and he would talk back with them. He commented that every medal Sweden won in the Olympics was because he wasn't playing  At one point someone threw a necklace with an upside down crucifix on it. He joked about being a born again Christian and being offended, but then asked if it was a gift and thanked them for it when they said it was. He said it was kind of fitting that they chose that moment to throw it onstage, because it suited the next song (The Grand Conjuration, though he didn't get to it right then), and hung it from his mic stand for the rest of the set (he wore it offstage at the end). He started introducing the next song, saying it's from the new album, when someone yelled "Drum solo!" He said "Yes, it's called drum solo, it's a hidden track..." and then let the drummer do a drum solo (which was cool) before finally getting to the next song  

Opeth was definitely one of the best bands of the night, tied in my mind with DTB. 

Overall:

The crowd sucked. It was half people who wanted to see the bands and hear the music, and half people who were just typical metal heads and wanted it all to be loud and heavy and wanted to beat people up. 

The security sucked, they were all middle-aged and clearly hated all the metal-head kids in the crowd. When people would crowd surf up, instead of pulling them out and sending them around to the back like any other concert, they just shoved them back into the crowd, resulting in an ongoing battle between security and the crowd, rather than them working together to make the show a good one. Two people managed to get on-stage and stage dive during Opeth's set. 

The bands and the music were amazing (other than Dark Tranquility), and it was definitely one of the best shows I've ever seen.


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## eaeolian (Mar 1, 2006)

eleven59 said:


> Dark Tranquility:
> 
> Yawn. They could have been a local band for all I knew. Everything was so fake and not really that great.



You're either on crack or they weren't anywhere near as good as they were here. They blasted everybody else out of the venue here - just flat-out awesome. DTB was good, but DT was excellent.


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## Firebeard (Mar 1, 2006)

eaeolian said:


> You're either on crack or they weren't anywhere near as good as they were here. They blasted everybody else out of the venue here - just flat-out awesome. DTB was good, but DT was excellent.




+1000000000


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## eleven59 (Mar 1, 2006)

eaeolian said:


> You're either on crack or they weren't anywhere near as good as they were here. They blasted everybody else out of the venue here - just flat-out awesome. DTB was good, but DT was excellent.


I dunno, everything was just really uninspired seeming. Maybe if I'd gotten caught up in the crowd I would have felt the energy more, but they seriously didn't do anything I couldn't have done, and their stage presence was just ok. Sure, they moved around a lot and stuff, but it was all very cliche and overdone. 

I'd also like to mention that Devin Townsend's 7-string was almost nicer looking that Opeth's PRSs. Almost. Mikael brought out a 12-string for one song which was plain black and very nice, but his dark blue PRS 6-string was probably the nicest of the whole night.


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## strychnine (Mar 1, 2006)

to bad they arent passing around my town. I'd go see that..sounds like a fun show to attend.


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## eaeolian (Mar 1, 2006)

eleven59 said:


> I'd also like to mention that Devin Townsend's 7-string was almost nicer looking that Opeth's PRSs.



I'd swear that he had a regular ESP Carpenter here - I don't think it had LTD on the headstock. I could be wrong...



eleven59 said:


> I dunno, everything was just really uninspired seeming. Maybe if I'd gotten caught up in the crowd I would have felt the energy more, but they seriously didn't do anything I couldn't have done, and their stage presence was just ok. Sure, they moved around a lot and stuff, but it was all very cliche and overdone.



That was almost the exact opposite of here, where they seemed to be feeding off the crowd's energy. Of course, they werethe headliner here, so maybe that makes a difference?


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## eleven59 (Mar 1, 2006)

eaeolian said:


> I'd swear that he had a regular ESP Carpenter here - I don't think it had LTD on the headstock. I could be wrong...



I took a close look at at since I was right in front of him, maybe two people back, and clearly read "LTD" on the headstock and saw the "SRC" inlay up close (which actually isn't that noticeable in real life under stage lights).



> That was almost the exact opposite of here, where they seemed to be feeding off the crowd's energy. Of course, they werethe headliner here, so maybe that makes a difference?


Could be, I dunno. The guitarists, bassist, and drummer looked bored, and the singer looked like he wanted to be Robert Plant does death metal.

Although, now I think of it, in some videos he does use some custom ESP versions of the guitar (with or without reverse headstock). It was definitely the stock, natural finish baritone here though.


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## bracky (Mar 2, 2006)

I thought Dark Tranquility were awesome even thought it was my first time seeing them. Opeth was incredible!! Unfortunatly I got there late and missed Devin Townsend. I was at the Towson, Md show by the way.


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## DSS3 (Mar 2, 2006)

eleven59 said:


> Although, now I think of it, in some videos he does use some custom ESP versions of the guitar (with or without reverse headstock). It was definitely the stock, natural finish baritone here though.




Actually, he borrowed some guitars for the videos off Alien from SC himself. That white one in Love? I know for a fact was SC's, but I'm not sure about the one in Zen.


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## eaeolian (Mar 3, 2006)

bracky said:


> I thought Dark Tranquility were awesome even thought it was my first time seeing them. Opeth was incredible!! Unfortunatly I got there late and missed Devin Townsend. I was at the Towson, Md show by the way.



I almost went up for that one, but since I saw Opeth back in November here, and I have to choose my shows wisely, I skipped it. I have several friends who were there, though, and they concur.


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## Cancer (Mar 3, 2006)

bracky said:


> I thought Dark Tranquility were awesome even thought it was my first time seeing them.




I've seen DT twice, and they bored me to tears both times, so did Opeth now that I think about it. Perhaps it just not my cup o'tea. 


But yeah DTB owns....


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