Opeth:Concert Review,IIT Madras
This is an account of my visit to Chennai to be a part of one its kind concert at IIT Madras festival Saarang 2009.
Lot of metalheads in India were deprived of shows and concert by comtemporary heavy metal artists.But things started to change in the
year 2007 when Iron Maiden,arrived in Bangalore and took the garden city by storm. I would say that Iron Maiden have gone way past their prime time.This may upset a lot of hardcore Iron Maiden fans but the fact remains that Iron Maiden were in the prime during the eighties.
So why was this one of its kind concert?Because we never heard popular ccomtemporary bands playing in India but it happened for the first time on 25 January 2009.I shall continue with my account of the concert.But who was playing in the concert on January 25 2009?
It was Opeth,a Swedish progressive death metal band.(too specific aint it?)
Opeth has always been termed as the “Pink Floyd/Sigur Ros” of death metal.And why? There are very few death metal bands in the world where a track has the deadliest growling interspersed by sweet clean vocals.
Similarly,heavy metal distortion replaced by melodic strumming of guitar at irregular intervals.Opeth has carved a niche for itslef.Over the years,barring the founder/frontman Mikael Akerfeldt,the line up has undergone major changes.
Currently the line up is…
Mikael Akerfeldt (Vocals,Guitar) Per Wiberg (Keys)
Martin Mendez (Bass Guitar) 
Martin Axenrot (Drummer) Fredrik Akkenson (Guitar)
Well,my friend and I reached Chennai two hours before the scheduled start of the show (the traveling deserves a seperate post).On reaching gates of IIT Madras,we were escorted into a shuttle transporting us to the venue.On the way,we spotted a ” Sambhar”.It was a typically expansive IIT campus.I was not surprised to see a “Sambhar” as its possible to find leopards from the adjacent hills in IIT Bombay campus.We collected our tickets.Expectng the fact that the show would start late despite the scheduled time of start printed on the ticket,we left for our friend’s house to recharge ourselves.
Opeth at Press Co.
The Opeth show was opened by Mumbai based ” Demonic Resurrection” and Cochin based ” Motherjane“.I had always wanted to see Motherjane live but it was not quite possible as they mostly restricted their gigs to south India.after the recharging session,we reached the venue at around 8 pm. Motherjane was belting out its penultimate track.
Mtherjane is one of the few progressive bands in Indian circuit..I was glad to see them but not for long.By now Opeth started its sound check and the check went on for 30 minutes almost.Its not great thing to have a sound check done admidst an international act.This was pardonable as it was part of a college festival and not a hardocre metal show.
The stage was small with a big screen at the backdrop along with beautiful light set up including scanners et al.Opeth descended on the stage and started off with Heir Apprarent.
Mikael at IIT Madras
Look for me
The crowd went beserk…but they were not upto the expectation I harboured.How I wished they broke into a moshpit..this surely would have been the case had the show been in Mumbai.Here is the setlist.The frontman Mikael akerfeldt mentioned the fact that this setlist was the longest they have ever played.The duration of Opeth tracks average atleast 8 minutes.Their longer tracks in all probabilty would get into the 13th or 14th minute time play.
Here is the setlist for you…
1. Heir Apparent-Watershed
2. The Grand Conjuration (10.21) -Ghost Reveries
3. Godhead’s lament(09.47)- Still Life
4. The Lotus eater-Watershed
5. Wreath(11.10)-Deliverance
6. Bleak(09.16)-Blackwater Park
7. Hope leaves -Damnation
8. Deliverance(13.36) -Deliverance
9. Night and the Silent water(11.00)-Morningrise
10.Demon of the fall(06.13)- My Arm Your Hearse
11.Baying of the hounds (10.41)- Ghost Reveries
12.The Drapery Falls(10.54) -Blackwater Park
My friend and I pushed ourselves into the crowd to reach upfront.Being veterans of various concerts (Iron Maiden 2008,Roger Waters 2006, Joe Satriani 2005 and Scorpions 2008),this seemed an achievable task..although we found certain clumsy kids trying to get back at us for shoving them around and going ahead.It justed amused me to no end.
It was great to see the show go beyond 10:30 pm which is totally unheard of in Mumbai.The show ended aptly with “The Drapery Falls”
The Positves:
1)Opeth…Opeth…Opeth
2)Open Air Theater…front rows
3)Big screen and Visual Jockey
4)Crisp Sound (of utmost important…I can manage without lights on stage but no screwed up sound please)
5)Punctual start of the show (totally unheard of in metal circuits and local Mumbai gigs)
The Negatives:
1)The crowd:Not crazy enough or mad enough…do not stand there if you do not whats going on..even if you get free passes.)
2)Its ridiculous to send guards into the crowd to control them..its a death metal show..do you expect the crowd to sit down and clap)
3)During an international act,its a strict no to send volunteers on the stage to urge the frontman to ask the crowd to fall back..its does not matter if you are the elitist or boast of double digit All India Rankings.
4)I do understand that in a college event of this magnitude,you guys need to cater to the prime sponsor…but that does not mean you do it at the climactic segment of the gig…not done.
You can check out some tracks of Opeth here for teasers..
All in all a memorable gig..I will leave you with videos of the show at IIT Madras…
Side effects of music?
Acknowledments/Sources:
www[dot]lastfm[dot]com
Anurag Kashyap
Abhay Deol
Dibakar Banerjee
Hansal Mehta
Khalid Mohamed
Kundan Shah
Anish Kuruvilla
Jaideep Verma
Manish Gupta
Navdeep Singh
Bhavani Iyer
D. Santosh
Onir
Ashvin Kumar
Ramu Ramanathan
Sudhir Mishra
Pankaj Advani
Revathy
Saurabh Shukla
Shilpa Shukla
Sujoy Ghosh
Suparn Verma
Santosh Sivan
Shashank Ghosh
Shivajee
Pavan Kaul
Partho Sen-Gupta
Prroshant Naryannan
Sam Langoria
Satish Kasetty
Pleasantly surprising to see a metal related post on PFC.
Opeth actually is one of the very few metal bands I can bear listening to. In fact, I like them. I feel something missing if I don’t listen to Damnation at least once a week. I was kicking myself for not being able to attend their chennai do. Now that I read your review, I’m ruing the missed opportunity all the more.
You mention the guards in the concert. I guess that was a fallout of a recent controversial gig that was part of the Campus Rock Idols competition this year. VH1 (the competition organisers) had invited an unknown punk band from the US called Black Lips to judge the competition. They took the stage for an encore and ended up indulging in some public nudity. Needless to say, the crowd was scandalised. After the show, they fled the country before the authorities could take any action. I’m sure the guards were in the crowd for the same reason.
I so wanted to be there…. METAL FOREVER \m/
BTW all as PFC is all abt cinema… guys check out two movies featuring Sam Dunn as Metal – A headbanger’s journey (2005) and Global Metal (2008), they are great docus…
How many Scribe shows have you come for Sourav? Saale kabhi to aaya kar!
@Debarun: Yes, both the documentaries were kickass. The indian segment from Global Metal was hilarious! Everyone made a mess out of themselves!
I wish I was there… Missed it… \m/
i was there! front row! killer concert. i have been listening to them ever since everyday! i even got to meet mikael at the campus. they did a t-shirt signing thing at the campus. its great to see the IITs bring in international acts. Couldn’t go to Mood I/IITM but they had a finnish act. IITD had an American act this time. This is a great development for Indian rock/metal fans! We have been far too dependent on DNA for our dose of live metal music :-)
I even got the setlist from the stage! :-)
@the Narcissist..PFC always manages to surprise..:)
the security guards came down to save a few women who were upfront..they were getting squeezed by the crowd behind them.
The Narcissist..another metal article for you..my second article on PFC:
http://passionforcinema.com/i-played-with-madness-witnessed-magic-of-iron-maiden/
@Debarun…my failed attempt to feature in Global Metal and my first article on PFC..might just interest you..:)
http://passionforcinema.com/my-petty-effort/
Srinivas…mere bhai..I have been following you since the days of Metal Messiah..i remember that gig of yours in Razz..years back.
..and little did i know the winner of Independence rock Scribe’s basist is also making waves at IFFLA and rubbing shoulders with Mr Tarantino.That was awesome…srinivas…good to see you.:)
Lol..apart from Sahil Makhija and that guy from exhumation..i did know anyone from Indian segment of Global Metal(2008).
@Ravi…missed all of that tee shirt signing session..we could have met and discussed cinema too:)
Seriously..glad to see the IITs taking intiative apart from DNA Networks.
The finnish act was Ensiferum…IIT Bombay refused to allow people without college Ids.So missed it.
…and there were rumours of Children of Bodom performing at IITD.That would have been magical.
@sourav .. yeah, Ensiferum. Forgot the name. CoB would be awesome, maybe next year! I didn’t enjoy Motherjane much. I felt they seriously overstayed their brief by 30 minutes. the bit about the volunteers getting onto the stage and asking Mikael to pass on a message to the crowds was funny. I guess they just got a bit enamored by the situation. but fabulous work by the students. hats off to them. coming for maiden?
Hey Sourav, good shit. I missed this gig and am regretting it now. Although I would contest the fact that bands like these haven’t played here before. The frequency is increasing with bands like Satyricon, Freak Kitchen and Sahg playing this years GIR and Norwegian hard rock band Glyder playing at IIT Kanpur in October. There’s some pretty good shit lined up for this year as well. So good times are here.
Btw, in case anyone wants to check out, another review for the Opeth gig –
http://kvltsite.com/content/view/683/83/
@ravi…no maiden this time..:)
@kiku: saw satyricon in mumbai..i am glad IITs are bringing in the scandinavian artistes here…hope to see emperor and cradle of filth..next year