Opeth, High on Fire, & Baroness

  

 

Welcome dear fiends for this installment of thee ol’ Blotter Blag in which I have found myself yet again staring deep into a cauldron of heavy metal! Yes kiddies, it was another Frisco freakshow of headbangin’ metal mania, this time a sold out show at the Regency’s Grand Ballroom for Opeth, High on Fire, & Baroness… Yet again I was late and had missed the opener, what's with these early shows these days, eh? As it turned out I ended up finding a niche up front for the majority of the High on Fire set. The Oakland triad yet again unleashed a metal tempest for which there would be no comparison. This had been my first experience at this venue and I was pretty impressed with the whole set up, I hope to see more shows here. The Grand Ballroom has that turn of the century haunted vibe as in "The Shining" kind of way which was well suited for this sort of show. You never know, maybe Al Bowlly himself had played here back in the day. I had but one critical commentary though, the sound hags behind the knobs were pretty stingy on the board. During the High on Fire set I was perched on some cabinets that weren't even being fed. My ears should be ringing right now and for the heavy price tag of this show I should have had a heavier dose. Needless to say those cabinets had kicked on for Opeth – its that old headliner trick again! Opeth started out pretty solid then began fading into a string of ballads and long interludes between songs. But I’ll tell ya – those crazy Swedes, I’d never seen a headbangin’ keyboardist before, not even in any of Al Jourgensen’s line-ups. It was also kinda kooky how they all wore the tour’s tee shirt too, there must be a story behind that in which I am totally disinterested. Overall I was really surprised that this show sold out, I had wanted to stay to squeeze all my money’s worth but truth be told I had the urge to split before the atomic weight of the evening rose to helium.

PHOTOS (DANG! CURRENTLY RELIANT ON THE IPHONE DUE TO THE RUIN OF MY DIGI SNAP SHOOTER) CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT : 1) HIGH ON FIRE. 2) SOULED OUT. 3) OPETH ROCKS THE FRIZZY FREAK HAIR AS THE BALD SECURITY GUARD THINKS "SH-EHH-AHHH... I HOPE MOS DEF BE NEX WEEK, SHIZZZ..." 4) INSIDE THE BALLROOM A PRE WWII SWASTIKA MOTIF; THE WORLDS MOST CONTROVERSIAL SYMBOL. WHAT DO YOU THINK?

ALL PHOTOS ©2008 JAMES JACKSON : ANY REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED WITHOUT EXPRESSED WRITTEN CONSENT.