Opeth delivered a powerful, career-spanning Bengaluru performance packed with old-school favourites, new material, Åkerfeldt’s trademark humour and hopes of a bigger India tour.
“Mosh, that word was forbidden in Scandinavia in the 90s”, was one of the many punch lines Opeth frontman Mikael Akerfedt had for the night. While it might’ve been so back then in that time and space, in Bengaluru, fans had plenty of reason to mosh their hearts out. The Bangalore show of Opeth’s Last Will and Testament India tour was held on October 4 at Bhartiya Mall of Bengaluru. The previous day, they had played in Mumbai at The Lalit Lawns.
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This was the fourth time Opeth performed in India, I had the good fortune of attending their last India performance for the 2019 NH7 Weekender at Pune, amidst clouds of second hand smoke, and a set which could’ve been better, and desired more growls and older heavier material. But luckily this time, the Swedish progressive metal gods brought their best foot forward in a stunning performance.
Bangalore home bands Fallen Letters, with tunes off their album Mindfractures, and Rainburn with songs from their Insignify album opened the set warming up audiences with some fine home-cooked progressive rock and metal, before the big act set in.
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Old school Opeth fans were not to be disappointed at all, as the material from the earlier Opeth eras was present including ‘Demon of the Fall’ from ‘My Arms, Your Hearse’ (one of my favourites) and ‘Godhead’s Lament’ from ‘Still Life’. This time the setlist featured three songs (pronounced paragraph) §1, §7, and §3 from their latest The Last Will and Testament.
And how can we have an Opeth concert without Mikael Akerfeldt’s moderately paced stage banter, peppered with his signature dry wit and humour. For §3, which featured a spoken word sample by Ian Anderason from Jethro Tull, Akerfeldt joked that as they don’t play to a click-track, his section tends to meander a bit off time in certain instances live.
Some of the other tracks played at the performance were The Drapery Falls from the classic Blackwater Park, The Grand Conjuration from Ghost Reveries, and Hex Omega from Watershed. The encore featured Deliverance, preceded by a very brief teaser of “Hope Leaves” with the crowd singalong.
Coming to logistics, unlike Phoenix Marketcity, Bhartiya Mall is quite a distance outside the city, but the venue entry was smoother to enter into than past experiences. Also, despite not being in the premium section this time, the overall mix and volume levels were well maintained as they should be. This is of course better, because in the past there were complaints of inadequate volume levels for other ticket tiers.
It is also high time access to drinking water be made free while the rules around bags could also be reconsidered. The cashless card system is another area that could be improved, why should concertgoers have to buy a new card at every gig, and why can’t the remaining balance be transferred? More designated smoking zones might also be a substantial improvement. These are not small things, addressing them could make the overall concert experience considerably better at future gigs, and concertgoers have been repeating the same issues. Something to note for the organizers.
Akerfeldt also poked fun at fan reactions to the newer material, while pleasing the crowd by hinting at a possible larger India tour in the future. While Mumbai fans were lucky this time, having missed out when Dream Theater last played in India, the East was left without a show. So, Kolkata, or better yet, Guwahati, next time? Hopefully, we also get shows in Delhi and the East on the next tour.
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Guitarist. I write on music and praxis.
