As if Eluveitie, Sabaton and Nightwish weren't enough for one month, November also saw Anathema and Opeth on tour in the UK. We bought tickets for this gig before we even knew Sabaton were touring, so the wait has been long and filled with anticipation. The gig was to be held in the Leeds Met student union bar, a venue that none of our little party had been to before, and a stone's throw from where I work. It turned out to be very disorganised, with queues being moved, staff not knowing things like how to get to toilet, toilets being blocked by security ... not a great start.
Anathema were up first. One or two technical difficulties were present and, to be honest, the sound quality wasn't great. But this is Anathema, and even a sub-par Anathema gig is amazing. It's a shame the computer was out of tune for Closer, but everything else was spot on.
Between sets everything was looking good. The complete disorganisation of the queue and toilets was all but forgotten. Time for a drink! I went to the bar.
Oh deary me. Only half the bar was open. 4 people serving a crowd of hundreds, the bar queue was 50 yards wide and 6 people deep. They were only about half done when the interval was over. I waited around for a bit and finally got a drink, only to discover the next disappointment.
I couldn't get into the room to see Opeth. The Leeds Met SU reckon they have an 1100 capacity room. Nonsense. Absolute nonsense. The crowd was pushed back and out of the room, so the pictures I'm putting up here were taken by holding my camera up over the crowd outside the venue, zoomed in as far as possible. I never did get in, although it turns out that wasn't necessarily a bad thing.
You see, they also turned off the A/C and had absolutely no ventilation. The room was a sauna. People were staggering out, faint and sweating, and many left or spent the gig sat in the foyer. I joined them, in the end. The bar staff were lining up cups of water on the bar for customers who just couldn't stand it any more. It was a mess. And a massive shame, because it sounded (muffled through doors and hazy air) that it was a good set and that Mikael had finally stopped being ridiculous and started singing the songs properly again. Growls and all.
And to top it all off, I lost the parking token and had to pay a tenner to get the car out of the car park. Still, Anathema were good, it was nice to spend time with friends. And I learned a valuable lesson; 2.5 pints of Monster in one day is bad for you. Oh, and Leeds Met SU is a terrible venue for well known bands.
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