Nearly two years have passed since I've last seen them, and yet OPETH decided to return to the very same venue on the night of October 19^th, 2016. The Marquee Theater, yet again, was hosting a show that I greatly anticipated, but only with two bands in the lineup. And yet, it's all that myself and a lot of people really wanted- a groovy band like THE SWORD setting the stage for the prog gods known as OPETH. I knew this night was going to be something else.

Doors were open at seven and, again, in the fashion of the Marquee, the show didn't start until an hour and a half later. This isn't necessarily important, but I'm gonna gripe about it, dammit, and hope somebody hears. If this was an arena or a much more grandiose venue, I'd understand, but this doesn't prove to be so couth in a place where the capacity is only a few thousand. Still, before the show started, a large gather of people had already amassed, nearly filling its reaches and chatting amongst themselves loudly. I wasn't the only one anxiously awaiting what I knew was to be a tonally-pleasing evening.

Eventually, the lights dimmed and the fog rolled on stage that was piled high with various amps, kits, keyboards, and lights like a kind of maze.  Then, THE SWORD stepped into our visibility, strutting about and jumping right into the music. I had only checked out THE SWORD a little before the show and may have been a little disinterested at first… but their live performance was on a whole different level. There was more jamming and unexplored movements with great soloing and an uninterrupted flow. The two guitarists, John and Kyle picked and bended bluesy riffs along with John's classic vocalization and Santiago keeping time with some swinging beats. Bryan's bass pumped out some heavy licks on a Rickenbacker similar to that of a famous axe-wielder, but made time to switch to a keyboard for some odd, ambient effects. The jams were in suit of something from 1978 belting out of a Volkswagen Van stereo and creeping out of the windows entangled in weed smoke. Truly something old, yet new and delicious.
 

OPETH had finally emerged at around 9:40 and opened with their newest hit, "Sorceress", a jazzy, proggy number that has some painfully-gorgeous grinding intermittent guitar and so much soul. Though many fans came for the old stuff, this was a real crowd-pleaser. However, they didn't hesistate to jump right into their older tunes with songs like "Ghost Reveries", "Demon of the Fog", and the beautiful "Face of Melinda". OPETH pumped out a diverse setlist and many couldn't contain themselves a massive pit broke out right in the center of the floor.