On February 15th, the legendary Opeth kicked of their North American tour in Raleigh, North Carolina with Dark Tranquillity and the Devin Townsend Band as support. I was shocked that they were playing so close to me, not to mention at a club I'd consider small by Opeths standards – The Lincoln Theatre, which reaches about 500 or so in capacity.

I reached the club, ticket in hand, and took my place in the rather long line waiting to be let in. I noticed quite a few things that night- there were guys in yellow security shirts outside the venue, and, I would discover, also inside. I wasn't used to this type of security at the Lincoln, not even when I saw David Allan Coe there. It was announced that the show was sold out. It was also announced that Dark Tranquillity would not be performing. They had missed their flight and were still in Europe, which didn't bother me really. Opeth would be playing an extended set to make up for it.

The club was already beginning to fill up inside and I was unable to take my usual spot directly up front at first. I asked the guys in front of me, some nice fellows from Chapel Hill, if I could get in front of them. They were nice enough to let me through. After all, I'm so short you can see right over my head anyway. There was a barrier around the stage in the front which was also strange for the Lincoln. Every other show I had seen there did not have a barrier in front of the stage. Two or three security guys stood at the stage for the duration of the concert.

Devin Townsend came out onstage with his trademark skullet covered, to which an audience member demanded "Take it off!" "Sorry, dude," Devin replied good naturely. "Different band." The band sounded excellent live and Devin occassionally cracked jokes between songs. I wasn't sure what to expect, considering I have never seen The Devin Townsend Band live, but I was pleasantly surprised. Even if the music may be considered "serious" the live show was anything but. Devin was a very good frontman, and his voice sounded great live,ranging from screams to singing. The band was onstage for an hour or soand some of the songs played were Truth, Regulator, Storm, Gaia, Deadhead, Triumph, Life, and Earth Day.

When Opeth took the stage Mikael Åkerfeldt told us that this hadn't been a particularly good day. First of all Dark Tranquillity didn't make it, because they are, according to Mikael, "from the anus of Sweden". Then he tells us that on the way over some of the guitar FX pedals got lost and they had to readjust their set. Missing pedals or not, the band still played an excellent show. They sounded better than any band in a club that size had any right to. Everything came through clear, even the new keyboardist, who sounded just fine with the band. Personally, I never saw a need for Opeth to have a keyboardist and liked them without one, but I have to admit he sounded good with the band. He didn't take away from the music at all, and sounded very good even with the songs that had no keys originally.

Like Devin before him, Mikael cracked jokes between songs, and with the audience. When he announced the band he announced bassist Martin Mendez and Steve Harris, drummer Martin Lopez as Clive Burr and keyboardist Per Wiberg as "the guy on keyboards". He also told us that the song Deliverence was not "just about Burt Reynolds anymore". It was good to see that the band didn't think of heavy metal as serious business and it was endearing that they traded banter with the audience. Some of the songs played were Ghost of Peridition, White Cluster, The Drapery Falls, Delieverence, The Grand Conjuration, Under the Weeping Moon, The Baying of the Hounds, And Demon of the Fall.