Opeth made there way to Sydney last night (6th, September) as part of the Watershed Tour. The venue for the gig was Luna Park's Big Top

The Australian leg of the tour has been very successful with Brisbane, Melbourne and Sydney all selling out.

I started the night out by going around to my brothers place for drinks with 7 other Opeth fans. Naturally, we had a nice selection of Opeth tunes playing whilst we put away a few cold bevvy's and talked about tracks we wanted to see live.

When the time came, we made our way in to Luna Park which is about a 15 minute train ride from the suburb my brother and I live in.

The opener for the night was Virgin Black, who I'd never heard of until last night. I'm not quite sure how to describe them, but another review has called them "symphonic metal". In my opinion they were fairly boring, and I think Opeth could have found some one better to open for them.. but whatever, my mates and I just stayed at the back near the bar until the set finished.

When the set finally finished, we split up.. those who wanted to keep pumping beers stayed near the bar and those who wanted to be amongst it all.. moved down the front. We had a prime position in the middle with about 4 or 5 rows of compressed Opeth fans in front of us.

Then Opeth came out... and it was on for young and old. The temperature in the room went up to what felt like boiling point. Before Opeth played a single note, I removed the 2 t-shirts I was wearing and stuffed them in my belt.

Set list:

- Heir Apparent
- Master's Apprentices
- The Baying Of The Hounds

Mikael: "Not all of these songs are about the devil. This one is about ... dogs"

- Serenity Painted Death
- To Rid The Disease
- The Lotus Eater

Mikael: "We haven't played this song live much. We're still practicing it. It starts kinda like this: (*hums The Lotus Eater intro*)"

- Bleak

During Bleak, Mikael had some technical issues which wasn't that bad, as it gave Axe (the new drummer) a chance to strut his stuff. He put on a cool little drum solo which was a big crowd pleaser. Fredrik also did a short guitar solo before the technicians had Akerfeldt's equipment up and running again.

Mikael: "And now for part two" - and the song continued!

- The Night And The Silent Water
- Deliverance
- Demon Of The Fall

At this point, a lot of people though the show was well and truely over.. about 5 minutes later, Opeth comes back out on stage:

Mikael: "Sorry we left, Martin had to take a piss"

ENCORE: The Drapery Falls

Atfter the gig I walked out of the Big Top feeling like I had been in an all in brawl for the last couple of hours. Was it worth it? fuck yes.

Opeth - Baying of the Hounds - This was recorded by one of my mates who stayed closer to the bar. He recorded it using his Nokia n95, so no whining about the quality! :>