26-02-2018 Katatonia

[schema type=”event” evtype=”Event” name=”26-02-2018 Katatonia” description=”Article written by: Miguel Melo” sdate=”2018-02-26″ street=”Rockclub Tapper” city=”Tallinn” country=”EE” ]

It was my first time seeing the living legends that are Katatonia. I was obviously pretty excited.
It was a long wait, since they were supposed to play in Tallinn on the 4th of December and didn’t because Roger Öjersson had a back injury and the band decided to postpone and cancel some concerts. Gladly Tallinn concert was not cancelled. The band was complete and ready to play. Or was it…?

First things first, the support of Egosystema did their bit, with a pretty good instrumental work but not so much enthusiasm from the crowd. Rockclub Tapper was a bit empty, as usual with warm up bands. I always find it interesting when lead singers have a very strong (Italian) accent when they speak to the crowd but when it comes to singing you can hardly spot it. Entertaining but no special remarks.

After that, the long waited and living legends Katatonia were about to get to stage. I reached the front line as much as I could and got to a nice spot. Soon enough I got into conversation with Matti, a Finnish hardcore fan, asking me how much I liked Katatonia. He said it was his 4th time seeing them. My answer was that I was a fan, but not that hardcore. Fact: I would never miss the opportunity of seeing these guys live. As we were chatting, his best remark was that “Katatonia is the kind of band that is supposed to make you dive but you end up feeling good listen to them”. I wouldn’t put it better. My sincere thanks to him for being my guide!

Finally they started. Matti mentions “something is wrong”. And it was indeed, since the band had only 4 people on stage. Last time I counted, they were 4 so I was thinking to myself that Roger didn’t recover all he did. The explanation shortly followed, as he has called the band saying that he could not go on tour. Instead of cancelling, the band maintained the tour as scheduled. This is a brilliant display of professionalism and the crowd answered with a rare enthusiasm for Estonia. The lead singer, Jonas Renkse, explained that due to the shortage of one guitar, they had to play the earlier albums musics. Fine by me!

My favorite moments were the songs “Teargas”, “In the White”, and “Soilsong”. Absolute honors to the bass player Niklas Sandin, as he makes it sound like a machine gun. The concert was definitely a blast and I don’t mind the fact that the band was lacking one member. All in all, they showed a strong heart and commitment and in the end, that’s what I appreciate.

Setlist:
Leaders
Serac
Dead Letters
Serein
Deliberation
Old Heart Falls
Teargas
Saw You Drown
Evidence
Ghost of the Sun
In the White
Forsaker
Soil’s Song
Lethean
July