The opening acts, The Faceless and Cynic, managed to do a pretty good job at keeping my attention on the music, and Meshuggah's headlining madness was also amazing to witness firsthand. Station 4, a new venue for me, is a place that seems could be summarized as your rich cousins basement, it is a huge brick room painted completely black, fitting very well with the extreme metal that was emitted at this show. Connected to this large coffin of a concert hall is a relatively normal bar, they even had hockey games playing on the TV, something I would never expect to see at this or any metal show for that matter.
One thing I love about metal concerts is the fact that everyone is welcome, metal is a genre such that it doesn't matter who you are, if you have a love for the music, you fit right in. I definitely am not a metalhead of any sort, but I still feel very comfortable being there and just enjoying some rocking music. Also, attendees at metal shows tend to be some of the nicest and most conversation inducing people I get to meet at concerts, you can always find a common ground with someone there, for instance I met a guy on the street with my friend, and we were talking about the Wacken Open Air festival, he was wearing a shirt from there, and that spawned off a lengthy conversation on different types of metal, and how it all fits back to todays metal scene.
The concert itself was surprisingly calm through the two opening acts, people were just kind of staring blank faced at the bands, drinking their beer, just enjoying the music. No moshing of any sort was to be had before 11 pm. But when Meshuggah took the stage, even before a single note was played, people were starting to get rowdy, there was pushing left and right, and people moved like a see of some angry sort of fish. During the first song it got to be too much for me, and moved about halfway back through the room, got stuck for a couple songs, then managed to find my way back to the bar, where I just listened and enjoyed the environment and talking to more people, including our Wacken friend from earlier.
Overall metal shows tend to be a very unique type of concert, any beer drinker or rock/metal lover is welcome, and everyone tends to be very friendly in helping you not get killed during the show (except for a few metalhead jerks, there's always one there!) But as for metal concerts go, Meshuggah had one of the most energetic and best sounding shows I have heard from a metal band, not to mention their technical prowess is that of legend among the metal community. I would strongly recommend any music geek check them out, and get to a show on this rare US tour if you possibly can, and be prepared for some intense experiences.
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