The Corona Diaries Vol. 52: We go to the land of the ice and snow

(early May 2022) 

(Check out this entry's prelude.)

April went out on a rather loud, headbangy note as a friend and I went to Milwaukee to catch the Swedish progressive/death metal band, Opeth. As I noted in my last entry, I have started attending concerts again and the trend would continue into May.

Well, Opeth started out as a death metal band in the mid-90s but, by 2011, their sound had morphed into something less deathy and more heavy. There are now acoustic passages that sit nicely against loud, fuzzy guitars and the vocals are clean instead of being growly. I hear a lot of Deep Purple in them these days. ("Slither" has mid-70s Purple all over it, for example, as if it were a Burn outtake.)

While I am not the biggest Opeth fan in all of Christendom, I very much enjoy their albums post-death metal growl starting with Heritage. There's great melodies, dynamics, some really nice vocal performances, et al. I felt badly as a friend who is a huge fan of theirs had come down with Covid and was unable to attend. Seeing Opeth is a bucket list item for him. Hopefully they'll be round again soon.

A band called Khemmis opened the evening and they came across as a mix of death metal and old school thrash. They were OK, I guess. Mastodon played next. I've heard some of their stuff and like a song here and there. But, that night, aside from a song or two, I just couldn't get it into it. Too dense, too sludgy.

Opeth's set focused on newer material - say from the last 10 years or so but they dipped into their way back catalogue as well. While the sound wasn't the greatest where we were standing, live music is live music. Things really kicked in for me when "The Devil's Orchard" began. The volume, the kinetic playing, and seeing the body passing down front all made for a really intense experience. "Sorceress" and "Cusp of Eternity" are other songs that stood out for me from that night. Luckily someone captured the latter and posted it online.

The show was at the Eagles Ballroom, a gorgeous old space, and it was my first time seeing a show there. As I stood in the center of the floor looking at the pre-war interior, I envisioned the likes of Glenn Miller gracing the stage as Milwaukee’s socialites drank, danced, and drank even more. Now that I look up the venue’s history, I see that Glenn Miller did indeed perform there as did Guy Lombardo. And the building was designed by Russell Barr Williamson, a student of Frank Lloyd Wright.

A few days after the Opeth gig, the Frau and I had a date planned at the lovely Stoughton Opera House – Stoughton is a town just south of Madison – for a performance by Aimee Mann. My Frau adores her contributions to the Magnolia soundtrack while I know nothing of her work beyond "Voices Carry" from her days in 'Til Tuesday. Before Covid, I probably would have passed on the show and let my Frau go with a friend of hers. But it was spring - both winter and the lockdown restrictions were over and I wanted to get out and do stuff. Plus, I think that the lockdown (and its end) helped me shake off some middle age complacency, to break some habits, and do things I wouldn't have just a couple years earlier. Rather than retreat inwards and repeat the same old, same old, I wanted to expand outwards and engage the new.

Unfortunately, the show was cancelled due to Covid. D'oh!

Luckily we had another concert planned for the following weekend. And so on a lovely Saturday morning she and I hit the road for Minneapolis where we were to see Steve Hackett play.

I hadn’t been to the Twin Cities since the early 2000’s, I think, when I attended a wedding there. About 10 years before that, I accompanied a roommate or 2 there to visit a friend of one of them in Dinkytown, a neighborhood near the University of Minnesota.

After swinging into town, we stopped at Surly Brewing for a bite to eat and some barleypop. It is a pretty large facility that brews about 80,000 barrels of beer a year and can handle 1,800 thirsty patrons. We chose to eat inside as it was a bit windy out. But it wasn't really a cloistered atmosphere as most of a wall was open to the beer garden out back.

The Frau enjoyed her tacos and I my bahn mi salad. We both enjoyed the beer as well.

She had a black IPA while I went with an Italian-style pilsner. Crisp and refreshing with a hefty dose of spicy, bracing hops.

Despite the brewery being located in an industrial area, they managed to make a rather nice beer garden out back.

It was spacious with a fair amount of greenery so, if you faced the right direction, you’d forget there was a giant, disused grain silo there. At least I think that’s what it was. The Twin Cities were all about timber and flour back in the day so I just assume any old industrial building that doesn’t look like a sawmill had to do with flour milling.

At one point I thought to myself, "You know, this is what Ale Asylum aspired to be." Ale Asylum is a Madison brewery and it shares a lot in common with Surly. Their breweries have that metallic, industrial vibe to them and they both brew lots of trendy, hop-forward beers. Also, both try to portray themselves as edgy and slightly rebellious. Or at least not stodgy or in any way beholden to tradition.

The show was at the Pantages Theatre, a lovely old venue downtown with our hotel only a block away. It dates back to 1916 and has a lovely Beaux Arts interior (yes I looked that up) and no doubt many Scandinavian-descended denizens of the Twin Cities back in the day came to the theatre to enjoy the greatest hits of Edvard Grieg and Jean Sibelius.

After checking in at the hotel, I wandered around the area on what was a fairly warm afternoon.

I came across a Bob Dylan mural just a few blocks away.

There were plenty of new buildings around including this skyscraper.

There are skywalks everywhere so you can avoid the Arctic cold in the winter months. Or, I suppose, oppressive heat in the summer.

We had noticed that Surly wasn’t too far from the Green line train and on my walk I saw that it ran just a couple blocks from the hotel.

I was rather jealous as I’d love to have light rail in here Madison. Not only that, I also found myself wishing we had Amtrak service too because that 270 mile trip up from Madison would have been so much nicer on a train than me having to drive it.

Next, I wandered over to the Warehouse District where there appeared to be plenty of old buildings and we all know what old buildings mean: ghost signs!

I came across several. My father was from Minneapolis and I wondered how many of these long-gone businesses were still around when he growing up there.

Before long it was evening and I headed back to the hotel to freshen up for the concert.

Steve Hackett was the guitarist in the band Genesis from 1970-77 and he has been a solo artist ever since. His music has had many influences over the years but he’s primarily known for his rock music that has something of a symphonic bent to it as well as his classical guitar stylings. He sings the praises of The Beatles and Bach in equal measure.

It was a fantastic show featuring solo material as well as old Genesis songs. I was particularly impressed by the drummer, Craig Blundell, who propelled the songs forward in a way that was always interesting and busy but never got in the way. His performance on "Shadow of the Hierophant" was stunning. I sat there, my mouth (m)agog at how he seemed to never repeat a fill as he thrust the song forward with ever increasing intensity. "Brilliant!" as they say over there in the UK.

My one complaint is that Hackett shortchanged his own material. He played about 45 minutes of solo stuff for the first set before proceeding to play all of Genesis' 1977 double live album, Seconds Out. I give him a boatload of credit for celebrating early Genesis by playing the songs of that era instead of writing most of those songs off as embarrassing relics of pretentious youth, as some of his former bandmates do. However, he has been regularly recording solo albums since 1975 and has a country ton of great material to choose from. How about dusting off "Camino Royale"? Or putting "Loving Sea", a later period classic from 2015, back into the set? Oh well. What can you do?

I was pleased when I heard my Frau singing along to "Carpet Crawlers". I haven't found any recordings, audio or video, from this show but clips from other dates on the tour are plentiful.

We woke up the next morning and went in search of breakfast early. It was Mother’s Day so restaurants would be packed to the gills with ravenous families seeking holiday brunch. The Frau had made a reservation at some place near the hotel downtown but I thought it would be more fun to head across the Mississippi River to The Finnish Bistro. We beat the holiday hordes and settled in with coffee and a slice of almond kringle.

To make sure we had our Nordic bases covered, my Frau ordered a Lefse Scrambler which was scrambled eggs, vegetables, and reindeer sausage wrapped in a large piece of lefse. Lefse being a Nordic potato flatbread.

I had a reindeer sausage omelet which contained a lot of Swiss cheese. Both of our meals were delicious. So how does reindeer sausage taste? Think beef ring bologna with a faint gamey taste.

On the way out, I snagged some items from the bakery. Our plan was to stop and visit my youngest stepson and his girlfriend on the way home in Eau Claire so I figured I should bring them some pastries as they'd probably still be waking up when we arrived. Plus, I brought a few treats home for our use.

You may recall a previous entry in which I failed to buy Swedish limpa bread while up in Chetek. Not wanting to miss out on Scandinavian treats yet again, I made sure to get some of the Finnish pulla bread that was on offer.

It was a light, fluffy bread with almond and a generous dose of cardamom. When we got to Eau Claire I opened the box that contained all of the treats and my nose was greeted with a wave of that luscious, aromatic spice. Delicious!

Arriving back in Madison, it was as if spring had sprung overnight. Everything was just verdant and full of leaves. When we had left for the Twin Cities, the green was coming on and buds were everywhere but it was like coming home to a new place.

It went from this:

To this:

I think we have a red maple here.

Spring had well and truly sprung! 

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Bonus photo! Nature is red in tooth and claw. The Frau and I came home from a restaurant one evening and, pulling into the driveway, we watched a hawk (red-tailed?) zip over the yard with something dangling from its talons. It landed on a tree across the street and ate dinner. Methinks that rabbit was on the menu.

(Proceed to this entry's chorale.)