Photo taken by Julianna Iovino
This past Friday, November 11, 2022, I attended Katatonia's concert in New York City. Before buying tickets for the show, I had not listened to the band that much. However, my friend has been an avid fan of the group for a while and invited me to join. As a fan of metal music, I was more than happy to accompany her to the concert.
To say this concert was good would be an understatement. Katatonia and their two openers, The Ocean Collective and Cellar Darling put on a great show that kept fans engaged and having fun. Each group has extremely talented artists that played an amazing show for the New York crowd.
My friend and I were on the barricade, so I cannot speak for any "craziness" from the crowd, but being so close truly showed how much each artist enjoyed what they were doing on stage. Most notably, every member of The Ocean Collective looked like they were having the time of their lives interacting with fans, and singer Loïc Rossetti was clearly having fun when he jumped off the stage to crowd surf over the pit.
Looking at the headliner, Katatonia, the band not only showed through their performances how glad they were to perform for us but also from their vocalist, Jonas Renkse, thanking us for attending the show between almost every song the band performed.
If I were to say one negative about the show, it would be the wait between the doors opening and the first opener starting. This time gap was something my friend and I were aware of before arriving at the venue, but still an annoyance nonetheless. I am not sure if this was a venue policy or if it is something done at all the Katatonia shows on this tour, but anyone who arrived for doors opening at 6:00 pm had to wait two hours before Cellar Darling began. My friend suspected this was a way to get people to purchase drinks or food at that bar, giving guests time to finish or order more before the show started, but for us holding our spots at the barricade, we just found it irritating. Since I was not alone, my friend and I switched on and off to save our spots while running to buy merchandise from the band, but despite that, we were standing in the same place for quite a long time. Those without a buddy to switch with were there even longer.
As someone who frequently attends concerts, I am used to having about an hour between the doors open and the first act starting. This shorter wait has been the pattern that I have seen for big shows like My Chemical Romance to even smaller shows like Chris Catalyst and Mad Gallica.
Even with the long wait, the performances made it all worth it. While my legs undoubtedly were hurting by the end of the night, I still had a great time and would definitely see all the groups that performed again.
I also was very lucky and received a guitar pick from The Ocean Collective and Katatonia's guitarists on stage left, two things I will treasure forever.
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