Meshuggah, In Flames & Whitechapel
November 28, 2023
The Grey Eagle Resort and Casino, Calgary, AB
Canadian Beats Passport
Tuesday night was a fine night for a road trip to Calgary as I headed down to witness Whitechapel, In Flames, and Meshuggah absolutely LEVEL the Grey Eagle Resort and Casino. The venue was nearly at capacity, and the fans were rabid.
Whitechapel took the stage first, at 7 PM sharp – and proceeded to deliver an absolutely punishing, albeit short set at 25 minutes. Each band was set up in front of the one following it so Whitechapel was kind of cramped near the front of the stage; which honestly just meant cooler photos for me. Drummers are always the hardest to shoot because they’re the furthest away but in this case, it left Brandon Zackery in a prime spot for me to capture some great shots.
In Flames was up next and is a band I’m used to seeing headlining. I am a huge fan of their older material, but their last few albums just haven’t really done anything for me. I checked the Setlist on my way down and was disappointed to find a set nearly devoid of the tried and true classics that most fans love. Instead, there was a spattering of songs from the newer albums. That is where my disappointment ended. There is no denying that those guys are an absolute masterclass of musicianship, and despite what I considered to be a weak set list they absolutely crushed. This is a band I have seen live 10+ times and I can confidently say this is the best I have ever heard Anders’ voice. Having Chris Broderick and Björn Gelotte together on guitars, has a very special chemistry, and those two always look like they are having so much fun doing what they do.
Closing out the night were Swedish extreme metallers Meshuggah – a Yiddish word meaning “crazy” – Certainly brought a lot of truth to their name. After a slow intense buildup to their opening intro, they demolished their way through roughly an hour and a half of career-spanning material. Security was very busy catching crowd surfers, mosh pits were a plenty, and the Calgary crowd absolutely ate up every minute of it. Everything that bad does is so well calculated and executed. From the stage and lighting design to the guitar tones and overall mix, Meshuggah is easily one of the tightest bands, and most visually stimulating I’ve seen.
This show was well worth the same-day drive to and from Calgary. I had my reservations going down, but they were quickly laid to rest as the night progressed. Holy hell what a show.