Sometimes an upcoming concert can make time pass so slowly it hurts. Today feels like that. Otep comes to the Maquis theater tonight with Through the eyes of the dead, bury your dead, and someone else I cannot recall. Otep is known for providing an in your face, shocking performances that include stage props like masks, flags, and the always predictable acts of Otep rubbing on her crotch while on stage.
Seeing her for the first time in 2001 at Ozzfest was incredible. Her raw energy, and emotion was so brutal and painful that it erupted chaos through the mosh pit in the early hours of the day. Since that spin in the mosh pit nearly nine years ago, Otep has grown musically, lyrically, and emotionally. Being very public and loud about her sexual abuse as a child and that she’s a lesbian. Otep also calls the work she does through her music her greatest therapy. Her early shows in 2003 and 2004 always had an odd uncomfortable feel when she would actually either sit or lie on stage and scream, cry, and yell poems and lyrics and utter nonsense while the band played a calm repetitive quiet back beat.
Last fall when Otep came to the Fillmore as an opener for Five Finger Death Punch and Shadows Fall, the weird fits on stage were gone and in its place was a supply of hard thrashing metal that kept everyone on their toes and they danced in the circle pit. It’s hard to forget how the pit exploded when Otep played the Nirvana cover “Breed”. Bodies were coming in from above as people crowd surfed from every direction. The already massive circle pit, doubled in size pulling one close to the sides insides the spinning mass of people.
After the Otep set, people walked or limped out of the pit bloody, sweaty, and begging for just a little more. With all that said, the excitement of Otep sits in my belly and turns as I think of how Otep is coming to one of my most hated venues next to Fiddler’s Green, the Marquis. The Marquis is a very small venue in Lodo. The venue is always a little too loud, the stage doesn’t sit very high at all, so its hard to get a good picture let alone a good look at who is on stage and fact it’s so small its hard to mosh and the security breaks up hard moshing right away. The security is great there though. They don’t take crap and keep the mosh pits mellow but allow the most pit to still thrive.
Personally, I have seen Otep over ten times in the nine years I have been a fan. I have seen her in Colorado and in California, but never in a venue as small as the Marquis. I am excited to be up close and personal with her, if I can even see her. Otep is short like myself, so with the stage only giving her a little over a foot, I might have to use my imagination. I hope she still plays old favorites off her first album, but like the direction she has chosen with her last two albums. Each provide more of a metal feeling that is easily head-banged to.
I also wonder how many will turn out for the set. She made lots of friends and fans when she came to the Fillmore the last two times, but the Marquis is such a small place that many fans may just not know that Otep is in town. KBPI is playing a new song during Metalix, and has also been talking about the upcoming show, so hopefully Otep won’t be playing to a crowd of twenty people. But on the other side of that comment, from a fan point of view, I hope
it’s not cramming so I can get up close with her and not have to look over someone’s shoulder as i stand on the stairs.
regardless of how many people are there or where Otep is playing, Otep puts on one of a stage performance and is always a crowd pleaser. You couldn’t pay me to miss tonight’s show, granted I might not be watching the opening bands, but Otep will and always have my full attention.
Otep Opening for Shadows Fall at the Fillmore. Denver, Co Oct. 28, 2009
