Attended Ihsahn gig yesterday. I like some of After and most of Arktis and not familiar with the rest of the albums, so it's not like I'm a big fan of him or anything, just decided to see a gig a bit outside of my comfort zone. That said, I pretty much liked it.
The venue was pretty small and not packed, just as I suspected it would be. There were probably 400 people total. The setlist was Arktis-heavy—Pressure, Mass Darkness, MHiotN, Until I Too Dissolve and Celestial Violence with Ihsahn on all vocals—the last two songs being the highlights for me. Ihsahn said that Until I Too Dissolve is his attempt to write a 80s happy metal song and the audience received it very well (it
is a great song, after all); and while Celestial Violence without Einar doesn't work that well (no harmonies in the ending), Ihsahn did a good job covering Einar's clean vocal parts. He also did a shrill scream on the last word in "The still anticipation of the scream" line, which was pretty damn great. The other highlights of the set were Hiber (an opener), A Grave Inversed and The Grave.
Ihsahn went to approach the crowd after the gig, which was nice of him, too. I didn't have anything to sign—the CDs at merch stand were damn expensive, starting from $25 and higher (they had After, Das Seelenbreechen, some other stuff and, curiously, some Leprous CDs)—so I just sat there and watched.
All in all, I doubt I will go see him again if he returns to Moscow one day, but it definitely was a nice experience. I'm glad that I went.