France, Paris - Apocalyptica

Exept the first band, the show was so amazing !

Hehe, well, it was not the best Apocalyptica show I attended, it was just... "great"
Too bad I wasn't anywhere near the front row... And too bad it was quite short (roughly 1:30) and they didn't even play Nothing Else Matters. Not that I love their version, but we had this song the last time in the Bataclan.

As a matter of fact, I did like the first band (Oceansize, as I've just discovered) despite their "britpop" attitude and way to move, act, dress, etc. Oh and despite of a quite bad sense of humor. I kept on thinking how I'd destroy this "shitty opener" in my comment during the first half of the first song, and then began to realize the music was very interesting. I wouldn't be surprised if I grabbed one of their CDs one day...

Too bad I met no MSer on that evening...

roughly 1.30 short? that's is quite long tbh, Even BIG bands play around that time max. Who wants to be bored to death by 3 hour concerts by a band anyway? (yezs I knwo Dream Theater fans want that, but they are weird anyway )

IMO one and a half hours is more THAN enough for a headliner, and at Festivals an hour is enough for the headliner IMO.

Hum, well, to me, 1:30 is exactly how long a headliner is supposed to play. Less, it's not enough, and more would be ideal if was reserved for real encores, when the band is really amazed by the crowd.
At least, this rules apply precisely in this very situation: one or no opener band, one headliner.
If there are 2 headliners (co-headliners then), then it's ok to play no more than 1:30.
If there are 3 or more bands, then I'd rather like that the headliner keep it to a short show, somewhere between 1:10 and 1:30.

It's how I personally feel about it.

Like wrathchild, I think 1h30 is just the right duration for a show. I'm always a bit pissed off when a concert is over and I realize the band played for barely one hour (except Benighted, their shows are too intense to last more than 50 minutes).

Oh, and I saw Oceansize at the infamous Metalliance festival in 2006, and they were very good as well, despite their britpop looks, as you said.