Last week, Mastodon came to Austin. When I had originally heard that they'd be coming to town, I debated whether or not to go. The last couple albums definitely have their bright spots, but in my opinion are not nearly as formidable as the previous 3 monsters. Plus, I had seen Mastodon once in person before, and had seen and heard recorded footage of them, and the nicest thing I can say about it is that at least they play with a lot of energy. If I had to coin a phrase, I guess I would say that they're the "best terrible live band" I've ever seen. Bad vocals and sloppy execution, but lots of fist pumping action. But, the timing of this trip to Austin was nicely placed directly between what turned out to be a horrid Opeth show and what I fully expect to be a mind-blowing Between The Buried And Me show. So, I figured what the hell, and headed out for it.
There were two openers, the first of which was a local Austin band called Ancient Wisdom. They were.....interesting, I guess. They had two guitarists, one electric and one acoustic, a bass, and a drummer who played (badly) standing up and handled all the vocals. It was kind of a doom+stoner rock combination. They had some pretty nifty acoustic riffs, but the rest was pretty bad, borderline laughable. The drummer/singer guy was way too serious about lyrics that were way too cheesy. After their set, I actually talked with a couple of the guys for a few minutes. The acoustic guitarist "Ribs" works at Mohawk and the bassist "Trans Am" ("as in the car", he felt he needed to clarify) apparently works at Jackalope, and claims to be the guy behind all their burger recipes. They seemed like a couple of really nice guys, but man they gotta get away from that morose stand-up singing drummer guy. Hey, but kudos to Trans Am on the burgers, they are pretty damn tasty.
Next up was Black Tusk. I had never heard their material before, although I recognized their name and knew that one of my friends absolutely loves them. Talk about energy, oh my god, they destroyed the place for the better part of an hour. Immensely satisfying heavy guitar sludge, crazy metal vocals coming from 3 different directions (each member of the trio chipped in), and a frantically chaotic pace. It was a great time, and had probably the most unexpectedly meaty riffage I'd seen since the first time I ever caught The Sword (2004?).
Then Mastodon took the stage, and any question as to whether or not I should have hit this show were quickly swept away. Check out this set:
01. Dry Bone Valley
02. Black Tongue
03. Crystal Skull
04. I Am Ahab
05. Capillarian Crest
06. Colony Of Birchmen
07. Megalodon
08. Blasteroid
09. Sleeping Giant
10. Ghost Of Karelia
11. All The Heavy Lifting
12. Curl Of The Burl
13. Spectrelight
14. Bedazzled Fingernails
15. Circle Of Cysquatch
16. Aqua Dementia
17. Crack The Skye
18. Where Strides The Behemoth
19. Iron Tusk
20. March Of The Fire Ants
21. Blood And Thunder
Look at that set!!! Talk about fully representing your whole catalog! We've got 7 from The Hunter, 2 from Crack The Skye, 5 from Blood Mountain, 5 from Leviathan, and 2 from Remission. OK, so nothing from Call Of The Mastodon, but hey I'll live, there are only I think 2 songs from that album that I absolutely love anyway. If I had to be really picky, I suppose I would have gotten rid of a couple of the songs from the new album (probably "Blasteroid", "Curl Of The Burl", and "All The Heavy Lifting") and replaced them with a couple more of the stout classics ("Seabeast", "The Wolf Is Loose", "Workhorse", or if I'm really lucky, "Hearts Alive"). But in the end, I have zero complaints, the set was so much more than I had dared to hope for.
The big surprise for me was how improved the execution was, both in terms of the band's performance and the quality of the sound. For the first half of the show, I was about 20 feet from the stage in the center, trying hold my ground against the moshing idiots. From here, the sound was still a bit washed out when it got really heavy, you'd lose a little of the ability to distinguish the guitars, to hear the vocals, etc. But the execution seemed pretty spot on. Brann was going crazy, hitting every fill flawlessly, and the rest of the guys all nailed their timing perfectly. It actually seemed pretty tight, which was fairly impressive given that they do play with such energy and their material does have some challenging timing here and there.
For the latter half of the show, I actually moved back a bit, so that I was even with the soundboard. And back here, the sound was tremendous, far better balanced. And once I was back here with the better sound, I could definitely hear a huge difference in their execution. Each nuance was hit perfectly in stride, the performance was really excellent.
As far as the feel of the show, the guys seemed to be on a mission. I mean, they packed 21 heavy, hard-hitting songs in about an hour and a half. From the first show I saw, I remember them goofballing it up in between songs, making jokes or talking with the crowd. While they did stop a couple times to say a few words, for the most part during this show they just cranked right into the next number, barely taking a moment to breathe. The pace of the show was furious, I barely had time to soak in one song before practically pissing myself with glee as the next started.
This was an outstanding show. After the bummer of an Opeth show a couple weeks before, I REALLY needed a no frills, ass-kicking show to come set me straight. While Mastodon's newer material may not light quite the same fire in me as their older stuff, they've shown me they still know who they are, and they still know how to destroy. Next time they come to town, it'll be a much quicker decision.
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