“Hi! I should be on the guestlist…?”

Two texts, a phone call, a handing-of-my-phone-over-to-the-nice-smiling-chica-running-the-will-call-office-who-then-handed-the-phone-to-her-boss…. And we were in. (New town and a newer venue for me to frequent… you never know if it’s going to come through or not… but it did.  Thanks to all of the wonderful people involved in that exchange!)

Unfortunately, we missed Between the Buried and Me, which I was relatively bummed about, but I HAD caught them at the 9:30 Club in DC on their last tour in 2009 – I want to say it was when they were out with the Faceless, so it’s not as though it was the end of the world.  I’m sure they were fantastic. (If you were there, please feel free to comment below… on Valient Thorr‘s performance as well!)

Mastodon took the stage after 9p.m.  Projected behind the big, hairy men was a film that seemed to include Rick Rubin (playing Rasputin, of course) who eventually got into a sword fight with the devil… along with a naked male who kept appearing in a very precarious situation with his, um, highly extended, coiled umbilical cord lit like a stick of dynamite… Symbolism. Ha. All of the images came from the amazing artwork from not only C.T.S. (including the starlit night sky for the astral projection imagery) but as the evening progressed, previous album artwork as well.  (I actually grabbed a sweet drawing from deviantart for this review – http://deathbox-was-taken.deviantart.com/art/Mastodon-Blood-Mountain-92434242 )

Mastodon kicked off the set with “Oblivion” which got my blood pumping right away, but, as pointed out by my gf, perhaps due to the fact that it’s towards the beginning of the tour, Brann’s vocals were nowhere in the mix.  Maybe he wasn’t singing.  Maybe Brent was supposed to be doing Brann’s part. No clue. But that was a little awkward.  After the rough start though – which may have just been an audio glitch – and Troy’s apparent little struggle with his in-ear mix, the rest of the set was practically flawless.  The sound was thick, the lighting appropriate and tastefully done as to not interfere with the constant images on the screen.  They rocked out tons of tracks off their newest record, Crack The Skye, with favourites thrown in like “Seabeast” and “March Of The Fire Ants” in their encore, which I can’t imagine NOT hearing when venturing out to catch these boys live.  Honestly, I don’t think it’s possible to walk away from a Mastodon show not completely impressed.

We were lucky enough to get to grab some time with most of the band afterwards and even shared a couple beers at the Capital Ale House (good god is their beer list massive.) Brent mentioned his passion for all the side projects he’s been doing – I’d check out fellow ATL band Zoroaster’s new track “White Dwarf” as an example…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZkFe-oDoRyo&feature=player_embedded

The dudes got their bus call and Suzy and I, as our luck continued, grabbed a ride home from yet another nice, hairy boy before heading straight to bed (it was a Sunday evening, afterall…)

By all means necessary, go catch this show.  Baroness, along with Valient Thorr, is on the tour for the duration and please try not to miss BTBAM like me… go early.

April 21st Sayreville, NJ – Starland Ballroom

April 22nd Hartford, CT – Webster

April 23rd Worcester, MA – Palladium

April 24th Burlington, VT – Higher Ground

April 26th Pittsburgh, PA – Palace Theater

April 27th Rochester, NY – Water Street

April 29th Grand Rapids, MI – Orbit Room

April 30th Indianapolis, IN – Vogue

May 01st Columbia, MO – Blue Note

May 03rd Albuquerque, NM – Sunshine Theater

May 04th Tucson, AZ – Rialto

May 05th San Diego, CA – House Of Blues

May 07th Pomona, CA – Fox

May 08th Oakland, CA – The Missing Link

May 09th Reno, NV – Knitting Factory

May 10th Eugene, OR – McDonald Theater

May 11th Spokane, WA – Knitting Factory

May 13th Billings, MT – The Shrine

May 14th Fargo, ND – The Venue

May 15th Omaha, NE – Sokol Hall

May 16th Lawrence, KS – Liberty Hall

May 18th Madison, WI – Orpheum

May 19th Urbana, IL – Canopy Club

May 20th Memphis, TN – Minglewood

May 21st Knoxville, TN – Valarium

May 22nd Lexington, KY – Busters