Live: Mastodon in Tempe, AZ - 4/16/2009

I'd heard rumors that Mastodon were going to play their latest album, Crack The Skye, in it's entirety during their current tour. Once the band took stage, the opening riff to "Oblivion" confirmed those suspicions. With a large screen sitting behind the elevated drum set of Brann Dailor, Mastodon dove head first into their soon-to-be classic new album. Of all the concerts I've ever attended, this is the first I've been to where a band has played through an entire album non-stop. What it lacked in surprise it made up for in atmosphere. Seeing that album played live is an even more intense experience than hearing a studio recording. Clearly, my Ford Escort factory speakers have been at a disadvantage here.


I had arrived at the venue about a half-hour before Mastodon's set. In my younger days, this would've been unacceptable: intentionally missing the opening bands and giving up precious time that I could've spent stubbornly staking out a spot at the rail directly in front of the stage, personal space and prevalent body odor be damned. But I'm older now, and my ears can no longer stand being parked in front of an amp for three hours, which is why I was delighted to walk into the venue, earplugs in place, to the final ten seconds of Kylesa's set. I couldn't have timed it much better.

Metal concerts have always been my favorites because the crowds there are decidedly nicer and more welcoming than other crowds at other concerts I've been to. This seems to surprise people sometimes, but it's a fact that I've been accustomed to for a long time. While I haven't necessarily made lifetime friends at metal concerts, I have encountered several people and been involved in many enthralling conversations about music with random strangers whose names I'd been destined to forget before the night was over, but that I'd greet with enthusiasm at the next show at which we'd run into each other ("Heeyyyyyy.........maaaaann").

Unfortunately, there wasn't any of that this time around. My late arrival time had a lot to do with that, but it might not have made much of a difference anyway since it was kind of a different crowd than usual. Of course you had your typical legion of black t-shirt wearing teens and early twenty-somethings, as well as a smattering of graying old-school metal fans (and everyone in-between), but they seemed to be more standoffish, not nearly as welcoming. Maybe they were thrown off by the embarrassing ratio of White Dudes With Dreadlocks there (WDWD's, or WD²), which was at least 1-in-10, but likely higher. I guess I don't blame them. It was kind of like the WD²'s were leftovers from a Matisyahu show who decided to stick around for a while before visiting the smoke shop down the road. I certainly noticed but I didn't mind. I've long stopped being surprised at the diversity of the crowd that Mastodon attracts.


The conclusion of "The Last Baron" and the bands' subsequent exit to backstage brought rousing applause from the crowd, and even those who were sure that Mastodon wouldn't end a concert after a mere 50-minute performance enthusiastically greeted the band when they came back out for an encore. I was among those expecting the band to return for more, but even I was surprised that they gave us 40-minutes more, with selected hits from their previous three albums. This is why Mastodon are my favorite band to see live: they're always energetic, obviously appreciative of their fanbase, and always start their shows on time, being respectful of the fact that many of their fans have work in the morning and would rather not stay out too late.

And before you ask: yes, l was in bed 30-minutes after the concert, resting up for the next work day.



Here's the setlist, as accurately as I remember it:

entire Crack the Skye album
("Oblivion", "Divinations", "Quintessence", "The Czar",
"Ghost of Karelia", "Crack the Skye", and "The Last Baron")
"Sleeping Giant"
"The Wolf Is Loose"
"Crystal Skull"
"Capillarian Crest"
"Megalodon"
"Iron Tusk"
"Seabeast"
"I Am Ahab"
"March of the Fire Ants"
"Hearts Alive"

Live: Sigur Rós in Tempe, AZ - 9/30/2008

Went to see Sigur Rós on Tuesday. For a band that I'd sort of lost confidence in, they were pretty awesome. They played a good mix of songs from all of their albums, including their latest one that I wasn't as impressed with compared to their previous efforts (see my review here). But they fit well within the set list. In fact, one of the better performances of the night was their latest albums' opening track, "Gobbledigook". Members of the opening band, Parachutes, came out with small drums around their waists and provided the consistent drum beat, and the song ended extravagantly with a burst of confetti that showered the front half of the venue so heavily that the musicians on stage were hardly visible. The colorful lighting during the song really added to the atmosphere. It was great. Check out some pictures:

(He does this during "Svefn-g-englar" to provide that ghostly vocal effect in the middle)

(Sigur Rós, with members of Parachutes during "Gobbledigook")

(And two minutes later)

The band appeared for an encore minutes after that performance and ended the show with "Untitled #8" from the ( ) album, which is possibly the most intense song in their catalog, therefore great to end a show on.

I don't go to as many concerts as I used to, so it was nice that one of the few that I've made it to in the last couple of years was worth it, especially considering a couple of concerts I attended earlier this year (Dalek/RJD2 and The Black Keys) were a bust. The crowd around me (and overall) was pretty tolerable throughout, so that was a real bonus. For whatever reason, I've always had my worst concert experiences when there were a ton of hipsters in the audience, and this show certainly wasn't lacking in hipster numbers. But this time, besides having to be subjected to some of the worst haircuts I've ever seen in one building, there was nothing much to complain about.