By Noel Wurst
As someone who
doesn’t know every Mastodon song by heart, there came a time at their show in
Atlanta on Friday night when I had to stop trying to make out any of the words –
whether from the band themselves, or the maniacal fans around me – and just sit
back and listen. With a complete lack of
any sort of stage design, light show or smoke, and only a moderately
interesting loop of cult film footage rolling on the screen behind them,
Mastodon is a band that can’t afford to be boring for even a single second, and
they’re not.
With essentially
nothing to look at but the crowd around you (and in a city as self-conscious as
Atlanta, everyone is look at the people around them), the music alone
carries the weight of being the most interesting thing at the show, which in
this age of pyro and strobes, and masked/costumed performers, is a rarity. There wasn’t any interaction with the crowd,
not even here in the band’s hometown, and no one seemed to care at all.
Bassist Troy
Sanders was the only member even remotely interested in the crowd, giving the
occasional customary pointing into the audience, while the rest of the band
appeared downright shy. I expected to be
more frightened of guitarist/singer Brent Hinds and his legendary run-ins with
System of a Down and King Khan, but like the rest of the band, his calm, almost
statuesque performance was at times, downright calming. I don’t know if they truly are shy, or
if there’s simply a lack of need to really over exert themselves while in front
of a home crowd that’s going to love whatever they do. Perhaps they simply know
that they’re good enough to let the music speak for itself.
At times, the
crowd unfortunately seemed to feed off of Mastodon’s lackadaisical playing
style, and often acted as calmly as us old guys in the back. Of course, there was an occasional tiny mosh
pit, which was confusing in its creation during only a handful of songs, and a
complete disappearance in others.
Nothing against the band, but a majority of their songs, at least during
their live show, sound relatively the same (amazing) so why some were deemed
“mosh-worthy” and some were “go out into the lobby and people watch-worthy,” I
can only assume this can again, be blamed on this being Atlanta, and how long
is one truly expected to go without Twittering, or checking your eyeliner in
the bathroom mirror?
About two
thirds through the set, I sat back down in my seat, leaned back and
closed my eyes and essentially got more out of the show than when I was
observing my surroundings. With the
stage being bare of anything remotely interesting (band members included,) and
the antics of the crowd growing tiresome, the music from start to finish was
mesmerizing. I’m sure I looked asleep,
but with mental images from the band’s fantastic music videos, alongside with a
terrifying thought of being pummeled in a fist-fight with Hinds, the
accompanying live music made for an intensely memorable show.
