Mastodong

Everything comes together! Presumably a month or so before I leave the country for an extended period of time (though not as long as some people apparently thought), I finally got to see my current (August 2004-present) favorite band Mastodon play the last show of their US tour, in their home town of Atlanta. Did it live up to my expectations? It slapped my expectations around and even kicked them a little bit. Here is what they played, not in the correct order:

Hearts Alive
Blood & Thunder
I Am Ahab
Seabeast
Island
Iron Tusk
Megalodon
Aqua Dementia
Crusher Destroyer
March Of The Fire Ants
Where Strides The Behemoth
Mother Puncher
We Built This Come Death
(some Melvins song)
(some Thin Lizzy song)

Arrrrh, 'tis a mighty setlist! That's all but 2 songs off their latest album Leviathan, plus 4 off Remission, 1 pleasant surprise off their first EP Lifesblood, and 2 songs not by them (grrr!), though the Thin Lizzy song was pretty good.

Back in "the day" I used to judge a (metal) show by how much pain I was in afterwards, but by that logic all the best shows have been in Worcester (plus one All That Remains show in Concord), which is not necessarily true. So the criteria have been altered: from now on I will judge the goodness of a show by how many Mastodon songs are played. This show came in pretty high on that scale.

You know what else was great? The friendliness of the crowd. I love a friendly metal crowd. The last time I saw a mosh pit this happy was at Arch Enemy in Philly, summer 2003. Everyone was here to see Mastodon; there were none of those fucks who show up just to hurt people. We were there to hurt each other and shout lyrics about Moby Dick. One kid headbutted me and then gave me a hug. I high-fived another kid, who then started punching me rapidly in the stomach. It was beautiful. If I were to retire from the moshing scene, this would be a great note to end it on, but I have a feeling that's not going to happen anytime soon.

I should add that I saw this show with Esse Gajo, who just moved to the area and is faced with a situation similar to what I had to deal with last spring/summer. Lucky for him he's right next to Atlanta and won't have to drive 70+ miles to find things to do. Plus, his girlfriend is coming down there in a year, so he's got that to look forward to as well. You can make it, That Guy!

It was also good to see my older sister for a few hours on Friday, and to hang out at the 404 with 小林さん (who finally got to see NIN, banzaaaiii) and Kerry, both of whom are right at the top of my list of The 10 or So People I Actually Like. Word.


NOTE: I considered that last statement about only liking 10 or so people, and then made a list of names and counted ... it's more like 20. But don't let that make you feel any less special.