1MM: Mastodon Spreads “Crack the Skye” in Full, Thunders Through Back Catalog
Posted on May 11, 2009
Filed Under 1MM, Media | 2 Comments
Photos by Aaron Richter
As promised, Mastodon plowed through its latest album, Crack the Skye, from start to finish on Sunday at Brooklyn’s Music Hall of Williamsburg. Though we couldn’t help but wish the guys had cherry-picked the record’s best songs to spread throughout the set. Taken in full, Crack the Skye, is phenomenal, but live, the band seemed to be fighting against the album’s complexities, concentrating so hard so as not to let the music’s technical difficulty derail the show but losing sight of the fact that they’re here to entertain us. From time to time, they appeared uncomfortable, timid, frozen in place and a tad out of their element. Which is an absolute shock for anyone who’s seen Mastodon in the past. Additionally, the vocals sounded unbalanced, as if the interplay of guitarist Brent Hines, bassist Troy Sanders and drummer Brann Dailor wasn’t quite fitting in the mix right. Maybe it was Sanders’s mic, which seemed to be piped volumes above the rest of the music. Or maybe it was Dailor struggling through scratchy vocal chords. (self-titled hung out with the guys backstage earlier in the day, and Dailor was nursing a sore throat due to a hyperactive tour bus air conditioner.)
But struggles aside, the group redeemed itself once they returned to the stage for an extended encore of material from Blood Mountain, Leviathan and Remission. It was almost as if an entirely different Mastodon had arrived, buoyant with ferocious energy and burning fire—the metal band that so fucking good at being a metal band. They fed off the amplified crowd response, and appeared excited to be unshackled from Crack the Skye’s arduousness, as hindering as it is impressive. Which makes you wonder, why bother with the whole “play it in full” nonsense in the first place? Check out more photos after the jump.
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Nice photos, nice fu manchu.
[...] Day, self-titled sat with Mastodon bassist Troy Sanders and drummer Brann Dailor before their show at Brooklyn’s Music Hall of Williamsburg and let the guys chat freely about whatever they wanted. Given the comfortable tone and casual [...]