THE OBLIGATORY MASTODON CRACK THE SKYE LIVE SHOW WRAP

So, Mastodon have been touring small venues in the U.S. playing Crack the Skye (recent recipient of 5-out-of-5 horns on MetalSucks!) in its entirety. The fact that they’re playing a full album is awesome in and of itself (who else does that nowadays??), but thankfully the execution lived up to the billing at the Music Hall of Williamsburg in Brooklyn last Sunday night. The band had a full HD screen with psychedelic video clips that roughly synched up to the storyline of the music; the band was tight as hell, the sound was crystalline, the audience beyond stoked. It was a fucking fantastic night, and if I hadn’t seen this show earlier that same week, it probably would’ve been my choice for #1 live show of ’09 thus far.

Metal Injection (who were also in attendance… as fans, I might add) have posted a clip from CultureBully of the beginning of the show from the tour’s stop in Minneapolis. The clip captures everything perfectly, from what it looked and sounded like to what it felt like to be there, even though we saw the show in a completely different city on a completely different night. That’s just where Mastodon are in their game these days — completely on top of it, killing it every single night. Ten or twenty years from now you’ll be able to say “I saw them when…” the way people now speak fondly about seeing Led Zeppelin or Pink Floyd in their prime. Mastodon are just that good.

Shout-out to our boys in Intronaut who sounded fantastic live in the opening slot.

-VN