On Thursday (4-22-2010) Mastodon / Between the buried and me and Baroness stopped at The Webster in Hartford, CT which I attended. This had been my first show in CT in god knows how long. The last show I probably saw was 100 Demons in some dive bar somewhere maybe 6-7 years ago. (For a good reason)
I arrived in the middle of Baroness’s set. They seemed to be having a good time and rocking out hard, although the crowd seemed to be falling asleep. Nothing compared to the crowds of under 100 I witnessed growing up in CT @ various Hard Core/Metal shows in the mid-late 90’s where people would literally lose their fucking minds. (Those were the days)
Blake Richardson and Brann Dailor are two of my favorite drummers and I haven’t seen either Mastodon or BTBAM yet, so I had been looking forward to this show for quite some time. BTBAM starts up Fossil Genera - A Feed From Cloud Mountain from their latest album The Great Misdirect and I immediately whip out the iPhone to record footage and the douche fuck security guard taps me on the shoulder after about 10 seconds telling me I can’t record video. This aggravated the fucking testicles off me for the remainder of the show. BTBAM’s set was unfortunately short, but they snuck in a few jams from Alaska and Silent Circus. If you have never seen this band I highly recommend it, they are just as amazing live as they sound on their album. I look forward to seeing them headline sometime soon.
Then around 10pm Mastodon comes on and fires up Oblivion. Throughout this first song and the remainder of the entire Crack The Skye album which they played in its entirety, the guitarist Brent was having a meltdown over his microphone which was constantly feeding back and his guitar rig didn’t seem to be loud enough and I doubt was functioning properly. After they took a break post Crack the Skye, which was a tad shaky due to Brent’s anger, they came back in full force. Following a bunch of stuff off Remission/Leviathan/Blood Mountain, which proceeded to melt what was left of my face into the ground, it was all over.
Aside from the technical difficulties and short set of BTBAM I’d say it was a pretty rad show. All the bands came pretty hard (what she said) and did their thing. The one thing that did bother me that has nothing to do with the bands are the spoiled shithead, fuck face un cultured brat CT kids who come out to these shows and act like total fools. Throughout BTBAM’s set I was standing next to some dude who was playing a video game on his iPhone the entire time. I honestly wanted to shove him into the pit for being a tool shed. You are spending $50 to come see a show. Watch the fucking bands douchebag. I can understand tweeting/texting/updating sites/posting pictures and telling your friends how sick the show is, etc. But come on seriously, you are in the presence of amazing musical talent to be consumed by a stupid video game. Maybe BTBAM isn’t your style. That’s totally fine. You still paid good money to come to a show. Watch the god damn bands. Show some respect. You know how brutal it is to live on the fucking road for months at a time and sweat your balls off in front of a room full of people every night to pay your bills? No, you don’t.
Secondly, the venue had a designated bar area way in the back which you COULD NOT GO BEYOND WITH DRINKS. I don’t remember the last time I went to a show and wasn’t allowed anywhere near the stage with a beverage…Absolutely ridiculous. You give out wristbands for a reason.
Conclusion : Mastodon, Between the buried and Me and Baroness are mega talented, nipple igniting beasts of bands and deserve your full, undivided attention. They also deserve to have their fans be able to get shit hammered in front of the stage.
I really have to stop drinking when I write these.
Related links:
Mastodon Official Site
Mastodon on MySpace
Mastodon on Twitter
By: Chris Denman
Photo Credit - BrianSharks
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