Few band’s get Sacramento jazzed as much as the mighty Mastodon. A fair amount of time had passed, and many miles of touring has happened since their most recent record, Once More ‘Round The Sun dropped, but Sacramento fans haven’t seen the band play a headline set in house in a while. This crowd was stoked.
Intronaut (I'm far from a photographer)
For a long while no opener was slated for this show. At Ace of Spades This usually means it’ll be an unannounced local opener that could be good, or that might have warrant having batteries tossed at them. This town has a lot of both. However, in a welcomed twist, about a week and a half before the date fellow progressive aficionados Intronaut were announced as support. The band said they’d be debuting a bunch of new tracks from their great upcoming record (put title here). This was added excitement to an already stacked evening, for this guy at least.
The crowd, clearly there for Mastodon, responded quite positively to their support. New numbers “Fast Worms” and “Digital gerrymandering” started off their performance, and they sounded killer. Long-time fans hoping for older material may have been disappointed by the fact that there was only a single song ("Core Relations" from Valley of Smoke) that wasn’t from the new record. I might not argue with them if the new material wasn’t so strong. It was a special set for us and the band since Sacramento was the first audience to hear a good number of songs from the album. I, for one, think that’s pretty fucking cool since this should be the material that should break them into whatever the next level is. See them on their next tour with Between The Buried and Me if you weren’t at Ace of Spades or their Chico gig.
When Mastodon hit the stage, they opened with “Tread Lightly,” which has kicked off their sets for a while now, but this crowd went ape-shit. The band responded in kind, and preceded to pummel the audience with an 18-song career spanning set. Once More, unsurprisingly, was the priority of the evening, but a close second was Leviathan. Classics like “Megaladon,” “Iron Tusk,” “Blood and Thunder,” and “Aqua Dementia” all reared their ugly aquatic heads and sent the audience into a frenzy. I was a little surprised how little The Hunter was represented (only “Blasteroid” and “Black Tongue”), but that surprise was quickly washed away with stellar performances of “The Czar,” “Bladecatcher,” “Mother Puncher,” and other gems from their records that I prefer.
I’ve seen then quite a few times now (I think this was the seventh time?), but I don’t think I’ve seen them this into a set before. I’ve certainly seen them stand in place while staring at their shoes relying on the lights behind them to be the show, and this show wasn’t that by a long shot. I’m not sure if it was the audience energy, being in a smaller venue than they typically play, that the bus broke down en route causing them to just make it before doors, or the fact that they’ve been on tour with Judas Priest, but they were just feeling it. They were once again the fun, colossally heavy, and undeniably solid band I fell for so long ago. They’re a band that I love, and that is very important to be, but before this show, my faith in their live performance had waned. I’m a believer once again, but will probably wait until the next record to see them again.
The closing words of drummer Brann Dailor topped off the evening by ending it on a humorous note. He emerged from behind his drum kit (which has been painted in a manner that straddles the line between psychedelic and Skittle vomit) and grabs the main mic. “Back in the Sac!” he roars, and then goes on to guess that every band rock band says that that comes to Sacramento. I’ve literally never heard “Back in the Sac” before in all my shows around here. Eventually, the scrotum/sack parallel becomes more blatant and he remarks, “You’re more than the sack. You’re the sack and the shaft!” He acknowledged how dumb that statement was and begged for it not to be printed anywhere. Sorry Brann, but it was too good not to. Regardless, the city of Sac-(And Shaft)-ramento loves you too.
