Yesterday I along with my good friend Tom made the trip 65 miles north to Brixton to see Mastodon at the O2 Academy, having seen them a few times before I already knew that I was certain of a good show, what I got however was an Awesome show and without doubt the best I’ve ever seen from Mastodon!
Support: -
The first support act were a band called ‘Red Fang’, I knew little to nothing about them apart from the couple of Youtube videos I looked up yesterday. They put on a pretty good show and I enjoyed them they were tight and their sound definitely started to warm up the crowd for Mastodon well.
Up next were the other support act ‘The Dillinger Escape Plan’ another band that I had seen a couple of times before so I knew what to expect, they were completely unhinged, chaotic, crazy, loud and extremely disturbingly enjoyable. Having seen them twice before (both previously at Reading Festival including the infamous one…) I knew that they were decent and extremely energetic live and they didn’t let us down they were quite frankly brilliant, The Dillinger Escape Plan are genuinely a band I would never listen to by choice on record yet every time I’ve seen them live I’ve been left with a huge smile on my face and loved them and this was once again the case, I’m happy they were chosen as a support act.
Main Headliner: -
Now to the reason I and the other nearly 5,000 people descended on Brixton last night Mastodon! I knew they would be good as I’ve seen them before but boy did they raise their game for what was their biggest ever headline show to date, they were nothing short of truly phenomenal! They were as tight as you would expect from a band as technical as Mastodon and the sound last night was spot on and somewhat loud (Although standing at the front barrier to the right of the stage next to the speakers probably didn’t help that!!). The setlist was extremely good aswell as it was a mix of their biggest songs and tracks from their latest album ‘The Hunter’ and it all flowed nicely into each other, my only wish would probably have been another song or two off of the ‘Crack The Skye’ album but that would be me nitpicking.
It is very rare nowadays that I stand at the front barrier because as I’ve grown older I’ve found it loses its appeal being squashed at the front where it is needlessly louder that it ever needs to be, so the fact that I did so for Mastodon is a measure of the esteem in which I hold the band. Normally I would point out some highlights from the set at this point but it almost seems unfair and nigh on impossible to do so as their entire set was literally faultless I will however say on a personal level I particularly enjoyed ‘Crack The Skye’ and both ‘Circle Of Cysquatch’ and ‘Blood And Thunder’ sounded as epic as ever. The night closer ‘Creature Lives’ was a good way to finish the show as it is a mellow song (By Mastodon’s Standards) and it sparked a sing-along as the members of ‘Red Fang’ & ‘The Dillinger Escape Plan’ joined them on stage.
This was one of the most enjoyable nights out I’ve had in a long time and I think this show may rank easily in the top 5 of the hundreds I’ve seen through the years, not just because of the sheer awesomeness of Mastodon but also because of the stella performances from the support acts aswell!! I shall see you again soon Mastodon!!
Setlist: -
PDC
