MIND INVERSION

Last night, April 29, 2009, the the conceptual prog/thrash/stoner metal masters in Mastodon came to the Fine Line Music Cafe in the heart of downtown Minneapolis’s  club district to support of their brilliant new album Crack the Skye, and they put together a gripping set that had the MN crowd salivating for more. It’s one thing to make every one of your albums into a separate concept piece, but it’s an entirely different story when you are able to execute that concept, front-to-back, in front of the live audience. However, Mastodon did just that by dedicating the entire first half of their set to the new release, and it didn’t end there they treated each of their releases with the same type of reverence, playing back through their career with mini-conceptual sets devoted to Blood Mountain, Leviathan, and Remission.

Crack the Skye was played in order, and it couldn’t have sounded better than it did at the Fine Line on Wednesday. The guitars were thick, loud, and crunching over the insane drum textures of Brann Dailor, sounding heavy as hell at times and lush and beautiful at others. Mastodon has the unique ability to play heavy rock that tends to get tripped out never loses sight of the fact that it’s main purpose is to fuckin’ rock! Fine Line’s sold out crowd certainly appreciated the heaviness throughout the night, and the moshing only subdued a few times during some of the most Pink Floydian moments.

However, things really kicked into high gear when the band stepped back onto stage for their second set of the night. As the band roared into the first notes of the psychonaut thrasher “Bladecatcher” from Blood Mountain, a renewed fervor hit the pit that didn’t let up until the end. Fans seemed to celebrate each time a new song began, a sure sign that of the future trouble the band might have in putting together albums that can stack up against their back catalog. Nevermind that though, because tonight the band has a more control of their sound and their crowd than any other band I’ve seen all year. The show was an ambitious one, but in the end it brought things full circle, beautifully introducing fans of the old the the new and vice versa.

Not to be outdone, the underground pyschedelic sludge metal vets Kylesa is came into town supporting their new album Static Tensions and played a set that left most of the crowd taking serious note of who was on stage in front of them. To anyone in metal band, Kylesa’s dirty headbanging psychedelics sonic presence is quite enviable, and the fact that they’re the direct support to Mastodon’s sold out tour is probably even more enviable.  To sum it up succinctly, this is a “band’s band”, if you know what I mean; everybody sings, they’ve got two drummers, males, females, and they play some very, very, very sick metal.

The underground prog/sludge heavyweights in Intronaut started things off right with their poly-rhythmic doom metal. Most of the set was focused around Prehistoricisms and The Challenger EP, with only a single song taken from earlier material. All around, the band sounded extremely tight and super heavy last night, and for as technical as their music is, they still came across as a pretty carefree group of musicians. If I would’ve found them in the venue, I would’ve gladly offered to roll one up with the dudes (but I might have had to make that conditional on a personal request for “Fragments of Character” next time they’re in MN – it’s a song that brings back great personal memories!).

And now on to the media presentation! We owe a big thank you to Chris, Erik, and the guys at CultureBully.com for the spontaneous “partnership” that spawned the vimeo hosted video in this post (and they were nice enough to include some of the shots that I took with their own, much better and more detailed writeup of the show)! Check out all the great photos of Mastodon, Kylesa, and Intronaut and FIVE videos of Intronaut and Mastodon. Happy viewing!

VIDEO: Mastodon, “Oblivion” (live at the Fine Line, 04/29/2009)

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VIDEO: Intronaut live at the Fine Line Music Cafe, 04/29/2009

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VIDEO: Mastodon, “Bladecatcher” (live at the Fine Line, 04/29/2009)

The recap (and more videos) are posted for you after the jump! Enjoy…

VIDEO: Mastodon, “Colony of the Birchmen” (live at the Fine Line, 04/29/2009)

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VIDEO: Intronaut, “The Challenger” (live at the Fine Line, 04/29/2009)

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This entry was posted on Thursday, April 30, 2009 at 4:54 pm and is filed under Concert Reviews with tags concert review, culture bully, fine line, fine line music cafe, intronaut, kylesa, live, mastodon, minneapolis, minnesota. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.