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| Mastodon's Bill Kelliher |
Riviera Theater, Chicago
May 8, 2014
By Jason Scales
Link to original posting: http://illinoisentertainer.com/2014/05/stage-buzz-live-review-mastodon/
Link to "High Road" audio: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x0-EyHT1lJk
Mastodon’s
appearance at the Riviera Theater on May 8 served in part as a sneak peek of
the band’s forthcoming album in June, the first album since 2011’s “The Hunter.”
Most notably, “High Road,” the first single from “Once More ‘Round The Sun,”
was featured, a performance that assured the near sell-out crowd that the
Atlanta-based band is continuing in its progressive metal approach. The song is
sludgy with a repetitive and groovy riff that leads into the instantly singable
chorus “you take the high road down, I’ll take the ground below you.” The
verse-chorus-verse structure is more linear than one might expect from
Mastodon, but that eventually gives way to a wall-of-sound double lead-guitar
battle.
The majority
of the 90-minute set was comprised mostly of songs from past albums, with
“Black Tongue,” “Crystal Skull,” and “Oblivion” cemented as requisite crowd
favorites. As expected from a band that features multiple textures, tempos, and
vocals—often in the same song—guitarist-singer Brent Hinds and bassist-singer
Troy Sanders rotated into the singing spotlight. On “Bedazzled Fingernails,” as
Hinds led the crowd in singing “lay me down/stand my ground,” the pit offered
up crowd surfers, who were quickly wrangled by security only to be let go and
reabsorbed into the crowd. The group’s metal jam-band approach, with Southern
rock highlights and spacey instrumental passages, has been honed through years
of touring. They’ve never been sloppy, but this night seemed especially on,
perhaps because they were touring to introduce a new album rather than support
one. Although more preview of new material would have been nice, perhaps the
band wanted please the crowd with established jams, punctuated with a small
taste of what’s soon to come.
Opening
bands Kvelertak and Gojira were a study in contrasts, with the former’s loose
punk rock approach to metal clashing with the latter’s precision thrash attack.
.JPG) |
| Gojira |
Chants
of “Go-Jir-A!” preceded the French band’s appearance on stage and it delivered
on the hype: Two imposing amp stacks bookended an elevated drum platform,
allowing shirtless drummer Mario Duplantier an appropriate pulpit from which to
conduct his polyrhythmic, helicopter double-bass assault. Strobe lights
punctuated nearly every snare drum shot to punishing effect on “The Heaviest
Matter of the Universe.” The relentless shredding, combined with the first
90-degree day in Chicago of the season, was nearly overwhelming. On “L’Enfant
Sauvage,” the title track of the band’s latest album, the tempo mercifully
slowed for temporary relief—necessary for both the band that never missed a
mark and the rabid crowd that responded in appreciation.
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| Kvelertak |
Norwegian
openers Kvelertak, a four-man guitar and bass line-up fronting singer and
drummer, presented a different aesthetic in a quick and energetic eight-song
set. Longhaired and bare-chested singer Erlend Hjelvik commanded the stage and
crowd, wailing in his native tongue from the band’s two-album catalogue.
“Braune Brenn” from latest album “Meir” was a highlight, as the band favored
its shorter, high tempo songs (including “Evig Vandrar”) over more progressive
offerings found on its albums. Most entertaining were the coordinated
guitar-as-prop theatrics pulled off by the four when more groovy breakdowns in
the instrumentation allowed. The band was clearly enjoying the energy from the
early arriving crowd.
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| Mastodon's Troy Sanders |
All photos taken by author on iPhone 4S
