Mastodon -- Montreal, Quebec -- November 23rd, 2011

[VoidFlame]

Venue: Metropolis

Holy shit this was an amazing concert! Maybe the best one I've seen this year. All three bands just blew my mind.

When I got into the venue, Red Fang were about to start playing, so I just ran up to the front, because I was really excited to see them. Only a few people seemed to know their songs, but they managed to gain many new followers. By the middle of their set, they had fully conquered the crowd and there were many circle pits for "Wires", "Sharks" and "Prehistoric Dog". Their sound was excellent and very heavy. Also, I'm really happy they played my two favourite songs off their first album, "Good to Die" and "Sharks", because according to the setlists I've seen, they didn't on the first half of the tour. I hope they come back here again soon!

Then, when The Dillinger Escape Plan's intro began, I was on te second floor drinking some water to get ready for their set, so once again I had to get to the front quick . I thought that they were better than when I saw them with Deftones; they had tons of energy, and as always they were climbing up on the venue's speakers and on their amps to play. At one point, Ben Weinman played for 1-2 minutes standing on the crowd and Greg stage dived and gave us the mic ( I can't remember which song it was). The crowd was really into them, there were huge pits and crowd surfers, everyone was going nuts, especially during the songs from "Miss Machine". Except for the length, their set felt like they were the headliners of the show. One of my friends catched a pick from Ben and gave it to me, because he's not a huge fan of the band. It's really cool: it's black with a shining silver print that reads "The Dillinger Esc Pick" the way it's written on "Option Paralysis".

This time I was prepared for Mastodon, I was already up front when the intro for "Dry Bone Valley"'s first notes rang. At this time, the floor was packed and the seats upstairs were all taken. If the show wasn't sold-out, it was very close to being. They had a huge and really beautiful backdrop in the same theme as the album cover of "The Hunter" and they made projections on it, which added to the atmosphere. Everything sounded perfect and the band had a really warm, happy attitude (for example, Troy kept on singing the lyrics with me and some other people around me, making signs to people and smiling like he was having the time of his life). It made a huge difference from the last time I had seem them (at Heavy MTL 2010), where they all looked pissed and didn't seem to care that much. At first, I didn't know what to expect for the crowd reaction. For "Dry Bone Valley", most people stood still, then when "Black Tongue" kicked in everyone started headbanging and singing the lyrics and then as soon as the first riff to "I Am Ahab" was played, the place just exploded! The pits were really violent, but fun (my legs hurt and I have trouble walking now, but I don't care ). What I love about Mastodon shows is that there's those really beautiful passages where you just stand and feel the music (like in "Sleeping Giant" or "Crack the Skye") and right after that, there's those really heavy songs, like "Megalodon", "Aqua Dementia" or "Spectrelight", where everyone goes crazy. After a glorious ending (with 4 incredibly heavy classic songs), they came back on stage to play "Creature Lives" with members form Red Fang and The Dillinger Escape Plan and also some other people. It felt like an anthem to the show/tour, and it was the perfect way to end the night. I had an incredible time and every other person in the crowd and in the bands also seemed to have had one! At the end, every member of the band, except shy-guy Billy, came in front to personnaly congratulate us.


Red Fang

Hank Is Dead
Throw Up
Malverde
Wires
Good To Die
Sharks
Prehistoric Dog


The Dillinger Escape Plan

Farewell, Mona Lisa
Room Full Of Eyes
Milk Lizard
Panasonic Youth
Gold Teeth On A Bum
Good Neighbor
Chinese Whispers
Sunshine The Werewolf
43% Burnt


Mastodon

Dry Bone Valley
Black Tongue
Crystal Skull
I Am Ahab
Capillarian Crest
Colony of Birchmen
Megalodon
Blasteroid
Sleeping Giant
Ghost of Karelia
All the Heavy Lifting
Spectrelight
Curl of the Burl
Bedazzled Fingernails
Circle of Cysquatch
Aqua Dementia
Crack the Skye
Where Strides the Behemoth
Iron Tusk
March of the Fire Ants
Blood and Thunder

--------------------------------------

Creature Lives (with Red Fang and DEP)

[Orion89]

I really wanted to hit up this show when it came to philly, but it sold out before i could my tickets Those sets are great.

Sounds like you had great time man!

[passty]

going tomorrow night in Toronto. Personally, I'm not a fan of Red Fang or Dillinger, but I've only seen Mastodon headline once and thats when they co-headlined with Dethklok.. so I'm excited to see them