HERITAGE HUNTER: MASTODON, OPETH, AND GHOST @ THE MASQUERADE, ATLANTA, GEORGIA

Saturday was a rather wicked day that was full of a lot of random surprises, even if things got off to a frustrating start. I attended the show with Chrissa, a friend in Dalton, her fiance, and local musician Jonathan Shrum of Unspoken Triumph fame. We made it to the Masquerade literally five minutes before Ghost started playing. Admittedly, I don’t really care much for Ghost. Their music is good, but the theatrics kind of turn me off a little bit (I’m at a phase in my life where I just want musicians to be musicians and not actors). During this time I met up with my ATL homeboys Mark, Adam, Chase, and Will and Dan from Zoroaster.

Finally, Opeth took the stage for what felt like 45 minutes of magic. They played a lot of new songs off of Heritage, and much to my delight, also broke out “Demon of the Fall”. I had to chuckle a bit when Mikael teased the mostly Southern audience by playing a bit from “Dueling Banjos” between songs. One thing I really like about this Akerfelt fellow is that he doesn’t take himself that seriously and wants the audience to have fun right along with him. He even introduced himself as Lars Ulrich at one point! Opeth closed their set with “The Grand Conjuration” and the whole place went nuts. Overall, I was very impressed, and Mikael’s voice is just fifty shades of fucking gorgeous live. It’s a shame I didn’t get to meet him at some point during the night.

Lastly, Mastodon came out to give their hometown heathens something to chew on. It was so great to get to hear The Hunter in its entirety, even if the songs were out-of-order, plus there were a few old standards to drive the crowd into a frenzy. My favorite part of their set was when Brent’s mom jumped into the crowd and went surfing like the young whipper-snappers surrounding me! Nearly everyone in Mastodon’s immediate family was there, including Bill’s mom and Brent’s 88-year-old grandma. It was really a sight to behold.

The best part of the night came a few minutes after the show ended. I had brought an envelope with me that contained a letter for Brann and a card for his wife Susanne (whose band Tiger! Tiger! still kicks all kinds of ass if you haven’t checked them out). I was a bit annoyed that I couldn’t find Brann earlier in the night, but I decided to wait around the buses until he surfaced…and he eventually did. I didn’t get to talk to Brann long, considering the fact that there were a bunch of other rabid fans around, but I gave him the envelope and he congratulated me on graduating college, and we hugged.

I also talked to Troy for a minute or so. He was greeting fans and couldn’t stop talking about his family the whole time, which I thought was really sweet. I told him that I thought he did a great job on stage (and he did - his voice sounds a lot better now than it did a few months ago), and he held up his hand. I thought he wanted a high-five,  but when I put my hand up to his, our fingers laced. I held hands with Troy fucking Sanders *.*

Lastly, I saw Susanne before I left. Regular readers of this blog know that she has been very much like a kind auntie to me in the past year, so it was really great to catch up with her. We talked for what must have been about twenty minutes or so about different things. I was mostly grateful that she too had congratulated me on graduating college at FYM a week ago - she had gone as far as to mark the date on her calendar months ago. She and Brann were both so proud of me, and it just put a big, stupid grin on my face.

I’ll be back in Atlanta tomorrow with some friends, so I might run into some MastoDuders while there. If not, it was still cool to see my boys again, and it was definitely cool to finally get my chance to see Opeth live. I am thankful to Chrissa for taking me to the show and bringing me home safe and sound. She is a rad-as-fuck chick whose company I really enjoy. Until next time!

4 Notes   Comment

When I grow up, I want to be Susanne Gibboney.

5 Notes   Comment

Four voices, four great men.

One of the things I love so much about Mastodon is that all four members of the band can sing and have shared lead vocals on songs. How many other metal bands can do that these days?

239 Notes   Comment

This is possibly the most beautiful thing I’ve ever made.

25 Notes   Comment