Mastodon rocked the Birmingham HMV Institute

The American Sludge legends were playing at Birmingham friday the 10th with the support of The Dillinger Escape Plan and the rookies Red Fang ( Sludge Stoner ). After an unfortunatly too short warm up with the excelent Red Fang, who brought a real something with their new album Murder the Mountains ( support them, they are great! ), the absolute blast that bring the Dillinger change litteraly the athmosphere. Ultra technic and really powerfull, they managed to form few circle pits ! Their performance would even impress someone who is not really into Hardcore music.

After a good 30min sound check, Mastodon start a really complete set, with their really catchy last album, the Hunter, and some of their old albums too. A real pleasure, with nice lights effects and awsome athmospheric effect. The supersonics of the band and the creativity in each of their songs, plus the incredible touch of their lead guitarist Brent Hinds gave reason to many critics saying that Mastodon is one of the best band of the last decade. The show finaly ended on their new metal anthem from The Hunter, The Creature Lives with the support of Dillinger and Red Fang members.


Mastodon performing Black Tongue on BBC 2

From a venu point of view, the HMV institute got a good acoustic and even if the sound check wasn't perfect ( for Mastodon specially ), it didn't impact too much on the performance of the band. The opera style of the venu gives a lot of character to the show. The only bad aspect is that the balconies are not well equiped and are only seating area ( it is still possible to head bang sitting fortunatly! ).

The merchandise of the bands now! As stated in the post of the 25th January, music band's revenues, especially in Heavy Metal, depends really on the sales of the tshirts and other band's goods. Mastodon understood that a long time ago, and nowadays, even a small band such as Red Fang has its own collection. Always creative the Mastodon merchandise are not blocked in the Heavy Metal cliche ( black tshirt and skulls!!!) and gives some nice colours and really cool design to wear. Let's not forget about Mastodons outstanding artwork on all their albums and their merchandising has been the result of collaboration with talentuous artists such as Paul Romano.
Crack in the Sky artwork by Paul Romano