By Wayne Baggs
Mastodon rolled into Toronto on Monday night, September 28th, and absolutely tore the roof off Rebel. With Alcest and Deafheaven opening the night, this was a pretty serious metal lineup from start to finish.
Alcest got things going with their atmospheric, almost hypnotic sound, followed by Deafheaven, who turned the volume and intensity up another notch. By the time Mastodon hit the stage, the place was more than ready.
They opened with “Barbarians Blood,” followed by “March of the Fire Ants” and “Crystal Skull,” and there really wasn’t much let-up after that. The set mixed plenty of the new Marrow Deep material with some of the older stuff that Mastodon fans came to hear. “Megalodon,” “Mother Puncher,” “Steambreather,” “Oblivion” and “The Czar” were all in the mix.
One of the biggest surprises of the night came when Baroness frontman John Baizley joined the band on stage for “Snakes for Dinner” and stayed for the rest of the set. Having him up there added another dimension to an already massive sound.
And then there was “Blood and Thunder.” Hard to imagine a better way to finish the night.
Mastodon have obviously gone through a lot of changes, but Monday night showed that the band still has plenty of fire left. Loud, heavy and just plain fun. This was one of those shows where you walked out of Rebel with your ears ringing and a big smile on your face.
