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Live Concert Report: Mega-Monsters

When I first saw the poster for this tour, I was amazed. Upon closer review, I noticed that the 4/20 show was within a day’s driving distance, and the Concord Pavilion is less than five miles from a Gojira-loving good friend’s home. How could I resist?

I live between Portland and Concord. With a day off after their 4/18 gig, I actually saw every member of Mastodon and some members of Gojira and their crews roaming the streets of my little town on 4/19. Had I not been making the long drive to see them all perform the following night, I would have felt sick to be missing this. Instead, I knew that the following day would be an epic adventure. Let’s skip some of the adventures and get straight to the show.

Lorna Shore was the opener, but, as I’ve noted elsewhere, I have yet to appreciate bands that are described as “deathcore” or “metalcore”. I have eventually become a fan of some metal subgenres that I didn't initially like, but that hasn't happened yet with anything core. I tried; I really did. I had Lorna Shore in constant rotation the past few months, but they still don’t work for me. Some of the solos are fantastic, but the rest just doesn’t compute in my brain.

Gojira and Mastodon are co-headlining this tour, and I think Gojira finished the night off in Portland. So on this 420, Gojira went first, which made sense given that Mastodon is one of the biggest stoner metal bands on the planet.

I have always liked Gojira, but they never climbed into the “love” category. Nor have they ever remained in my permanent music rotation. I saw them seven years ago in Denmark, and, while a good show, that performance didn’t change their status much in my book.

On this night in Concord, however, I fell in love. Gojira has now earned a spot in my permanent music rotation, and I hope this wasn’t the last time I see them live.

I photographed two different setlists on the stage, and they were slightly different from each other. (How confusing for the band members?!?) This one may have Amazonia and The Chant in reverse order from what actually transpired. I don’t remember.

Mastodon’s setlist was:
The Wolf Is Loose
Crystal Skull
Megalodon
Divinations
Andromeda
Sultan's Curse
Fallen Torches
Pushing the Tides
More Than I Could Chew
Aqua Dementia
Steambreather
Iron Tusk
March of the Fire Ants
Mother Puncher
Circle of Cysquatch
Blood and Thunder

In other words, more focus on earlier material than recent tours. Seven songs off of Leviathan and Blood Mountain—when is the last tour that happened? Only two songs off of their most recent release, Hushed and Grim, and nothing from The Hunter or Once More ‘Round the Sun. I always want to hear more from Crack the Skye, but Divinations was the lone track from my favorite Mastodon album.

I wonder if the setlist selection has something to do with who they are touring with? Go heavier with Gojira but not so much when touring with Opeth, Ghost, etc.? I don’t know—just wondering what the selection process is like.

I've been to hundreds of concerts in the Bay Area over the past 40+ years. Somehow, this was my first visit to the Concord Pavilion. Great experience for the most part but one complaint--the merch situation. There were only two places to buy merch, in a venue that holds over 12,000 people, and the lines went on forever and didn't move quickly. I walked by each of the lines, at various times in the evening, at least two or three times and the situation was always the same. You either had to miss an hour of the show or forgo purchasing anything. I chose the latter. The bands could have hawked a lot more of their wares had this situation been improved.

The evening was a trip, in many ways.

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