Mastodon: Live at the Fine Line

Live in Review - Mastodon @ the Fine Line.

Despite the fact that I am old (very close to embarking on the last year in my 30s) and of the gender that skews away from attending such things (marketers call me the 'freak factor'), it seems that I attend more shows than my colleagues at In Review Online. Posted in this week's edition of Week in Review (the inaugural 'Live in Review' which I hope to be participating in more) is my review of Mastodon's rollicking show at the Fine Line a couple weeks ago.

Although movies might be the thing I like to go blah blah blah about, I enjoy music just about as much as movies. The choice between the one-time show and the one-time screening is really a hard one to predict. In the case of Mastodon, I bought my ticket knowing it would fall at the end of the Minneapolis St Paul International Film Festival, but without knowing exactly what was going to be on the schedule that night. As I turned out, I wasn't missing too much and I was in need for a cathartic loud evening away from the movies.

Knowing film is sometimes even handy at shows. Mastodon put my film knowledge to the test, using clips from Eisenstein's Ivan the Terrible, Part 2 as part of their trippy background video. Is someone in the band a Eisenstein fan? I doubt it. The film was probably used for the incredible imagery and the loose connection that it has to Crack the Skye's theme.

Check out the review here. The live show was augmented by the small(er) venue. If I can bust in to the Animal Collective show at First Ave next week, maybe I will cover that as well.