Mastodon played an unannounced hometown show at The Earl in Atlanta on Friday night, using a room that holds around 300 people to try out material from Marrow Deep for the first time.
The band billed it as Big Hairy Elephant, the alias they use for club dates of this kind, and which they last deployed before their 2024 tour.
The Setlist:
- “Barbarians Blood” (live debut)
- “March Of The Fire Ants”
- “Crystal Skull”
- “Black Tongue”
- “Megalodon”
- “In The Ruins” (live debut)
- “Your Ghost Again”
- “Poisonous Weapons” (live debut)
- “Curl Of The Burl” (with John Baizley) — first since 2013
- “Oblivion” (with John Baizley) — first since 2019
- “The Czar” (with John Baizley)
- “Sultan’s Curse” (with John Baizley)
- “Colony Of Birchmen” (with John Baizley) — first since 2018
- “Blood And Thunder” (with John Baizley)
Fourteen songs, drawn from seven albums across 24 years. Marrow Deep accounted for four of them, three of which had never been played in public before, including “Barbarians Blood“, which opened the night.
The rest reached back through Remission, Leviathan, Blood Mountain, Crack The Skye, The Hunter and Emperor Of Sand, with two songs apiece from most of them. Only Once More ‘Round The Sun and Hushed And Grim went unrepresented.
The three rarities all came in the Baizley stretch at the end. “Curl Of The Burl” had not been played since 2013, “Colony Of Birchmen” since 2018 and “Oblivion” since 2019.
There was a piece of timing in that last group. “Colony Of Birchmen” and “Crystal Skull” both come from Blood Mountain, which turned 20 the following day.
Baizley, who fronts Baroness and comes from the same Georgia scene, played on the final six songs. It went well enough that Mastodon announced the next night that he will join them on stage for every date of the tour ahead, playing a set of songs they have not touched in years.
He has done the job before, standing in on guitar for Bill Kelliher back in 2010.
“The Poisonous Weapons Tour”
The run opens on Wednesday in Orlando with Deafheaven and Alcest supporting throughout, and finishes at Sick New World in Dallas on October 24.
- Sep 16 – Hard Rock, Orlando, FL
- Sep 18 – Asheville Yards, Asheville, NC
- Sep 19 – Stage AE, Pittsburgh, PA
- Sep 20 – Louder Than Life, Louisville, KY
- Sep 22 – Franklin Music Hall, Philadelphia, PA
- Sep 23 – House of Blues, Boston, MA
- Sep 24 – Brooklyn Paramount, Brooklyn, NY
- Sep 25 – The Anthem, Washington, DC
- Sep 27 – MTELUS, Montreal, QC
- Sep 28 – Rebel, Toronto, ON
- Sep 29 – Buffalo Riverworks, Buffalo, NY
- Oct 1 – The Fillmore, Detroit, MI
- Oct 2 – The Riviera, Chicago, IL
- Oct 3 – Palace Theatre, Minneapolis, MN
- Oct 6 – The Complex, Salt Lake City, UT
- Oct 7 – Revolution, Boise, ID
- Oct 9 – The Fox, Oakland, CA
- Oct 10 – Hollywood Palladium, Los Angeles, CA
- Oct 11 – The Sound, San Diego, CA
- Oct 14 – Fillmore Auditorium, Denver, CO
- Oct 16 – Val Air Ballroom, Des Moines, IA
- Oct 17 – The Pageant, St. Louis, MO
- Oct 18 – Satellite Music Hall, Memphis, TN
- Oct 20 – Agora Theatre, Cleveland, OH
- Oct 21 – Piedmont Hall, Greensboro, NC
- Oct 22 – The Eastern, Atlanta, GA
- Oct 24 – Sick New World, Dallas, TX
