Out Past My Bedtime

Man, I’m tired. I’m a creature of habit, and that includes most aspects of my day to day. From the coffee I drink in the morning, to meal time most days, to writing and working on music, to exercise, to the beer I drink Fridays after work. And most importantly, bedtime. I’m in bed usually by 9pm every week night. I get up at 4:15am for work, so a 9pm bedtime is a must. While probably not 8 hours every night, I’m at least getting a good 7 1/2. You know, after I’ve attempted to read some of my book or taint my brain with scouring a few feeds on my phone. It doesn’t take long for me to crash, just ask my wife.

But last night the regiment was thrown out the window. Why? Well because I went to a concert with my older brother and son. Last December I bought three tickets to see the Mastodon/Coheed and Cambria tour at the Allen County War Memorial Coliseum, with openers Periphery. Last December, so like six months ago. It’d been so long that when my son said something about going to a concert Tuesday last weekend I asked him which one. Of course I remembered shortly after looking like an idiot and I got both instantly excited and a little weary.

I’m always super stoked to go to a concert. And that initial purchase is an exciting feeling, man. But then six months fly by and all of a sudden there’s going to be a disturbance in the force and my routine is going to be broken. This is my brain going “Oh no. Things will be turned upside down now!”. It’s my usual response to my week getting broken up because an “event” is happening. It didn’t help matters that on Sunday while trying to access the tickets on the Ticketmaster app on my phone they weren’t there. There had been a venue change last week as ticket sales weren’t as much as they’d thought, so the concert was moved from the Coliseum to the Expo Center. They’re all located in the same building, just different spots. The Expo Center would be where they’d have Gun and Knife Shows, Classic Car events, or maybe a Horror-Con or something. The Coliseum is a massive spot where in the past I’ve seen AC/DC, Ozzy, Stone Temple Pilots, Smashing Pumpkins, and Edgefest which included Foo Fighters, Ben Folds Five, and The Crystal Method. And in the 3rd grade I saw the Shriner’s Circus there.

So I think the venue change screwed up the tickets, so they had to reassign all the seats. It wasn’t until Monday afternoon that I got an email with a link, which led to the tickets and my ability to print said tickets off. Once that happened I got a lot less agitated and was like “Okay, I’m excited for this.”

My older brother and I have seen a few shows together over the years. First was that AC/DC show, which had Love/Hate opening for them. We also saw the Clash of the Titans tour in the summer of ’91 together. Slayer, Megadeth, Anthrax, and Alice In Chains, and it was intense. We also saw Dweezil Zappa’s ‘Zappa Plays Zappa’ tour way back in 2018. Primus and Melvins back in the early 90s at a small theater in Grand Rapids, as well as him and his girlfriend at the time going with my girlfriend(now wife) to see Rush in maybe 1992? Counterparts tour I believe. Then in 1994 we traveled to Peoria, IL to see Rush with Primus. That was like a caravan of people that went.

My son is a concertgoer himself. I took him to his first show in 2016 to see the Adrian Belew Power Trio. We’ve also seen NIN and QOTSA together over the last three years. He’s also gone to Bonnaroo with his girlfriend, as well as seeing Jerry Cantrell and a few other artists in Chicago. And all three of us went to Sweetwater back in early 2019 and saw a show that was Dave Ellefson, Frank Bello, Bumblefoot, and a drummer I can’t remember. It was them performing plus talking about their rock and roll life. Pretty cool. So this Mastodon show felt like the perfect gig for the three of us to go to.

After the initial “Waaa, my schedule!” and ticket drama I was pumped. We picked up my brother around 4:20 and then hit the road. We grabbed a burger and fries at Five Guys, then made the trek to the Expo Center. I was surprised at how nice the Expo Center was. It’s like a mini version of the Coliseum. They set up three sets of bleachers, and then in the center was general admission/pit. We hit the merch table and we all got t-shirts(which were some very cool designs.) We then made our way to the seats, which were much closer than I thought. The bad part was that we were so close to the left of the stage that you really couldn’t see the drummer or the big screen behind the drum riser. With the opening band Periphery that wasn’t a big deal as they didn’t have much on the screen, but for Mastodon that would prove to be a problem.

The show starts and it’s opener Periphery. I was not familiar with them. I did check out their latest album before the show, and while they were very good it just wasn’t something I’d choose to listen to. But live? Holy Hell they were amazing. Everything came across far heavier. Proggy metal with touches of metalcore, they went from extreme ka-chunk ka-chunk riffing to almost operatic vocals with keys and even a sax solo(which I think was pre-recorded as there was no saxophonist on stage.) They played for 20-30 minutes and not a lull anywhere. Very glad I got to see them.

Mastodon hit the stage about 20 minutes later and holy cow they were killer. Just pummeling riffs and ear-shattering drumming. I have a couple Mastodon albums, Blood Mountain and Crack The Skye, but nothing else. Live and on a stage they were on fire. And the new guitarist that is filling in for the recently departed(not dead just quit) Brent Hinds was smoking. Wasn’t sure how he was going to be, as he came out in a Stevie Ray Vaughn hat and oddly short pants. Looked like the odd man out with the bearded wizard bassist, svelte biker guitarist, and the Olympic athlete drummer. But when he broke into his first guitar solo he could’ve been dressed like Marcel Marceau and it wouldn’t have mattered. The guy was a wizard in his own right.

They played for around an hour, hour and a half and then ended their set with Leviathan‘s “Blood and Thunder”. Unbelievable.

How was Coheed and Cambria? I don’t know, as we all decided we were good and ready to go. What I’ve listened to them I knew they just weren’t my thing. I’m sure live they would have been stunning, but we were all tired and ready to be home.

What started out as me kind of having buyer’s remorse turned into me so happy we went. We had a lot of great conversation, reminiscing, had our frontal lobes battered around with serious riffage, and have decided that we’re going to see Mastodon again when they come back to Fort Wayne(they promised they were coming back when they tour for the new record that they’re beginning to write and record after this tour is done.) My brother and I are going to see Todd Rundgren the second week in July at the Sweetwater Pavilion. It’s a 40 minute drive down US 30. Do we like Todd Rundgren? We like him enough. Besides, it’s more about my brother and I doing stuff together. There were too many years in the past where we didn’t do stuff together, so we’ve got some catching up to do.

I’m tired today, but it’s a good tired. The kind of tired that sleepiness is made up in experiences and adventure. And above all else, HEAVY F*****G METAL!