song performed: “Colony of Birchmen” from Blood Mountain
conan’s reaction: “that was cool thanks for doing it *shakes guitar 2 hand* that was great *shakes bass hand* that was great *shakes guitar 1 hand* and with you. *shakes drum hand* Mastodon everybody, we’ll take a break we’ll be right back. *claps six times reshakes bass and guitar 2 hand*”

Maybe it was the guest Jack McBrayer from 30 rock, in his southern innocence, who was on right before Mastodon. Maybe it was the baked kabocha I have been eating all week. I was surprised when Mastodon came out with a sound that is familiar, yet I really haven’t heard anything like it since maybe the likes of Canada’s Tea Party?

And they rocked it. I learned pretty quickly on into the performance that the band likes checker board patterns. The drummer especially - his drum kit was all checkered and in the video for this song, he is wearing old school vans that are black and white checkered too. The back sound wall had some of the coolest lighting I’ve ever seen on Conan, flashing bands of checkerings. It was cool.

Lead guitar man had a really nice guitar - literally an axe and because of his beard, recent-looking hair cut, and extremely long arms, I could picture him slaying away. During chorus time, the other gang came into sing (minus the drummer who was plenty busy banging away the counter rhythms in a lot of these songs). Bass dude looked eddie vedder-ish, but less pretty boy and more goat which is fitting for their sound.

There was good amounts of wailing and good old fashioned noise making, but it was polished and therefore very energy inducing. The guitar solo was quasi cool, but the ending was right on with a lifting of axes on the final note. I liked that each person on stage played their instruments like it was their territory.

Also worth mentioning is that their video for this song has a neat little animation at the end, which is the first time I’ve seen a buck fend off a pack of wolves.

BTW, I am soooo sick right now of the budweiser commercial with the red mahogany guitar construction. I hate budweiser right now cause I’ve seen that commercial way too many times for my own good.