The Missing Link Tour featuring two of the most prolific names in hard rock in Mastodon and Clutch made one of its final U.S. stops at the House of Blues in Boston, Massachusetts last night. The pairing of these grizzled veterans lived up to its billing and made for a really great evening full of good ol' fashioned rock n' roll.
Graveyard, the show's lone opening act, came on just before 7:00. I'd never heard a note of their music going into the show, but I had heard a lot of good things about them on a number of music sites and forums I frequent. To put it lightly, I don't see what all the fuss is about. Graveyard plays a style of psychedelic-tinged blues rock that is about as exciting a marathon of Antiques Roadshow. Blues is very much a riff-driven genre, but Graveyard apparently didn't get that memo as none of their songs featured anything that even resembled a memorable riff. Every single song they played was completely devoid of life or emotion, which made their 45-minute set an absolute chore to sit through. The entire band looked like they had just watched their family get murdered in front of them and their especially mopey vocalist's high-pitched voice did not gel with the melancholy nature of the music at all. Graveyard definitely has some talent, but they are easily one of the most boring, one-note bands I've ever seen live.
After a pretty lengthy sound check, Clutch hit the stage around 8:15. Despite their frequent touring and my constant attempts to see them every time they've been in the area over the past few years, this was my first time seeing Clutch. The lengthy wait to see them proved to be well worth it as Clutch lived up to their reputation as one of the genre's premier live acts. The whole band sounds amazing and emitted a seemingly endless amount of passion and enjoyment for what they do the entire time they were playing. Clutch's set was further bolstered by a phenomenal setlist dominated by cuts from their newest LP Earth Rocker and their 2004 masterpiece Blast Tyrant. As anyone who follows Clutch knows, their setlists change pretty dramatically on a night-to-night basis and when you have as deep of a catalog as they do, the song options are extensive, so the fact that they played so many songs from those two albums was an awesome surprise. Of the abundance of material played from Blast Tyrant and Earth Rocker, "The Mob Goes Wild", "Cypress Grove" and "Crucial Velocity" were the standouts. Each one of these tracks are rollicking, infectious anthems that are even more fun live than they are on disc. Clutch is an outstanding live act and I'll do everything in my power to see them whenever they play in Massachusetts.
Mastodon came on to close out the night about 25 minutes later. As much as I love Mastodon, the quality of their live shows are wildly erratic. In the seven previous times I've seen them, they've been everything from mind-blowing (The Hunter tour in fall 2011) to a complete and utter trainwreck (Blood Mountain tour in spring 2007). This performance was far from the worst I've seen from them, but it still left a lot to be desired. On the plus side, they were flawless instrumentally (seeing Brent Hinds nail the incredibly difficult solo on "The Czar" was especially impressive), and the material from their relatively underwhelming new record Once More 'Round the Sun sounded much better live than I expected it to. On the other hand, their performance was dragged down by a really predictable setlist and Hinds' horrid vocal performance. Aside from "The Czar"- which I hadn't seen played live since 2010- and the new songs, they played the exact same older material they've been playing for their past four or five headlining tours. Mastodon has a dearth of material at their disposal, so it's kind of baffling that they insist on trotting out tracks like "Black Tongue", "Crystal Skull" and "Megalodon" on every tour they do. Don't get wrong, I love all of those songs, I'd just like to see them retire them briefly in favor of some different stuff from their old albums. While the bland set choices put a bit of a damper on the evening, Hinds' vocals were easily the biggest issue with Mastodon's set. Hinds has long been the weak link of the group, but last night was a new low for him. His vocals were so slurred throughout the set that I'm not even entirely sure that he was saying words. He sounded more like a drunken old man yelling at the whippersnappers in the neighborhood to get off his lawn then someone who was trying to perform music. He eventually ran out of gas from all of his incoherent rhythmic mumbling during "The Czar" and just stopped "singing" completely, which forced Troy Sanders to do all of his parts for the rest of the song. Hinds has sounded like shit for years now and this embarrassment only further proves that he needs to be relieved of his vocal duties in the band ASAP. I guarantee that this current incarnation of Mastodon would be much better if Sanders and Brann Dailor handled all of the vocals. Despite a variety of obstacles, Mastodon still put on a good show. However, I definitely won't be rushing back to see them for a ninth time if Hinds is still doing vocals.
Scores:
Graveyard 3.5/10
Clutch 8.5/10
Mastodon 8/10
Setlists:
Clutch:
Earth Rocker
Mice and Gods
The Mob Goes Wild
The Face
The Regulator
Monsters (new song)
Cypress Grove
Son of Virginia
Crucial Velocity
Burning Beard
Our Lady of Electric Light
D.C. Sound Attack!
Profits of Doom
The Wolf Man Kindly Requests....
Electric Worry
One Eye Dollar
Mastodon:
Tread Lightly
Once More 'Round the Sun
Blasteroid
Oblivion
Chimes at Midnight
High Road
Aqua Dementia
Halloween
Bladecatcher
Black Tongue
Ember City
Megalodon
Crystal Skull
Encore:
The Czar
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