Now kings of the mountain, Mastodon roll deep with Eagles of Death Metal and Russian Circles

THIS LITTLE UNDERGROUND
Mastodon, Eagles of Death Metal and Russian Circles, Hard Rock Live, Sep. 26

If some of the trash that ends up getting the hype and spotlight is a total mystery to you, you’re not the only one. It’s the story of modern popular music, and it’s never been very straightforward. Stardom is the result of a murky macrocosm of industry machinations and taste politics. The proportions of that calculus are changing rapidly right now, sure, but an aggregated mix is still the outcome. And that’s why some breakouts seem more like symptoms of an economy than honest products.
But this millennium so far has been a golden age for heavy metal. That the timing has coincided so perfectly with the mountain-conquering rise of Southern metal golden boys Mastodon is no accident.
Say what you will about their more recent output – their longtime fans have said plenty – but they’ve kept it pretty legit. Their work has always been complex and elaborate to a degree usually reserved only for the grandest of prog ambition. But they’ve never allowed it to devolve into total goofiness and wankery by keeping things genuinely brutal. The fantasy has always been delivered with fury.
Now that they’re a full-on major-label legacy band with fancy stage production, and mainstream enough even to be on WJRR’s radar, Mastodon are still true. And even all that glitz couldn’t cushion their immense live hammer.
Besides them, however, this tour – whose current leg kicked off here in Orlando – rolls as one of the deepest bills, metal or otherwise, in a long time. Clocking in probably the most stage hours here of all of them, acclaimed Chicago post-metal band Russian Circles have been crushing it in the city’s best indie clubs for ages now. But over all these years, this is the biggest stage I’ve seen them on. Though I’ll almost never choose a big room over a small up-close one, this was finally a space with a volume commensurate to their epic sound, which billowed and filled it all the way up to the rafters like an enveloping fog.
Their instrumental odysseys are pure drama and dynamics, the soundtrack to the most remote places on Earth where nature’s at its most wild, grand and balletic. And Russian Circles again prove that they’re masters of sonic narrative, all without a word.
Since they’ve come here the least by far, the Eagles of Death Metal were a particularly special draw. Even without the live presence of his famous partner-in-crime Josh Homme, frontman Jesse Hughes commanded the show like a charismatic preacher backed by an ace band, delivering greasy rock & roll burlesque with libido and style.
For all their high levity, though, history has inextricably tied them to that most modern of tragedies as Bataclan terror survivors, to which Hughes made indirect reference with some acknowledgement of the trial of overcoming it. But he concluded with a reaffirmation of the unbreakable rock & roll urge, reclaiming victory by saying he’s just gonna “shake my dick and have a good time.” Which is the only suitable response for the ringleader of a total cock-out rock-out. So fuck terrorists.
Eagles of Death Metal didn’t come with the gravitas of their billmates, but that’s not their stock in trade. They’re in the party business, and they delivered a welcome bit of sex in what would otherwise have been one serious-ass night.
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This Little Underground is Orlando Weekly’s music column providing perspective, live reviews and news on the city’s music scene.

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This article appears in Sep 27 – Oct 3, 2017.