Primus & Mastodon @ CMCU Amphitheater

Ahhh! An outdoor show.  You're welcome for the rain The Rest Of Charlotte!

Mastodon started so early (still daylight) that I completely missed All Them Witches and had to hear Divinations and Crystal Skull as I was walking into the venue.  I was pretty happy with my seat, though.  I bought them through the Primus pre-sale, so couldn't chose, but I was second row (with no-one in front of me) to the left as you look at the stage, right in front of guitarist Brent Hinds.  Hinds kept our side entertained while Troy Sanders took up his 2 position - in front of the mike or in front of Brann Dailor's drum kit - which was quite colorful, but you could only see this when bug yellow went down for the night.  I missed a light of the lighting that goes with each song, due to a giant speaker being in my line of sight.  Black Tongue was the highlight through the new-album-(Emperor of Sand) heavy setlist.  Still an hour an quarter / 17 song set is pretty good playing time for an opening band.

Had a pretty short turn around before Primus came on stage.  I was psyched to be in front of Larry LaLonde.  So many times have I been mesmerized by Les Claypool's bass, that you forget there are 2 other magic musicians in the band.  Show started great with Harold Of The Rocks and not long before we got to hear the fantastic Wynona's Big Brown Beaver.  After a half dozen songs the band left the stage and came back dressed like goblins (with druid/jawa techs) and proceeded to play their brand new album, The Desaturating Seven, from start to finish.  Some good songs, but not all of them may have been needed in this show.  After another break the band came back for 4 more songs, with the great My Name Is Mud and Jerry Was A Race Car Driver finishing the set.  Disappointingly there was no encore (Jerry seemed to finish just after 11) and the set felt incomplete.  Still glad I went, though I may leave a little more time between shows before seeing each of the bands again (though Primus keep having these great supports: Dinosaur Jr, Clutch and now Mastodon). 

The Crap Facts:
This is my 439th concert.

This is my 9th concert at CMCU Amphitheater.

This is my 72nd concert in Charlotte.

This is my 82nd concert in North Carolina.

This is my 245th concert in the USA.
This is my 6th Mastodon concert.
This is my 10th Primus concert.

Primus is the 150th time I've seen a band in North Carolina.