Mastodon Deliver Psychedelic Prog Assault at Aftershock

From “Once More Round The Sun” to “High Road” and back through “Blood and Thunder,” Mastodon electrified the Aftershock Festival crowd in Sacramento on Sunday with an evolved prog-soaked performance that vastly outshined their midday competition across the park.

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Ginger-Viking guitarist Brent Hines volleyed vocal duties with bassist Troy Sanders in a grimace-and-roar-off as the crowd tripled in size between the first and third songs. Those familiar with the band’s live show won’t be surprised by the little onstage variation, but the excellence in performance of such intricately crushing psychedelic-prog rock is captivating no matter how many times we’ve seen them.

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Check out a full gallery of Mastodon’s performance at Aftershock, exclusively on Crave:

Mastodon at Aftershock Festival

Mastodon at Aftershock Festival

By Johnny Firecloud
Mastodon at Aftershock Festival

By Johnny Firecloud
Mastodon at Aftershock Festival

By Johnny Firecloud
Mastodon at Aftershock Festival

By Johnny Firecloud
Mastodon at Aftershock Festival

By Johnny Firecloud
Mastodon at Aftershock Festival

By Johnny Firecloud
Mastodon at Aftershock Festival

By Johnny Firecloud
Mastodon at Aftershock Festival

By Johnny Firecloud
Mastodon at Aftershock Festival

By Johnny Firecloud
Mastodon at Aftershock Festival

By Johnny Firecloud
Mastodon at Aftershock Festival

By Johnny Firecloud
Mastodon at Aftershock Festival

By Johnny Firecloud
Mastodon at Aftershock Festival

By Johnny Firecloud
Mastodon at Aftershock Festival

By Johnny Firecloud
Mastodon at Aftershock Festival
Mastodon at Aftershock Festival

By Johnny Firecloud
Mastodon at Aftershock Festival

By Johnny Firecloud
Mastodon at Aftershock Festival

By Johnny Firecloud
Mastodon at Aftershock Festival

By Johnny Firecloud
Mastodon at Aftershock Festival

By Johnny Firecloud
Mastodon at Aftershock Festival

By Johnny Firecloud

Senior Writer

A senior writer at CraveOnline since 2006, Johnny has reported on music culture around the world for over a decade while setting a higher standard of reviews, editorials, photography and interviews with the industry's biggest names. Johnny has conceptualized and produced a wide range of original Crave features such as the long-running Band of The Month series, the CraveOnstage performance feature, the Music History video series and the Passport travel colum, among others. His Crave coverage spectrum has included Lifestyle, Travel, Film & TV, Politics, Sports, Fashion and Food writing.

A jack of all journalistic trades & master of several, you can also find his work on Antiquiet, Filter, Food Republic, Media Roots, The Owl Mag and beyond. His music photos can be seen on Instagram. Keep up with Johnny on Twitter at @JohnnyFirecloud, and on Facebook.