Heavy Metal Band Mastodon Performs Acoustic Livestream Show From The Georgia Aquarium
The majestic waves of heavy metal music will wash over spellbound fans this July in a surprising setting. Grammy award-winning rock band Mastodon is going acoustic for a livestream performance at the Georgia Aquarium, a never-before-attempted format for the Atlanta giants of metal, before a backdrop of majestic aquaria. The concert is a collaboration with Dreamstage, a new live concert streaming platform, specializing in capturing highly curated performances and productions in HD. The program will also feature exclusive commentary from Mastodon, talking through their creative process. It will be the first, perhaps only, acoustic concert to be performed by the band. Founding member and rhythm guitarist Bill Kelliher joined “City Lights” senior producer Kim Drobes to talk about the band’s evolution, and the unique experience they’ll bring to the Aquarium.
Interview highlights:
On rock traditions that inspired the genre-fusing quartet:
“I grew up listening to stuff that was on the radio because that’s all there was,” Kelliher said. “But once I heard, by accident, the Dead Kennedys, everything I knew about music changed. Once I went from listening to Led Zeppelin and trying to play that stuff on guitar, to hearing the Ramones, I was like, ‘I can actually play this stuff…’ and, ‘I can start a band.’ And I did.”
“Once I discovered punk rock music, it was like the freedom of, ‘Oh, I don’t have to go to Berkeley or take guitar lessons for the next ten years in order to be in a band.’ It’s more about the songwriting than how proficient you are. And I took that, and I ran with it.”
The rough-and-ready early days of Mastodon:
“We went out there with nothing except the guitars on our backs, and the nine songs that we had learned together, and just started, just doing it…Then, when we had, major record labels taking us out for lunch and taking us out for drinks and courting us, it was like the stuff you see in movies.” It was exactly like that,” Kelliher recalled. “You get this cheesy guy from whatever record company, ‘Oh hey guys, I wanna take you out, get you wasted drunk, and then we’ll talk business.’ We just kind of played hard to get … We’ve heard horror stories where, like, once these big record companies take over, then everything changes … We just enjoy doing what we’re doing.”
How to transmute heavy rock into an aquatic soundscape:
“Some songs we tried to change around a little bit to make them a little more acoustic-friendly … It didn’t seem as difficult as I thought it would be,” Kelliher said. “We definitely wanted to make it something special for the aquarium and for our fans, something we’d never done before. We all have acoustic guitars and Troy has an acoustic bass. We just went through our song lists — we’ve got, like, 90, 100 songs … There’s a couple we’ve never played live before,” All these songs really lent themselves to being played acoustically.”
“Someone in the band was like, ‘It’d be really cool to play at the aquarium one day,’ just to have the backdrop of all the fish, it’s just nature … It’s something that no one’s really done before, especially in metal or hard rock.”
Mastodon performs at the Georgia Aquarium on July 15 at 9 p.m. Tickets to view the livestream are available at www.dreamstage.live/event/mastodon
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