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Mastodon, Against Me! Stop, Smell Roses

Metal heads, punks and indie rockers came together last night (May 17), as co-headliners Mastodon and Against Me! thrashed their way in to the final leg of their May tour at Roseland Ballroom. Despite the loss of opening act, These Arms Are Snakes (their van broke down), tuxedo-clad Saddle Creek stalwarts, Cursive, backed by a newly acquired horn section kicked of the night, drawing from 2000’s Domestica as well as their latest effort, Happy Hollow.

The wild stage antics of Floridian punk quartet Against Me! followed, as the black garbed anarchists stole the show with “Cliché Guevara” while the crowd skanked along with “Don’t Lose Touch” and “Problems” off Searching for a Former Clarity. As if it were a basement show in Gainesville, Tom Gabel shed his guitar at the end of the set and lunged among the legion of fans in attendance, chanting along with them. Canadian indie songstress Tegan (of Tegan & Sara fame) was in the house, but Against Me! didn’t play “Borne on the FM Waves,” their duet with Tegan that appears on the forthcoming New Wave, out July 10. (Read more about Against Me! in the June issue of Spin, out May 29)

Unleashing there devastatingly brutal, hardcore-influenced groove metal, Mastodon sank their teeth in to the crowd with “Iron Tusk”, and shredded their way with technical precision through the Grammy-nominated “Colony of Birchmen” off 2006’s Blood Mountain. Bränn Dailor rhythmically bludgeoned his polka-dot drum kit to lay the foundation for the screaming guitar solos of axeman Brent Hinds, which incited the biggest movement from the mosh pit. What Mastodon sacrificed in stage presence, they regained in energy by closing with “Blood and Thunder,” creating an electric atmosphere that was so palpable it could have brought even the beastliest of mammals back from extinction. ADAM DESIDERIO / PHOTOS BY SHAWNA ADAMS

We asked: Recently, Mastodon recorded “Cut You Up with a Linoleum Knife” for the opening of Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film for Theaters. In the film, the band performed as an animated pretzel, candy box, nacho, and green gumdrop — if you were a character in Aqua Teen Hunger Force, what food would you be?