Metal Injection

"I'm over it" – Brent Hinds

Uh ohs! Our (I Am) Brohabs at Metalsucks got word yesterday of Brent Hinds not acting too cool during the band's performance last weekend in Oakland, CA. Here is an excerpt of the entire encounter:

Brent continued to throw in wild solos where there should be words, throwing his guitar around and running off stage. While there seemed to be major technical issues, mostly with his monitor from what I could tell, he became less and less involved in the performance to the point where he even stopped playing and simply yelled in to the mic something around the lines of “I love heavy metal…..No I don’t.” Even more telling, he managed to screw up the intro to a song (that I can’t remember right now) to the point where Brann was looking through his cymbals in hopes of figuring out what was happening. He eventually completely lost his composure, throwing down a mic stand and storming off stage.

The band eventually came back on (sans Brent) and concluded the night with "Blood and Thunder" but this is not the first time this tour something like this happened.

If you listened to the MI Livecast we did post-New England Metalfest, you already heard about how we had the extreme luxury of watching Mastodon from the side of the stage and were having a great time, and then guitarist Brent Hinds surprisingly just walked off towards the end of the set (after fiddling with his amps all night). The band then left the stage with Brent and played Blood and Thunder. We heard a similar story from the band's show at the Starland Ballroom a few days earlier.

At the time, the explanation we heard from a few sources that due to the Icelandic volcano dilemma, and the proceeding flight cancellations, Mastodon's main sound guy was not able to make it over to the US in time for the tour to begin and the band was not very happy with their sound. I'm unsure if the sound guy ever made it over, but even still it's hard to understand Hinds' side in all of this. Bands have sound problems all the time, and people paid good money to see you guys. The least you can do is give them something worth their price of admission as opposed to storming off.

This news also comes days after Mastodon's other guitarist, Bill Kelliher returned after suffering from pancreatitis. If that dude can make it, Brent, you can make it!