Mastodon Please the Wicked for Halloween at Vegoose

Muse wasn't the only band at Vegoose to have their drummer dress up as Spiderman. Mastodon's Brann Dailor also donned a Spidey suit, while his bandmates decided to go with a ghoulish theme more suited for the band's dark version of grindcore sludge metal. "We came to please the wicked," bassist/vocalist Troy Sanders told the afternoon audience, before launching into the song 'Make it Burn.' Sanders frequently encouraged fans to take it up a notch by motioning and pointing upwards -- curiously towards heaven, not hell. The crowd responded enthusiastically, forming perhaps the most costumed mosh pit ever, as ninjas, superheroes and monsters mashed, mixing fake blood with the real deal.

In the Vegoose artist lounge afterwards, with his 'priest of the underworld' costume and make-up removed, Sanders tells Spinner that playing on a festival field in the hot desert sun is "like a haunted house matinee, which is bizarre." Honored to be a part of this year's Vegoose, Sanders says the willingness of the audience to be exposed to such an eclectic line-up is "pretty powerful, so that's why we came out. We tried to slay and conquer and punish -- and we prevailed."