Baizley will perform a special set with the band of rarely played songs
Mastodon turned an intimate hometown warm-up show in Atlanta into something much more significant on Friday, September 11, when Baroness vocalist and guitarist John Baizley joined the band for nearly half of its set at The EARL. Performing under the pseudonym Big Hairy Elephant, a name Mastodon previously used for a small Atlanta warm-up show in 2024, the band packed its arena-sized music into the roughly 300-capacity East Atlanta venue just days before launching its fall North American tour. Baizley, a longtime friend of the group and another major figure to emerge from Georgia’s heavy-music community, appeared during the second half of the concert and helped Mastodon resurrect several songs that had disappeared from its live repertoire for years. The collaboration worked so well that within a day Mastodon announced that Baizley had been invited to continue performing with the group throughout its upcoming Poisonous Weapons Tour.
“We had a blast at the Earl last night! A great pre-tour warm up before we break out the lasers and LED screens. Our good pal, John Baizley from Baroness joined us, we had so much fun, we’ve invited him join us on stage during The Poisonous Weapons Tour to play a special set of Mastodon songs we haven’t played in a long time! We’re really excited to bring this special set on the tour. It’s going to epic! Who’s ready to party?”
The secret concert was designed as a pre-tour shakedown for Mastodon and also gave the band an opportunity to introduce material from its recently released album Marrow Deep in a stripped-down club environment before moving into much larger venues. Mastodon opened the 14-song performance with the live debut of “Barbarians Blood,” followed by the Remission favorite “March of the Fire Ants,” “Crystal Skull” from Blood Mountain, “Black Tongue” from The Hunter and “Megalodon” from Leviathan. The group then delivered another Marrow Deep live debut, “In the Ruins,” followed by “Your Ghost Again” and the first live performance of “Poisonous Weapons.” The first eight songs therefore functioned as a mixture of the band’s new era and selections spanning more than two decades of its catalog.
Baizley entered the picture for the final six songs, dramatically changing the character of the show. His first appearance came on “Curl of the Burl,” a track Mastodon had not performed live since 2013. He remained onstage for “Oblivion,” returning the Crack the Skye song to the set for the first time since 2019, before helping the group through the sprawling “The Czar.” Baizley then joined Mastodon for “Sultan’s Curse,” followed by “Colony of Birchmen,” which had not been played by the band since 2018. The night concluded with Baizley alongside Mastodon for one of the group’s signature songs, “Blood and Thunder.” His six-song appearance effectively became a test run for an expanded Mastodon live configuration, while simultaneously allowing the band to reach deeper into portions of its catalog that had become uncommon at its concerts.
The pairing was not without precedent. Baizley has a long history with Mastodon and previously stepped in to help the band as far back as 2010, when he filled in for guitarist Bill Kelliher while Kelliher was recovering from illness. The relationship between Mastodon and Baroness also runs deeper than a one-night guest appearance: both bands emerged from the broader Southern heavy-music scene and built careers around adventurous combinations of sludge, progressive metal, hard rock and psychedelia. That history made Baizley an unusually natural choice to help Mastodon explore older material in the wake of the enormous changes the group has experienced in recent years.
By Saturday evening, September 12, Mastodon confirmed that the experiment would continue beyond The EARL. The band said the Atlanta concert had been a pre-tour warm-up before it brought out the larger production of “lasers and LED screens,” and explained that playing with Baizley had been so enjoyable that it invited him to join the upcoming tour. Mastodon said Baizley would help the group perform a “special set of Mastodon songs we haven’t played in a long time,” indicating that his role will be more substantial than simply appearing for a single nightly guest spot. The six-song run at The EARL provides the clearest preview yet of what that arrangement could look like, particularly with long-absent songs such as “Curl of the Burl,” “Oblivion” and “Colony of Birchmen” suddenly returning to circulation.
The addition of Baizley comes immediately before Mastodon launches the North American leg of its Poisonous Weapons Tour, which begins September 16 in Orlando, Florida. Deafheaven and Alcest are joining the trek, which travels through the United States and Canada during September and October, including stops in Philadelphia, Boston, Brooklyn, Washington, Montreal, Toronto, Chicago, Oakland, Los Angeles, Denver and numerous other cities before Mastodon returns home for an October 22 performance at The Eastern in Atlanta and then heads to Sick New World in Texas on October 24.
Exactly how much of the September 11 set will carry over to the tour remains to be seen. Mastodon has confirmed the broader concept — Baizley will join the group onstage as it digs out songs that have not been played regularly in years — but has not announced a definitive nightly list of the material he will perform. That makes the Atlanta show particularly revealing. Rather than using Baizley merely to reinforce newer songs, Mastodon specifically brought him out for a run that reached across The Hunter, Crack the Skye, Emperor of Sand, Blood Mountain and Leviathan. If that approach continues, his presence could allow the band to substantially reshape its 2026 set and revive material that longtime fans may not have heard live in nearly a decade or, in the case of “Curl of the Burl,” more than a decade.
What began as a low-key hometown warm-up therefore became an audition of sorts in front of a few hundred Atlanta fans. Baizley walked onto The EARL stage as a longtime friend making a guest appearance and, six songs later, had helped Mastodon discover a new wrinkle for its touring lineup. The chemistry was apparently convincing enough that the band needed less than 24 hours to make the partnership part of its fall plans. When the Poisonous Weapons Tour begins in Orlando, Mastodon will not simply be taking its new Marrow Deep material on the road; it will also be using Baizley’s presence to open up parts of its history that have largely been absent from recent concerts. For longtime Mastodon and Baroness fans, the tiny Atlanta show may ultimately be remembered as the night a one-off collaboration unexpectedly turned into one of the most intriguing additions to Mastodon’s 2026 live era.
September 16 – Hard Rock Live – Orlando, FL
September 18 – Asheville Yards – Asheville, NC
September 19 – Stage AE – Pittsburgh, PA
September 20 – Louder Than Life – Louisville, KY*
September 22 – Franklin Music Hall – Philadelphia, PA
September 23 Citizens House of Blues – Boston, MA
September 24 – Brooklyn Paramount – Brooklyn, NY
September 25 – The Anthem – Washington, DC
September 27 – MTELUS – Montreal, QC
September 28 – REBEL – Toronto, ON
September 29 – Buffalo RiverWorks – Buffalo, NY
October 1 – The Fillmore – Detroit, MI
October 2 – The Riviera Theater – Chicago, IL
October 3 – Palace Theatre – Minneapolis, MN
October 6 – The Complex – Salt Lake City, UT
October 7 – Revolution Center – Boise, ID
October 9 – Fox Theater – Oakland, CA
October 10 – Hollywood Palladium – Los Angeles, CA
October 11 – The Sound – San Diego, CA
October 14 – Fillmore Plaza – Denver, CO
October 16 – Val Air Ballroom – Des Moines, IA
October 17 – The Pageant – St. Louis, MO
October 18 – Satellite Music Hall – Memphis, TN
October 20 – Agor Theater & Ballroom – Cleveland, OH
October 21 – Peidmont Hall – Greensboro, NC
October 22 – The Eastern – Atlanta, GA
October 24 – Sick New World – Dallas, TX*
*Festival Date
Tickets will be available HERE