u/MarkArandjus

I saw Mastodon in Zagreb during the summer, wrote about it👉here.

My fiancee bought me a signed 'Hushed and Grim' CD at the merch stand as an early wedding gift. I decided to convert the cardboard sleeve to fit a double CD case.

I'm sure there are collectors who are horrified that I did this, as it involved some destructive action, but I really wanted to do this because:

1. Digiseleeves are not nearly as durable and this one was already a bit scuffed, probably from having toured the world during crazy heatwaves.
2. It's not the same size as a jewelcase (see pictures) so it sticks out among the other CDs, my OCD will not stand for this!

You can read about the details in the captions under the pictures, here's some extra things worth mentioning:

• It looks even better IRL, the phone camera somehow accentuates every scratch and speck of dust, it's not noticeable in person.
• Troy, I wish you'd have signed it just 1cm more to the right so I could center the cover more :D I could baaaarely crop the cover so that it fits inside and has all 3 signatures
• As mentioned, digisleeves are bigger than a jewel case, but infuriatingly the booklet is smaller. Meaning that it doesn't slide snug into the lid of the case :T
• Finding a single quality double CD case was surprisingly hard. I bought a 5 pack at an office store, but they were 1mm shorter smaller and slightly less thick than a normal case. Not only is this not good for my OCD as I wanted it to look legit, but all of the cardboard art would not fit inside because it's much thicker than paper. Thankfully a friend of mine had one, still mint and packed in foil, been lying around since the 2000's, it even had a black tray which fit with the design!
• Gonna say this just in case: I'm not complaining or blaming the band, pretty sure they're not involved in the minutia of CD packaging or supervising how the sellers handle the merch.

Last night Mastodon rocked Zagreb and it was one for the books 🤘

Europe is currently amidst a record heatwave so everyone was soaking wet. And I mean WET, I saw people fanning themselves with autographed Leviathan vinyls that they bought at the merch stand 😰

Speaking of, I brought a sign with me, hoping to entice the fellas to play Iron Tusk, threw it up between a couple songs (BILL, I hope I didn't annoy you too much! 😅)...

...they didn't play ol' Iron Tusk, but the sign proved to be a fantastic makeshift fan for my girl and I (and a few of the poor sweaty souls standing close). Henceforth bringing cardboard to all the other summer shows - it's cheap, foldable, durable, upcycled, biodegradable, light, prevents heat stroke and security isn't fussy, all pros no cons 10/10 material humanity peaked with cardboard, all hail cardboard.

But hot as it was, it wasn't 'miserably hot 🥵', know what I mean? It was more 'goddamn it's hot, but I'm having a good time 🫠'.

Tvornica kulture isn't a huge venue, about 1300 people were there (according to Troy), but everyone was locked in singing and/or moshing, it was swell. Lovely wall of death during Megalodon BTW ☺️

I even gave twerking a go during The Motherload, we need to make that a thing! x)

Also the show was ON TIME 🕘 they were supposed to start 21:15, Crazy Train started playing like 21:11 and they started when the song was done. That's the most punctual I've ever seen a band be.

Shoutout to my amazing fiancée who took the second photo and bought me the signed CD as an early wedding gift. Was missing Hushed&Grim from my collection!

Now if you'll excuse me I've somehow still not rehydrated myself... 🫗🫗🫗

EDIT:
This video which captures the vibe of the show (+you can see me fanning on the right) 👉 CLICK
Troy said a couple of times that the band was having the time of their lives.
I know sometimes bands just say that to hype the crowd up, but you could tell they were having a blast!