Jared Dines had been writing for Canadian metalcore outfit Oni—fronted by Jake Oni—for a few years before Jake invited Dines to join him onstage. Dines had just two days to learn the entire set before rehearsals began. But Eric Palmer can one-up him. He was teching for the band when Jake conscripted him—with just one day to pick up the set before a performance. Palmer rose to the occasion, and he and Dines have formed Oni’s two-guitar tornado for the past year.
Ahead of their gig at Nashville’s Brooklyn Bowl in December, Dines and Palmer walked PG’s Chris Kies through their spartan, one-guitar rigs—no backups, no mercy.
Brought to you by D’Addario.8 is Great
Eric Palmer is used to playing 7-string axes, so this limited-run 8-string Jackson Concept Series MDK8 HT8 MS Modern Dinky didn’t take long to get used to. The Korea-made flamethrower has a basswood body, a 3-piece maple/wenge/mapleneck, and a compound radius ebony fretboard (12" to 16"). It also boasts a dual scale length—25.5" to 27.5"—and is loaded with Fishman Fluence Modern pickups, which feature two voicings selected by a push-pull switch. Palmer had this one upgraded to a 5-way switch to access split-coil sounds, and he got rid of the tone knob. “All gas, no brakes,” as PG’s Perry Bean would say.
Petrucci Power
Jared Dines also needed an 8-string for Oni, so Ernie Ball sent him this Music Man Majesty 8, a John Petrucci signature model. It’s got Fishman’s Powerbridge piezo system, which sees action on the song “Control.” Dines attached his own string clamp behind the nut to halt noise.
Double Quads
Dines and Palmer both rely on Neural DSP Quad Cortexes on this Oni tour. Their units are mounted on Temple Audio pedalboards, and both guitarists use the Architecture: Gojira X patch for their heavy sounds, and a Roland Jazz Chorus sound for cleans. Both Dines and Palmer employ a MIDI switching system that they pulled from Aaron Marshall’s Rig Rundown, and run their signals from direct to front of house.
“The Mega-Monsters Tour” finds these two juggernauts taking over arenas and amphitheaters throughout the Spring and Summer, alternating closing sets each night.
The tour kicks off at the Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Portland, OR on April 18th and includes stops at legendary venues such as the Forum in Los Angeles, CA on April 21st. The first leg concludes at Santander Arena in Reading, PA on May 11th and resumes with a second leg that runs August 9th through September 2nd. Special guest Lorna Shore serves as direct support on all dates.
Mastodon hit the road in support of their critically acclaimed ninth studio album, HUSHED AND GRIM. Meanwhile, Gojira are out supporting their seventh full-length album, Fortitude, which garnered a Grammy nomination in the category of “Best Metal Performance” for “Amazonia.” These two titans previously canvased North America together in 2014, and this reunion represents another major milestone in their respective careers.
Mastodon
Gojira
GOJIRA & MASTODON
“THE MEGA-MONSTERS TOUR”
WITH SPECIAL GUESTS LORNA SHORE
LEG 1
4/18 Portland, OR Veterans Memorial Coliseum
4/20 Concord, CA Concord Pavilion
4/21 Los Angeles, CA The Forum
4/22 Phoenix, AZ Arizona Financial Theatre
4/23 Las Vegas, NV Virgin
4/26 Dallas, TX The Pavilion at Toyota Music Factory
4/28 Houston, TX 713 Music Hall
4/29 Austin, TX Moody Center
4/30 Oklahoma City, OK Zoo Amphitheatre
5/2 Nashville, TN Municipal Auditorium
5/4 Boca Raton, FL Sunset Cove Amphitheater
5/5 St. Augustine, FL St. Augustine Amphitheatre
5/6 Atlanta, GA Ameris Bank Amphitheatre
5/7 Asheville, NC Harrah’s Cherokee Center
5/9 Richmond, VA Virginia Credit Union Live
5/10 Baltimore, MD Pier Six Pavilion
5/11 Reading, PA Santander Arena
LEG 2
8/9 Cincinnati, OH MegaCorp Pavilion
8/10 Cleveland, OH Jacob’s Pavilion
8/11 Pittsburgh, PA Stage AE Outdoors
8/12 New York, NY Coney Island Amphitheater
8/13 Syracuse, NY OneCenter
8/15 Detroit, MI Masonic Temple
8/17 Toronto, ON RBC Echo Beach
8/18 Laval, QC Place Bell
8/19 Portland, ME Cross Insurance Arena
8/20 Boston, MA MGM Music Hall
8/23 Milwaukee, WI BMO Pavilion
8/25 Hammond, IN Horseshoe
8/26 Omaha, NE Westfair Amphitheater
8/27 Minneapolis, MN Waite Park Amphitheater
8/29 St. Louis, MO The Factory
8/30 Kansas City, MO Azura Amphitheater
9/1 Salt Lake City, UT USANA Amphitheater
9/2 Denver, CO Fiddler’s Green Amphitheater
Fan pre-sales for tickets begin January 18th at 10:00am local time and include both Mastodon and Gojira artist pre-sales, alongside Blabbermouth, Spotify and local promoter / venue / radio pre-sales. General on-sale will launch January 20th at 10:00am local time with VIP ticket packages available at www.gojira-music.com and www.mastodonrocks.com.
