Last Friday, Mastodon played in front of their biggest national audience ever when they performed “Oblivion” on Late Show With David Letterman. There’s been some online chatter over the fact that everyone in the band except for drummer Brann Dailor wore identical long sleeved gray shirts. Was the band trying to cover up their tattoos to appeal to as many people as possible? We initially shrugged our shoulders and said ‘who cares?,’ but after some Metal Insider readers asked why their arms were covered up, we thought it was worth investigating.

Management got back to us saying that Dave keeps his studio notoriously cold, so the real reason is that the band was freezing. Plus, it’s hard to cover up Brent Hinds’ face tattoo, which Letterman indirectly called “frightening.” Here’s a look at their performance:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OK60yq5mGfw[/youtube]