Live DC: The Sword w/ Valient Thorr and Black Cobra @ The Cat

December 12, 2007 by Sexy Fitsum  Send to a Friend

Last Tuesday’s show happened on the night of our first half-decent snowfall this year. So as soon as I got out of the cab, I was thinking “well, you know how finicky D.C. folk be over weather. Plus on a Tuesday?…” Inside the Black Cat’s Red Room, it even felt like a snow day at school about an hour before the principal calls time and sends everyone home.The few folks present didn’t seem to know each other so there was very little talking. Just drink ordering. I was also thinking that relegating a band like The Sword to the backstage was weird and spelled “low expectations”. My thinking turned out to be very very wrong, but at the time it was looking to be a quiet night. I figured, at least, I’d have an easy time shooting from wherever I wanted. So, forward.

Fifteen minutes after doors, a crowd of mostly X-marked hands - (some with heroic Clutch beards even-whoa) - began trickling into the place. A dad with two very young monkeys (I’m thinking 13 at most) was pointing to the bands’ rig onstage, tentatively explaining the amps, stacks and guitars, and comparing them with the gear he used “in (his) day”. And the rig spoke volumes: the amps were Orange, the stacks were Marshall and guitars were nearly all Gibson. Fuzzy, chunky, loud.Almost out of nowhere, these two roadie lookin kids came out and took their positions on stage: one at guitar and microphone, the other at drums. This was Black Cobra from San Francisco and they tore ass from first to last note. I have a soft spot for bands will small headcounts like The Jam, Genesis and The Police, and that stripped-down compact power they rock with. Pig Destroyer, even more so. These Black Cobra motherfuckers took it to the bone, all riffs and rhythm, all set long.The drummer was that awesome muppet Animal incarnate. The guitarist had no face: just nuff metal warrior hair and a growlhole that forced air into the mic in front of him. This is a band to follow up on, for real for real. It was obvious that few people came for, or even expected Black Cobra, but you could tell that they were psyched at the privilege, and getting plenty wound up for the other bands on the way.

I could tell from the plentiful Valient Thorr patches on mad denim that the highlight was coming for alot of folks. To be honest, I wrote these guys off without even hearing a single track. I just assumed, what with the extra “r”, they were probably some sort of Norse lore referencing tongue-in-cheek Dragonforce clone. Wrong again. They were alot closer to a Turbo Negro/Young Heart Attack cross and looked more Skynyrd than Lars, even thought all their last names are “Thorr”. In no time flat, they plugged their shit in and got to it.

A few seconds after starting their first song, the band-audience participation was at parity and levels were rising way into the reds. The five guys in Valient Thorr didn’t care how small the stage was, who was bumping into them (me) or accidentally tapping their head with a flash (me). They played with all the psychotic abandon and fervor you’d expect from a group with its own fictional history [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valient_Thorr] and a legion of Thorriors who back their shit up.

Halfway through their set, singer Valient Himself was down to his hairshirt and neck deep in audience screaming his ass off while the rest of the group kept this utterly possessed vibe going from the back. Towards the end, I actually had to step away for some air and only came back after making sure they were done. Not sure if it was old age or what, but that shit was too much.

At this point, the backstage was probably at capacity and the crowd was feeling itself.My lens kept fogging up. People were getting well boozed up and a wee ornery. I was almost scared what The Sword would be like. I was told that their show at Ram’s Head in Bmore last New Years Eve crushed necks with zero artifice or showiness. Just song, song, song, song … thank you, good night. How can you not love that?
I was psyched to be turned on to The Sword, as payback for introducing someone to Full Blown Chaos, which turned out to be a totally fair exchange. Even though their songs cover some medieval ass circumstances, like succumbing to a curses and getting decapitated and impaled for show outside dude’s castle, their sound stood out among Doom scene. They didn’t sound like wizards and ogres one-fingering their way through some lobotomized form blues. And they get points for coming from Texas.

Just as I hoped, they came on, tuned up quickly and cranked that soldier boy. Where Black Cobra were 100% band energy, and Valient Thorr shared it 50/50 with the audience, The Sword stayed in the cut and let the crowd wild out something awful.

An un-ignorable pit formed and stagedives that threatened during the prior set, came frightfully true now. Familiar tracks like “Iron Swan” and “Winter’s Wolves” (fuuuuck yeah) from “Age of Winters” got banged out, as well as a good number of new ones. I had to ask around to be sure whether it was the Guinness or was I really hearing new songs. I read later that they’re in the studio working on a new full length and that there’s a split 12″ with some Christian band (syke) named Witchcraft. If these dudes come back her again, I can’t see them not playing upstairs. Hell, if Shellac or The Fucking Champs WITH Trans Am can headline to a half-filled room in midweek …
Kind of funny how even after the show, the mayhem vibe continued with more drinking, crazy-talk and shouting until I just couldn’t take it anymore and got a cab home.

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