the Вторник 04 Май 2010, The Rialto Theater, Tucson, Az, USA

Valient Thorr

They are a 5 piece stoner metal band from North Carolina.  There were only about 50 people in the theater to see this band, so I moved up close to the stage, for a more personal experience with the band.  4 of the 5 band members had scraggly beards, they looked like back woods hillbillies.  That gave us a good chuckle.  Bassist Nitewolf was real crazy looking with his long black beard and messy long hair.  He would spit a lot, because he was chewing some tobacco.  The vocalist is called Valient Himself,  he would periodically slam  bottles of beer.  He would burp real loud,  but never through the microphone.  I wasn't very familiar with this band at the time.  Their music sounded like it had a lot of Exodus and AC/DC influence.  They also played a short cover of the Jimi Hendrix classic, Machine Gun.  We had a great time rocking out with this band, our small audience showed this band some "southwestern" hospitality.
After this set, I went outside to the smoking area, I was the only fan out there.  There was a smokers promotion tent out there.  They invited me inside and gave me 2 free packs of cigarettes and a coupon for a free can of chewing tobacco.  This must have had something to do with 2 of the bands coming from North Carolina, where most of the American tobacco companies are located.
Then I went inside to the lobby to buy a Valient Thorr shirt and CD.  The vender had a striking resemblance to vocalist Valient Himself , so I asked him if he was the singer.  He said yeah and shook my hand.  I picked out a shirt and asked him which CD was the best, he recommended their newest CD(Immortalizer), so I bought it.  He shook my hand again after that. 

Between The Buried And Me

Between The Buried And Me is a 5 piece progressive death metal band from North Carolina.  Their sound was mostly hardcore, with jazz influenced interludes.  Vocalist Tommy Rogers had a keyboard in front of him.  Most of the time he played piano music through it, but he would use it to play other sounds.  His voice ranges from guttural screaming to jazzy clear singing.

There were more people in the theater now, but it was far from being crowded, so I was standing about 20 feet from the stage.  I was right by a small mosh pit.  Kids were ramming into each other as though they were in a football game.  Bigger kids were knocking smaller kids on their asses.  I didn't want to join in, because it would distract me from the show.  I got tired of people stepping on my foot and being thrown into me, so I shoved one of these guys down to the floor.  Tommy Rogers didn't like that.  The highlight of their set was when they played songs from their Alaska album.  Then they continued with their hardcore/jazz styled songs.

 

Baroness

They are a progressive metal quartet from Georgia.  Guitarist/vocalist Peter Adams has a vocal style that reminds me of the vocals of Janes' Addiction, but he also displays a rough yelling sound like that of early Mastodon.  Their style seems to mirror that of later Mastodon.  There were also infusions of southern fried rock and jazz.  The musicians were highly skilled, especially Allen Bickle on the drums.

Mastodon

Even more people had arrived to the theater, when Mastodon had taken the stage.  They had their 4 regular band members plus a keyboardist.  First they played songs from their newest album, Crack The Skye.  Which included Oblivion, Divinations, and Quintessence.  Then they played songs from the albums; Blood Mountain and Call Of The Mastodon.

Then finally, they some songs from their killer album, Leviathan.  They played Blood And Thunder, I Am Ahab, Iron Tusk, and Megalodon.  Then they played songs from their first album, Remission.  They played Crusher Destroyer and March Of The Fire Ants.