Corrosion of Conformity – Crowbar – Weedeater – Mothership – Papsmear
Fremont Country Club – Las Vegas, NV
January 25th, 2019
Dictionary result for sludge
/sləj/
noun
noun: sludge; plural noun: sludges
1 : mud, mire especially : a muddy deposit (as on a riverbed) : ooze
2 : a muddy or slushy mass, deposit, or sediment: such as
a : precipitated solid matter produced by water and sewage treatment processes
3 : thick, soft, wet mud or a similar viscous mixture of liquid and solid components, especially the product of an industrial or refining process.
4 : subgenre of heavy metal mostly that is tuned low, played slow and with balls.
5 : It’s some heavy shit ya’ll!
(Definitions taken and adapted from Google and Merriam-Webster dictionaries)
Corrosion of Conformity and Crowbar are two bands I’ve covered in previous concert reviews so I won’t bore you with the retreading old ground as I’m normally want to do. I will say I was particularly excited that Kirk of Crowbar and Pepper of C.O.C. would share the stage again even if it wouldn’t be in DOWN or together.
(See articles for the previous reviews here! Overkill and Crowbar / BLS/C.O.C.)
Their bands embarked on a North American tour with Weedeater and Mothership seen at this show as well as the Obsessed until the end of February.
Papsmear
Opening up were Papsmear a Las Vegas thrash metal band formed in 1985. Courtney and I saw them with Philip H Anselmo & The Illegals last November. They also got the nod from Pepper during Corrosion’s set. If you want to see this local band yourself catch them with The accused AD at Backstage Bar & Billiards February 16th and in mean time check out their bandcamp.
Mothership
Mothership hailing from Dallas, Texas is by far the youngest of the bands on this bill if that means anything to you. Formed in 2010 by brothers Kyle and Kells Juett on bass and guitar respectively with their father John on drums until current member Judge Smith took the throne the following year. Their latest album High Strangeness came out in 2017 on Ripple Music. Here’s a link to the labels bandcamp.
Weedeater
Hailing from North Carolina Weedeater formed in 1995 and released their first full length …And Justice For Ya’ll in 2001. Bassist/Vocalist “Dixie” Dave Collins and guitarist Dave “Shep” Shepard have managed to stick things together and find a number of drummers to perform with for close to twenty-five years. You can check out their latest album Goliathan on Season of Mist Records or my favorite website bandcamp!
Also if you want to learn more about Weedeater check out Episode One of Noisey’s Heavy Dicks here.
Crowbar
The last time I saw either Crowbar or Corrosion of Conformity they stole the show in my mind. Perhaps I’m biased but what else can I say? Well, I’ll think of something.
Still need to be convinced of the greatness of Crowbar? Go on and listen to songs such as “Planets Collide” or “Walk With Knowledge Wisely” go on the rest of this article can wait if need be. Not to mention Kirk’s work on other projects such as Kingdom of Sorrow with Hatebreed’s Jamey Jasta or Down. More on that later.
The only criticism I have is that I hardly understood a word Kirk Windstein said. I’ve lived a considerable amount of time around cajuns including my own damn family but between how fast he was talking and how gravely the man’s voice is to begin with I now regret showing my girlfriend Tom Segura’s latest Netflix special. That being said we love the Crowbar t-shirts we bought.
Crowbar’s latest release is The Serpent Only Lies on Steamhammer.
Corrosion of Conformity
Just by eye-balling a number of people in the crowd there were some that were there for the headliner Corrosion of Conformity. People who likely remember the band for songs such as “Vote With A Bullet” and “Clean My Wounds”. Chris of Taking Dawn was certainly fucking stoked for their set so much so I suspect he’s got more than a couple of their singles on rotation.
Their latest record is last year’s No Cross No Crown from Nuclear Blast Records.
I might have found out about Kirk and Pepper through the supergroup Down but that’s more of a starting point than anything, a good dozen bands from the NOLA sludge scene could be called supergroups. The NOLA sludge musicians interviewed in the Noisey Doc on YouTube repeated call the scene incestuous and for good reason.
Corrosion of Conformity are currently on tour through the beginning of March with direct support from Crowbar. Later in the year you can catch them for the all star line up that is Dave Mustaine’s very own “MEGACRUISE.”
ALL PHOTOS BY COURTNEY WARE FOR ZROCK’R MAGAZINE, 2019 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.