https://www.high-endrolex.com/18

Live Review: Corrosion of Conformity, Crowbar, Quaker City Night Hawks & Lo-Pan in NJ, 08.25.19

Corrosion of Conformity (Photo by JJ Koczan)

It seems unlikely to me, but apparently the last time I was at Starland Ballroom in Sayreville, New Jersey, was 2011? Not much has changed. They still have the big screen that comes down between bands to promote upcoming shows — a lot of pop-punk, some bigger metal, and DJ Pauly D will be there in December, just in case you forgot you were in NJ — and they still have the bars liberally strewn about the back and sides of the venue. I feel like I’ve spent significant time in that room in the past, but apparently not in the last eight years. It’s like I lived in a different state for most of that time or something. Huh.

Even the Old Bridge Militia — a name that sounds way more threatening than the reality of being dudes-who’ve-been-going-to-shows-since-probably-before-you-were-born-and-made-shirts-to-prove-it — came out for this one, and fair enough. It was the second to last night of Corrosion of Conformity‘s ‘A Quest to Believe: A Call to the Void’ Tour, an earlier leg of which already saw them on the road with Crowbar. Support this time for the two riffly titans was from Texas four-piece Quaker City Night Hawks and Columbus, Ohio’s own Lo-Pan, who’ve also been doing off-day shows with Crowbar such as that further north in Teaneck, NJ, on July 25 (review here), where they and Crowbar kicked off the tour early with a gig on their own at Debonair Music Hall.

The tour, which C.O.C. and Quaker City Night Hawks joined on July 26 in Poughkeepsie, NY, would wrap up the following evening in Providence, Rhode Island. Starland tapped local progressive rockers Elephant Talk to open, who were young — as in, actually young and no, it’s not just that 30-year-olds are starting to look like kids to me — and tight in kind, with a technical flourish to their play that was well met by the melodies of vocalist Ava Panza. I can’t really say they were my thing, but they held down that stage without question and their bassist’s periodic slaps added a bit of funk to the nuanced proceedings. They also threw in a drum solo, which, for a 20- or 25-minute set felt particularly bold. Kid earned it though, and also nailed it.

I interviewed Lo-Pan drummer Jesse Bartz before the show started (will post probably early next week or later this week; check back, it was a good talk), talking about the tour and a bit of how the different personalities in the band interact in life as well as on stage. I’ll say this, especially for having seen them just a month ago, I can’t remember the last time I caught a band who had their 1,000-yard stare working so hard on stage. Bartz was set up toward the front of the stage in a line with bassist Scott Thompson, vocalist Jeff Martin and guitarist Chris Thompson, and their set too would be short — six songs, all from earlier-2019’s Subtle (review here) — but they were so locked in that the time-to-hit-it feel was automatic.

No warm up, no getting their feet under them, nothing. Not playing, then playing; in that order. They looked and sounded like a band who’d been on the road for four weeks, in that they were doing their set, hell or high water, and that even if the power had gone out, I don’t think that would’ve stopped them. They were their own generators, and their output was as pro-shop as I’ve ever heard them sound in the last decade-plus. The material on Subtle was well suited to such a sharpened execution and it was enough to wonder which came first, the songs being so on point or the on point-ness of the band resulting in the songs.

A couple minutes maybe to breathe, but not much more than that before Quaker City Night Hawks took the Starland stage, playing classic-style Southern blues boogie, not afraid to throw in a little twang or a slow jam here and there amid all the soulful guitar and periodic three-part harmonies. I’d purposefully gone into their set not knowing much of their stuff, but they released the acronymically-titled QCNH in back in March and sounded fluid easing into the sleek groove of “Fox in the Henhouse” from that record, which closed their set and featured a jump-on appearance on stage from C.O.C.‘s Pepper Keenan. It being C.O.C. and Crowbar‘s crowd primarily, some of the more country aspects went over a few heads in the crowd, but I suspect Quaker City Night Hawks made a lot of new friends on this tour, bands and fans alike.

Central Jersey’s special brand of shitkickers was out in full force by the time Crowbar went on, and the mosh that ensued kept up for Corrosion of Conformity as well. Of the New Orleans sludge legends, I’ll note that this was the third time I’ve seen them this year, and if they were coming around again, I’d think long and hard about going. Inimitable frontman Kirk Windstein ignited a couple chants of the band’s name and between familiar inclusions like “Walk with Knowledge Wisely,” “All I Had (I Gave),” “Cemetery Angels” and “Planets Collide,” as well as “To Build a Mountain” — always a highlight — and “To Carry the Load,” the latter taken from 1998’s Odd Fellow’s Rest, which Windstein noted from stage that they rediscovered an affection for as a result of playing the album in full for its 20th anniversary last year.

Crowbar‘s legacy goes without saying, but with Tommy Buckley on drums, Matt Buckley on guitar and Shane Wesley on bass, it was a vital impression the whole band made, not just Windstein. You just can’t, can’t, can’t fuck with seeing Crowbar live. It’s like a natural event. Creature in its habitat and whatnot. Further, when Kirk Windstein, who’s been at the heart of the band for 30 years, tells the crowd he loves them, I believe it. I don’t think he’s selling a line, or just filling dead air. This wasn’t the most thoroughly attended show I’ve ever seen Crowbar play, and neither was Teaneck, but they still absolutely crushed as only they could. Working band, giving the people what they want. The story would be simple as that if it wasn’t so rarely done at their level.

And as was the case earlier this year when I caught them in Boston, you’d be hard-pressed to come up with a better complement to close the night than Corrosion of Conformity playing after Crowbar. Though the long-running North Carolinian outfit are still ostensibly supporting 2018’s No Cross No Crown (review here), it’s worth noting that the set didn’t actually feature any songs from that record. Instead, it was heavy on Deliverance (discussed here) and Wiseblood (discussed here), with dips into America’s Volume Dealer for “13 Angels,” “Diablo Blvd.” and “Who’s Got the Fire” later on. Naturally, “Vote with a Bullet” from 1991’s Blind was aired — a song that, like the Old Bridge Militia, was made in a much, much different time than that in which we currently live — and “Stonebreaker” from 2005’s In the Arms of God got the crowd riled up early for a payoff that seemed to come with “The Door” from Wiseblood further into the set. “Albatross,” Born Again for the Last Time,” “Seven Days,” “King of the Rotten,” “Shake Like You,” “Wiseblood,” “My Grain” — these were the bulk of their time, and I’d like to think that’s because the band knows their regional audience has been with them for those decades. Maybe that’s just the idea for this leg of the tour.

I dug No Cross No Crown a lot, but I would, being a fan. It’s interesting to think they might already be moving past that album in favor of more familiar fare, considering that the more touring they do, the more they move beyond “reunion band” and into “working band” in their four-piece incarnation with Pepper Keenan alongside bassist/vocalist Mike Dean, guitarist/vocalist Woodroe Weatherman and drummer/vocalist John Green holding the spot for Reed Mullin. Still, I’d have to think some of the newer material, even if just a single, would make it into the set over the longer term, but the ‘A Quest to Believe: A Call to the Void’ Tour has newly announced a third leg, so maybe more of the No Cross No Crown stuff will pop back up for that. Could happen.

Somewhere right toward the end of Crowbar, I hit the wall h-a-r-d, and though I caught a second wind with about 10 minutes left, the ride home was far from my most graceful. I’d been up since 4AM, it was coming on midnight. No regrets though. Between seeing Crowbar and Lo-Pan on the front and back ends of the tour, getting to hear Quaker City Night Hawks for the first time and the ever-reliable righteousness of C.O.C., it was my little welcome-back-to-Jersey present to myself. Sure enough, it felt like home.

More pics after the jump if you’re interested. Either way, thanks for reading.

Lo-Pan

Quaker City Night Hawks

Crowbar

Corrosion of Conformity

Tags: , , , , , , ,

2 Responses to “Live Review: Corrosion of Conformity, Crowbar, Quaker City Night Hawks & Lo-Pan in NJ, 08.25.19”

  1. Scott says:

    Nice pix! Our pix had similar and different perspectives of the evening!

Leave a Reply