Overview by Stan Béland
Photos by Tiffany Naugler
Wednesday Aug 31st @ The Seahorse Tavern
1663 Argyle St | 9pm | FREE
Cobra Camaro -
http://cobracamaro.bandcamp.com/
Cicada -
www.cicadametal.com
Orchid's Curse -
http://orchidscurse.wordpress.com/
Miss Molotov -
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Miss-Molotov/75273922454?sk=info
METAL MOUTH MEDIA -
http://www.metalmouthmedia.com/
Metal Mouth Media puts on a hell of a show.
Fire play, skits, punk rock, death metal, last Wednesday at the seahorse had it all. Well, it had the four things I just said. Kind of.
Starting off the night with a fairly ridiculous skit played out by the guys at Metal Mouth and the members of Cicada, making their way through the streets of Halifax, rushing to get to the show on time. It had a pretty classic “get all my buds and go to a party” feel to it. The crowd liked it and it set the tone for the good time vibes that would continue throughout the night.
Fact: I hate fire marshals. This is based PURELY on the decision to not let Miss Molotov do her full show last Wednesday. It was her last show as Miss Molotov and she had hoped to go out with a bang, but it turned out Johnny McFirelaw caught wind of what was happening and shut her down. While it was definitely disappointing to miss out on what I’ve heard is a great show, Molotov still managed to freak the audience out by putting a fricking blowtorch out. With. Her. Tongue. I mean, come on, how does anyone figure out they can do that? How drunk do you have to be to be all like “nah, fuck it. I can totally put this out with my tongue.” You know what I know I definitely can’t do? Put a blowtorch out with my tongue. Happy trails to Molotov, hopefully we’ll see her back in Halifax soon!
Up next was Cobra Camaro and if there’s one thing that I loved about them, it was their singer. Alison Lang is pretty much the embodiment of everything I like in a frontwoman: Sexy, growl in their voice, lots of energy, and a great crowd vibe. The guys backing her up were no slouches either, throwing down riffs that reminded me of Queens of the Stone Age on amphetamines. Mixing punk-like speed and violence with stoner rock methodology, Cobra Camaro threw down a pretty heavy groove bolstered by Lang’s gravelly, screamy, punky vocals. Think a mix between The Distillers and Fu Manchu, and you’re gonna get a get a pretty good idea of what Cobra Camaro is all about. Also, Cobra Camaro? As a car guy, that’s gotta be the best band name in the world.
Next, and making quick and devastating work of the stage, were Cicada. Cicada seemed to be an ever-evolving beast; early in the set there were all groove metal and big screams but as the night wore on, though, things got all death metally, and super speedy. Bassist/vocalist, Chester, looked straight up scary, head banging, screaming, and mounting his bass like it was a rented mule. Chester’s kind of a little guy but, dear lord, the sounds that come out of him are ungodly. Guitarist Anson May had a great high pitched metal scream that played counterpart of Chester’s low end and, well, the boy can play. Throwing down big chords and then shredding out solid detail work, May kept the energy up throughout the night. The interesting thing about Cicada is their percussion situation; having both a drummer and a djembe player, things are pretty damn drummy on stage. While the djembe sometimes gets lost in all the cacophonous mess that is metal, it’s a different twist on the normal metal band set-up. Cicada played a good, long set of fairly progressive metal and set things up for The Orchid’s Curse to close things out.
Oh, Orchid’s Curse, I’ve seen you a LOT in the last 2 months. Three times, to be exact. And somehow, someway my ears refuse to tire of you. Is it the fact that you’re ridiculously tight? Maybe it’s because Josh Hogan is a firecracker? (That’s right, a god damn FIRE cracker.) Or could it be, maybe, that they’re so consistently good, and easily one of the better bands in Halifax, regardless of genre? Yea, it’s pretty much a mix of all of those things. Everyone in this band is foolish at what they do; guitarists Brian Jones and Keith MacLeod play off of each other with such ease, you’d think they were twins. Monozygotic twins. Bassist, Kevin Mombourquette plays bass with reckless abandon and drummer Bobby Webb is a shirtless maniac who abuses drum skins as if they were red headed step-children. And Hogan, the Speedy Gonzalez of the Halifax death metal scene, owns the stage wherever he plays. With world-famous-band posturing, great fan interaction, and consistent vocals, Hogan is the anchor of the band. I’ll watch these guys again and again and again, and I doubt that I’ll ever get sick of them.
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