Well firstly let me talk about how bad the whole setup of this gig was. The staff here had no idea what was happening. Every member of the staff here had no idea what being on the Guest List means/meant. We walked up and let the main bouncer know we were on the list and were asked to stand to the side. We stood to the side for 20 minutes while people that possessed tickets and wanted to buy tickets passed by us, before finally being allowed in (it was freaking freezing that night by the way).

When we entered we were shown towards some guy that had loads of people in front of him attempting to get in on the guest list. Now either this place had the biggest guest list ever or the guy running it had no idea what was going on and basically let anyone in on the "guestlist" that attempted to pretend that they were in fact on the list.



It finally became our turn and I spoke with the bouncer to get our photo passes sorted. Now apparently no photo passes were ever menetioned for us and I go through a whole 20-30 minute debate with these guys about how essential it was that I got the photo passes I had been given by Corrosion of Conformity's label Sanctuary Records .

Again showing how un-organized this guy was he took me with him while he tried to figure out what was going on. I was eventually granted a photo pass which was basically the doorman going up to all the bouncers and showing them to me and vice versa and letting them know I was OK to go up front.

And so the gig began. Finally.



By the time we got in we had missed the smaller support acts if any were on (not shown on the gig list) and we were confronted with Clutch approaching the stage. Now I had heard of these guys in my many years of being in the music industry but I had never actually heard them. Even crazier was when I learned that these guys were from Maryland and that I had lived in Virginia for the past 4 years. Maybe thats how I'd heard of them?? Who knows?? All I know is that Clutch hit the stage hard and I was finally excited to be here after all the shit we had to endure.

After about an hour of Clutch playing however my excitment had faded a little. It's not that they weren't tight, it's not that they weren't good it was just that they were pretty monotonous in my opinion. I would give them 4 out of 5 for live performance but having said that I was not interested in going out and buying their CD after the gig. Basically they rock but not as something to listen to everyday (for me at least). More as an occasional act to catch when they come through town, not one to go out of your way for.

Finally I hear "This is gonna be our last song". They perform it as I rush to get a beer before they get off the stage and the bar gets stupidly busy. Two Stellars and a Double Jack later and everyones happy .



30 minutes later Corrosion of Conformity hit the stage. Now I was familaiar with this band through Altsounds.com and unfortunately we only have one sample song for them so that was all I had on embarking to go see this band. However, the one song was obviously good enough to drag us all here tonight.

They hit the stage and within 10 seconds I was already thanking the higher being that these guys were on stage and Clutch had left. SO much heavier, so much harder and sooo much tighter.

The first thing I noticed about these guys was how vintage looking their guitars were. It was almost as if everyone in the band bought new guitars at the beginning of their career and since then they had just played the same guitars over and over again.

Now Corrosion were loud, loud as ****. I mean I had ear plugs in and they were loud. So loud in fact that at one point a bouncer was concerned for my well being because the monitors were vibrating towards the front of the stage due to stage vibrations. It was some crazy shit and the singer even mentioned it on stage.



Corrosion of Conformity were a breath of fresh air from the emo shit that I have been subdued to lately. Not that everything I have seen is shit, not in the slightest. But everyone wants to be emo in Wales, everyone wants to follow a certain style of dress etc and it was nice to be out of that. Granted it was to another extreme but it didn't matter. Corrosion of Conformity hit the stage hard, rocked like mother ****ers and then left throwing picks (plectrums), drums sticks etc into the crowd whilst comfortably telling people to "**** Off" as they departed the stage in the rock and roll glory they obviously deserve.

That didn't bother anyone and as soon as they had left the stage they were being asked to come back. "MORE, MORE, MORE". After about 5 minutes of being yelled at they returned to the stage to roars and applause from the crowd and performed 2 more tracks for everyone to go wild over.

I took shots in the last but one track but left on the final track to be wise and go and get a Kebab before anyone else even realized that Kebab houses even existed!! (They Call it Corrosion Vision) .

We got out of the gig, got our Kebab and barring some stupid Welsh person slurring racist comments to the Kebab shop owners we all had a good night and made our way home to look at the photos of the evening.

Some of these photos are currently my proudest work and the galleries can be seen as follows:

CLUTCH: http://www.altsounds.com/promophotos...s.php?album=24

CORROSION OF CONFORMITY:
http://www.altsounds.com/promophotos...s.php?album=25


Check out Corrosion of Conformity on Altsounds.com:
http://www.altsounds.com/corrosionofconformity