My first time getting to see Conan was in Chicago, the second time I had to go all the way to Denver. I was thrilled when I discovered they would be playing at the Revolution Music Room in Little Rock Arkansas along with an incredibly stacked local line up. No planes, just an easy two hour drive.
Good omens on the way to the Rev Room! Stopped at a gas station and a motorcycle playing Sammy Hagars Heavy Metal at top volume pulled up next to me and inside they were playing Enter the Sandman and I was like “HELL YEAH” also got to go to Tokyo House sushi buffet with some friends I had convinced to go to the show with me.
The Arkansas air felt like being inside of a hair dryer and the Rev Rooms AC was having some trouble keeping up. There were several industrial sized metal fans (including myself) placed strategically about the venue which helped a bit. My friend and I found some chairs with a great view of the stage, I was sweating so much the pleather seats made me feel like I was astride a dolphin. I loved that the bar had Red Bull on tap, you don’t see that every day. I can’t remember how much beer was because I had eight of them but I do remember they had both PBR and Shiner which was awesome. The staff was friendly and I liked the overall layout of the place. Plenty of places to lean on and an easily visable stage.
The first band of the night was Subserviency, esoteric death metal with pockets of Hidden Histories era Blood Incantaion here and there… some would say Morbid Angel but I don’t listen to OSDM much at all so I don’t know. They were sick as Hell I do know that. It was nice to see people under 20 playing metal again, I was starting to worry there for a minute.
Next we had the somewhat jaunty Saline County sludge of Pig Sticker. They had ferocious energy and even a few breakdowns. A year or two ago I saw a Grand Daddy Long Leg climb onto their singers arm and he gently picked it up and set it somewhere safe which I thought was super cool.
The final local opener, Seahag, dragged us to the depths, their vein rattling low end would have killed me had I been heartworm positive. Their drumset was a multiple colored Frankenstein type set up which is not something ive ever seen before. It had been a long time since I’d seen em and it was great to see em again!
Although I couldn’t hear the vocals almost at all this was my favorite Conan show I’ve been to, it was an incredible set. They played songs from eight different albums! Left of stage on the rail I developed a new appreciation for the bass and drums. I have listened to their songs many times and my head filled in the blanks on the very faint vocals. My friends standing on the opposite side of me said they couldn’t hear the bass very well which is wild because when I took my earplugs out for a few seconds during Gravity Chasm I immediately felt like Rorshach getting exploded by Dr. Manhatten from the volume of the riffs. I thought the whole night was awesome and so did everyone else. Hope they come back!
MID SOUTH 