Thou & The Body Live Review - Las Vegas, NV

The sludge/doom onslaught in Las Vegas which had been going on last year returned for another night at Las Vegas’ metalheads favorite taco shop last weekend, this time featuring the likes of Thou and the Body, who are currently touring throughout the US.

And like the other shows (Atlas Moth, Batillus etc) this one featured a great lineup through the night. The gig started out with Bloom out of Riverside CA, who headlined at Yayo’s a couple nights prior to this show and set the tone for a growing crowd. The most amusing part of it though was the homeless dude who started watching the show from right outside (and who ended up getting right up front a few bands in).

Next up was God’s America aka Seeds of Rape, who are some of the best grind/powerviolence around, not just Vegas, but probably the whole of the US. Their set was only about 10 or so minutes long, but it was blistering, intense, and filled with crushing dual vocals. I was lucky enough to find a somewhat safe spot on the side with my camera and managed not getting caught in the amalgam of bodies and hair flying around.

Shoppers followed up the raging violent frenzy with some great female fronted punk out of Syracuse NY. Due to my In N Out run, and their quick set changes I didn’t catch all of their performance, but what I did see I liked quite a bit, and listening to their EP right now, I wish I caught it all!

Finally, it was time for the first headliner of the night, The Body. I had caught them back at Scion Rock Fest March of last year, where the two piece put on a pretty devastating performance. Recently, though, they toured with a choir (which is present in some of their recordings), though sadly that was over. Anyways, it started out relatively quietly, but then the sound turned up and proceeded to blow the venue away – well, almost. I don’t think I’ve ever felt the floor shake that much at a show. While it was pretty cool, it was hard to make out much of the music since the wall of sound was pretty much just falling down on everyone.

Then the final band, sludgey doomers from Louisiana, and what seemed to be almost like a younger Eyehategod of sorts, played through one hell of an awesome set. I had only listened to their album Summit a couple times in the past, which I remember being good, but live they totally blew me away, full of energy and intensity, playing through their own songs, as well as one of the best Black Sabbath covers I’ve ever heard.