Conan in Baltimore
On my way back from a trip last month, I stopped in Baltimore to catch a Conan show.
I’ve been getting into doom metal lately and Conan is a lot of fun. When asked for their favorite Conan album, one redditor responded: “the one with the yelling about battle.” That about sums it up.
The venue was the Metro Gallery, conveniently located near the train station. It’s a small spot with merch tables on the side and a bar in the back. Unfortunately there are a set of huge columns separating the merch area from the stage, so it’s hard to see anything from there.
I arrived while Mares of Thrace were finishing up their set. They packed a punch for a two-piece, and vocalist Therese Lanz can growl with the best of them. I didn’t really get a good feel for their sound because the area was pretty well packed and I lingered by the merch area, visually and sonically off-center. I knew right away that I’d have to move in ASAP.
The crowd dispersed once Mares finished and I quickly grabbed a spot front and center. I’d never heard of the next band, Royal Thunder, who would round off the openers. They turned out to be more grunge-adjacent, with another powerful vocalist who belted it like a 90s Janis Joplin. Overall I don’t think they really fit the lineup, and I was quite ready for them to wrap it up about three-quarters of the way through.
My waning interest was sustained however by the occasional appearance of a mouse pointer on the guitarist’s face.
Finally Conan began setting up and I took a position even further forward, just a head or two from front. Being somewhat mosh-averse, I don’t normally put myself there, but I allowed myself to assume two things that turned out to be false.
False assumptions:
- The doom genre isn’t energetic enough to stir up a real mosh pit
- The venue was small enough that it would stifle any real flailing about
On point one, as doom bands go, Conan can really get into a gallop when they want to. Now maybe this is just my inexperience with the genre, or me conflating it with its “stoner” variant. It’s probably both. On point two, well, turns out folks could probably mosh in an airplane toilet if they really wanted to. In any case, galloping ensued and a healthy vortex opened up behind me.
Conan themselves were all business, and they ground us to a pulp just like we all wanted. As can be the case with live doom shows, the sound was pretty muddy, but the real sensation you look for at these things is a pounding sensation in your chest. Happy to say I found plenty of that.
To battle!