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Crowbar Gets the Sludge Out in New Orleans

COG presents Crowbar.

It’s been a while since the sludge gods have played. Yes, they’ve been around town at other shows and have played with their other bands, but Crowbar is something that cannot be forsaken. For twenty years, they have been covering metalheads with a thick layer of Louisiana swamp muck that you’ll be hard-pressed to wash off. But with all of the rough past, drugs, bands, records and line-up changes (and, believe me, they’ve had a lot of line-up changes), Crowbar is still the king of sludge metal. On July 25th, they graced the stage of One Eyed Jacks in the heart of the historic French Quarter and killed.

The night was hosted by the COG. The Consortium of Genius (COG) is a group of mad scientists led by Dr. Pinkerton that are bent on ruling the world. The drummer happens to be a robot. As of now, they haven’t accomplished their main task, but they did reveal to the world their new guitar strings. Special guest Yngwie Flattstein showed up just after they left the stage and told the world how cool he was. If you’re wondering who Yngwie Flattstein is a persona from one of the COG members. No one really knew who he was.

But all of that passed…and Crowbar began to play. They went right into their set. The floor felt like the foundation was breaking from the incredibly hard vibrations thanks to bassist Patrick Bruders. It was the loudest show I’ve ever been to. Kirk and the guys drug their souls out slowly and painfully so that the audience could revel in it. Old favorites were the set list; the ones that invented sludge metal, Kirk proclaimed. Steve Gibb played his heart out. He propelled the sludge lest Kirk take too long to do so. Tommy Buckley slammed on the drums to the point of rupture. In attendance was good buddy Jimmy Bower. He never played, but seeing him on the side of the stage during the entire performance feeling the music was great. For one hour, the heads banged and ears rang. Kirk’s low growls were punctuated at times with a scream of great fury. And then the assault was over. After the band left the stage and slowly we began to file out, Kirk came back. All he said was, “Watch what I’m about to do.” And watch we did as he smashed a beautiful black guitar in two pieces and threw them into the crowd. I don’t believe it was his guitar to destroy, though. Regardless, it was legendary.