Last night I put on my $10 Mares of Thrace hoodie and joined some friends at Minneapolis venue Zhora Darling for a show I've been looking forward to for months, Conan and Mares of Thrace. But, let's be honest: I was there for Mares of Thrace. As I wrote in the linked post, I checked out the Canadian sludge duo earlier this year for the first time and was immediately hooked. But does their live experience live up to their recorded works? Read on to find out!

Before I get back to Mares of Thrace, allow me a few words on the other bands on the bill, Conan and Minneapolis locals Cobra Czar. The locals kicked things off with a solid 20 minute set that had me scratching my head in a good way. After they were done, I asked my friend Robert how he'd classify the band. We discussed and agreed that they had a lot of disparate elements at play. Doom. Black metal. New York hardcore. The vocalist gave me strong Phil Anselmo vibes, if Phil was fronting a blackened doom band. I love it when a band is hard to pigeonhole, so I'm very curious to see and hear more from Cobra Czar.

As for Conan, I hadn't spent a lot of time with them until this year, and I certainly understand their appeal. They conjure some incredibly heavy and impressive doom, and last night I was impressed by how much they sounded like their album. My knock on them, if it is fair to call it that, is that there's not a lot of variety in their sound. Their set was a wall of crushing sonic gloom. I like that as much as the next metalhead, but I also like a little variation in the soundscape from time to time. But I have to give them props for drawing a crowd of people that included a dude wearing a giant winged medieval helmet that you could see bouncing around the pit from the back of the room. 

Speaking of variation, let's get back to Mares of Thrace. They opened their set with the blistering track "The Second Stage: Denial" from their newest album The Loss and absolutely commanded the room for their entire set. And while their set was full of fast and heavy songs, including many from The Loss, their compositions also include a lot of sonic variation, quieter moments, buildups of tension and release. Take for example "The Fourth Stage: Bargaining." It begins with soft harmonies before building into blistering riffs. 

The complexity of the music (especially consider that they're a duo!), the emotional content of the lyrics (it's an album about grieving, in case you didn't get that from the song and album titles), and the intensity of the live performance would be enough for me to give Mares of Thrace a glowing review. What took it up even another level was that they were clearly having fun. There are plenty of bands out there that can deliver a top-notch performance without any indication that they're enjoying what they do. Mares of Thrace's two members played off each other with clear joy, often making goofy faces at each other as they built up to the next big movement. Their joy brought me joy, and clearly the audience was deeply into their set. They got a huge response at the end of each song and the set. The band seemed to appreciate the energy of the crowd as well, so hopefully they'll be back again soon.

After the set, I did get a chance to briefly talk to drummer Casey Rodgers and he in fact commented on my $10 hoodie. I would have loved to get a photo while wearing with with singer Therese Lanz and tell her what it meant to me. A goal for their next show!