A View From The Back Of The Room: Corrosion Of Confomity (Live Review By Matt Bladen)

Corrosion Of Conformity & Plainride, The Globe, Cardiff, 04.05.23

Few bands command a such a feverish fandom as NOLA legends Corrosion Of Conformity (9), whether with or without Pepper Keenan, their fans flock to whatever size venue they play usually selling it out. This was no different on a wet Thursday night in Cardiff, a day before the start of Desertfest where they were also playing, as The Globe was very much sold out, if anything too sold out with very little moving room throughout the night.

The positive of this was that when Cologne riff peddlers Plainride (9) hit the stage the room was already dripping with sweat due to the amount of bodies in the room. Taking songs from their three albums most came from their most recent self titled record as they got things started with lots of noise and some bigger riffs. Featuring two guitar players and a drummer they caught the imagination of The Globe with groovy alt grunge heaviness, the excellent vocals of Max out too the psychy, desert rocking of his and Bob's guitars, intertwining and bleeding into one another for some fuzzy riffs, Florian abusing the drums behind them. It was a great showing from Plainride, a band I discovered at this gig and one that I want to discover again.

Then it was time for the main event; bassist Mike Dean, lead guitarist Woody Weatherman, drummer John Green (who took over the mantle from Reed Mullin in 2020) and then Pepper Keenan strode on stage as they launched into Paranoid Opioid, the distortion and reverb at maximum making it punishingly heavy as Pepper and Mike's vocals fused for that southern stoner swagger that CoC have been belting out since 1993 when Keenan joined as vocalist, marking a shift to the grooving behemoth they are today. The setlist was mainly taken from the post 1994 records so the greebos in the audience bounced to every single riff filled song. Keenan decrying why they weren't on tour with Weedeater (who played the same venue a few days earlier) or with Crowbar who played the venue the month before. 

Still CoC pack enough killer tracks to make sure the room was not only sweating buckets but going deaf. Three from Deliverance in succession, the addition of tracks from America's Volume Dealer and Blind were welcomed like old friends by the fanboys in front of me who were shifting their hips to every note. As the set closed it was Albatross and Clean My Wounds that brought the house down. My one criticism is that the last time they toured it was in The Great Hall and that was pretty much sold out so if they had they had played say Tramshed then there would have been a bit more room to move around. Other than though CoC proved why they have such longevity and an avid fan base.