One Slack Mind – Facebook | Twitter | ReverbNation
One Slack Mind, a band that I was previously unfamiliar with, opened up the night at the Bunker Sports Bar in Leesburg, VA last Saturday, March 11th. They are a three-piece out of the Washington D.C. area, but are unique in that they don’t feature a bass player. They consist of singer, Rich Wilson; drummer, Rick Leith; and guitarist, Mike Ricci, who doubles on bass duty via the sonic magic of his pedalboard. They brought an aggressive sound to the stage, and all of them seem to be quite capable as musicians. There were certainly some fans rocking out intently directly in front of the riser, and their joy brought others to the fold. This included, to everyone’s delight, a middle aged couple who proceeded to headbang to the songs. The whole matter reached its climax when the woman lost her balance and fell backwards to the ground. She seemed fine though, and kept headbanging as the next song started.
A Sound Of Thunder – Official Website | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | YouTube
I’ve been to a handful of shows which featured District Of Columbia-based band, A Sound Of Thunder. In fact, just last month I saw them open for Udo Dirkschneider at Baltimore Soundstage. But I’ve never had the opportunity to see them perform a full, headlining set. And that’s just what they set out to do at Bunker’s Sports Bar last Saturday night (even though, technically, a band called Unsullied went on after them). Not only did they pull out all the stops for their 80-minute set, providing the crowd with a collection of original tunes, as well as a few well-received cover tracks, but they recorded the whole concert on a set of cameras that were rigged up, hand shot, and even drone-flown. I’ve been told that the footage, which will hopefully come out as a reward on the next album’s crowd-funding campaign, worked out really well!
From the ever-powerful opening track, “Queen Of Hell”; to their altered cover of Manowar’s “Pleasure Slave,” which featured four full-grown men stripping off their shirts and bowing at vocalist, Nina Osegueda’s feet; to the epic fight for supremacy in the closing track, “Udoroth,” A Sound Of Thunder plowed through track after track. It’s difficult to say much more than this: when you’re standing shoulder to shoulder with Raven’s John Gallagher watching someone cut loose on a theremin onstage, you know something is right.