Fu Manchu / Valient Thorr

They came from Venus to concur Leeds, and concur they did. It is rare that you see a support band that are as good, if not more entertaining then the main band. Valient Thorr are one of those bands where, yeah the music is good, but you would gain a lot more from witnessing their out of this world live show.


No fancy gimmicks, just a bunch of really hairy, middle-aged blokes playing rock and roll, having a shout at George Bush, and causing mayhem. Not content with everyone standing at the back when they appear on stage, singer Valient Himself and bassist Dr. Professor Nitewolf Strangees (don’t ask) jump around on the floor, trying to entice people to move closer. People are weary at first; here is a singer with a ginger beard and brown hair, surrounded by other hairy men, sweating all over the shop. Himself talks lot about his sweat, rubbing that beer gut and telling us that sweat is good, as it gets rid of the toxins until all that comes out is fresh (I learnt about the main contents of sweat at school, so I’m not convinced).

Standing on a stool at the back of the room seems to get a few more people interested in this band; I for one am hooked on them already. In the space of four songs they have completely got the crowd on their side, even making them all sit on the floor while Himself has a political rant sitting amongst them. I thoroughly recommend these to anyone interested in real rock and roll, with strong riffs and an amusing front man.

A younger band then hit the stage (there was meant to be two support bands, but Dead City Riots have not shown). Still with a lot of hair, but less of it on the face (strange when their name is the same as the Chinese character and his moustache made famous in Sax Rohmer’s novels). Fu Manchu are completely different to Valient Thorr, with really deep funky bass lines and RATM styles riffs. The crowd have already been worked up to their limit by the mighty ‘Thorr, so they stay pumped for the Californian’s set.


There are a few tracks from their tenth album ‘We Must Obey’, including ‘Hung Out To Dry’, ‘Sensei Vs. Sensei’ and the title track. The best tracks are ‘Evil Eye’ and ‘King Of The Road’, along with encore song ‘Godzilla’. I spend a lot of the time transfixed on bassist Brad Davis’ face, as along with his mesmerising bass lines he is miming the sound that he is producing.

Singer Scott Hill is thrashing around and blaming the sound engineer about the effects on his vocals (to which the lighting tech turns off the lights for five seconds as retaliation).



Apart from the strong similarities to RATM, there are snippets of early Nirvana (‘Bleach’ period) and Helmet, though the song contents is all their own, with topics ranging from pimped vans, spacemen and mythical Hollywood creatures (Godzilla, Bigfoot). All sang in that cool Californian surfer dude way. In fact after the sweat of the first band Fu Manchu look like they are too cool to break into a sweat. They don’t talk much, in fact I can not remember what they said as it was so little. I enjoyed them as did the crowd, but if a band stands out for me it is Valient Thorr. Watch them I you dare!

Pigeon Toe
Laserbl’ast!
California Crossing
Hung Out To Dry
Eatin’ Dust
Boogie Van
Saturn III
Hell On Wheels
Grendel, Snowman
We Must Obey
Evil Eye
Mongoose
Sensei Vs Sensei
King Of The Road
Godzilla

FUTURE GIGS