Show Recap – 04/05/2025 – Lungs, Cobra Czar, Cymothoa and Tiger Blue @ Zhora Darling

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Iron Mike

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Venue

Zhora Darling is the shit. I have been there a couple times now, and every time I have been impressed and excited to go back. A good chunk of bar/restaurant space at the front, and a decent sized live music room in the back with a great ambiance for metal. A small, but fairly diverse menu, ample seating, and even some pool tables make it a great date night option. Leaving shows at the end, there seems to be a good sized GenZish (?) bar crowd; happy vibes though.

Sound

A major component of Zhora’s charm is the high quality of the sound in that back room of theirs. I choose to wear earplugs whenever I go to shows or play on my own, and at Zhora’s there have been a few times I forgot to stick them in. Volume is great, balance is great, and I have not heard anything harsh or annoying. You can feel the music consistently across all the tunes and acts. Every mic works* and all instruments and vocals come through with clarity.

Crowd

We got into the show in progress around 8:15. I dropped the ball and forgot to attempt a headcount, but I’d say the live music room was close to ⅔ capacity. The back half of the room was jam packed, and the 200 square feet or so in front of the stage was sparse for most of the night. Lungs called people to move forward, so it improved a little bit. Crowd was cool and respectful overall though. One half hearted attempt to get the pit going started up for a few minutes during Cobra Czar by 3-4 dudes, but did not last long.

Performance

All 4 bands killed their sets. The sound at Zhora’s can definitely make your band sound good if you hit your shit correctly. BUT, because everything is so clear, if you screw up, we can hear it (no noteworthy screw ups on this night!). This mix of bands thrives on ambient overtones and giving their instruments and amps space to breathe and move air. 

TIGER BLUE

Sorry gentlemen, we got in late and missed half your set! What we saw was heavy! I don’t like making comparisons, but this band is making me do it. They are most definitely metal (thrashy sludgy, but at the same time I hear 90s grunge, Allman Bros/Skynyrd/Drive By Truckers, Tool, and probably more…And they could weave all this stuff fairly smoothly into their own unique blend. Pretty impressive coming from a 3-piece.

CYMOTHOA

Another 3-piece, Cymothoa’s self description = “Three Guys, No Meaning, Just Riffs.” They are an instrumental band with quite a few albums under their belt. In January they released a sort of double album type deal; Make Noise Loud Again is their trad instrumental metal… the second addition, Make Noise Loud Again: With Vocals includes contributions from 8 local metal vocalists. Show was instrumental (apparently 1 guest singer was on the bill, but came down with a sickness…). Cymothoa was sharp and well rehearsed, nailing tempo changes, heavy chugs, squeals, and bends like pros.

COBRA CZAR

See tags below. I’ll go with their self descriptions, but they were the deathiest band on the lineup, and as mentioned above, they were closest to getting a pit going. While not blazing tremolo riffs and blast beats, they definitely kept the click at a slightly more efficient rate for headbanging than the other acts. But, there were tons of heavy bass/drum/cymbal beatdowns and accents that enhanced some of that doomy/sludge they tag themselves with. I saw and felt that live much more than I picked up on that album; lots of control as they hit heavy. Vocals: Mike Fisketti = holy shit… the real deal. He teased some new material coming out soon. Very much looking forward to this.

LUNGS

The drummer sings. And can lay down sick, patient, heavy grooves, or bang out some fast and demanding rolling patterns. Drummer sings clean, and guitar vox sings dirty, and that sort of crossing live was pretty sweet. Guitars and bass were so heavy and made so much air move it felt like Zhora’s management turned the furnace fans on blast. Heavy not just when you assume they would be heavy, but even heavy during the atmospheric, reflective, non-headbangy moments. There were some absolutely delectable, succulent tones being produced on stage during their set. 

Highlights

Tone and air movement is the highlight for me. The sounds produced by guitars, basses, bass drums, and cymbals pounded you hard, then hung out in the space around you. Tone and air movement of the kind that you can feel inside, and makes your bowels sort of quiver uncontrollably (luckily Zhora’s not only has ample seating for dining, but several restrooms very close at hand). Each band came in prepared with their own sound, and each played noticeably hard to translate that sound to the audience. It was successful.

Shade

Walking in, it felt like I was in the basement of a used music store, with all the band gear lining both walls. It was annoying to be groping about in the dark trying to get closer to the stage while tripping over gig bags, drums, and cymbal stands. I mentioned above how the front half of the room wasn’t full, and early on I think it was all the shit piled up against the walls that was partly the reason. It DID get better as the show went on. Bands did a great job of changing over setups quickly and moving their stuff off the floor, eventually.

Summary

In a straightforward sense, each of these bands is fairly different from one another. What made this show cool was the overarching progressive elements within each act’s style that unified them and made the show feel fluid and coherent. These bands have been around for awhile, but this was my first chance to see any of them. It was a solid lineup, and there was synergy between the bands with the progressive/ambient color they accent their music with that made this show feel big. Looking forward to following up on them again soon.

Metal Horns Award

( * = Lungs’s drummer’s vocal mic passed the test at sound check, but went out during the first tune. HOWEVER, sound guy was on it, and had a whole new mic and cable ready to go, and got things back online smooth as shit within about 4 minutes. Nice work!)

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Iron Mike

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