Valient Thorr preview

Valient Thorr
Reggie’s Rock Club, Chicago
Saturday, July 19, 2008

Tom Cruise believes they attach their souls to chosen humans, members of the Air Force’s 509th Bomb Group stationed in Roswell, New Mexico in 1947 might have captured a few, and Sammy Hagar was abducted by them (twice!), but most of us know very little about extra terrestrials. Hard rockers Valient Thorr, though, have taught us some aliens have Southern accents and humungous beards. Oh, and apparently their internal organs are compatible with humanoids.

Valient Thorr frontman Valient Himself, who looks like Iron & Wine’s Sam Beam (but sweatier and wearing a denim vest), and his bandmates (guitarists Voiden Thorr and Eidan Thorr, drummer Lucian Thorr, and bassist Dr. Nitewolf Professor Strangees) claim to come from Venus (Buriatia, Venus, actually). But that didn’t stop Himself from donating one of his kidneys to his “Earth father,” Papa Thorr. In mid May, Himself and Papa Thorr (in the late stages of renal failure) went under the knife, and doctors — obviously trained in the complex inner workings of space creatures — plucked one of Himself’s kidneys and plopped it in Papa. It was a successful surgery, so much so, in fact, Himself came out of the operation singing (and under heavy sedation — watch the video diary at http://www.vimeo.com/1181325).

Venus-dwellers like Valient Thorr must also be incredibly fast healers, or just incredibly crazy, because Himself and the band hit the road less than two months post-surgery for their current month-long tour supporting Immortalizer (Volcom Entertainment) — probably not exactly what the doctors had in mind when they told him to “play it safe.”

Early Man and Architects open.

— Trevor Fisher

Click here to download Valient Thorr’s “I Hope The Ghosts Of The Dead Haunt Yr Soul Forever.”

Category: Stage Buzz, Weekly