Valiant thorr commands the stage

Boots and beards and denim, oh my! Valient Thorr crashed through the Milestone to pay an early holiday visit before blasting off on their latest European invasion.

Riding high from huge gigs and staring down an impending European tour, the Volcom records' artist left both a lasting impression, and attendees ears ringing for days. 2013 Wolves and Red Fang provided an action-packed opener before the uber-intense show.

The Milestone resembles the wrong-end-of-town dive bar its supposed to be. A delapidated house upfront, with some rickedy stairs which lead to a quaint club filled with all the smells, stains, and strips of neon lights. The stage itself illuminated with alien hues of green and blue like a spaceship slammed into the back of a Charlotte squatter den.

An appropriate setting for an earth home visit from metal's favorite Venusians. The denim demons took stage to an insanely excited crowd which swelled and swayed powerfully from the first note on. Valient Thorr shows are notorious for their action-packed pounding audience, and the Milestone show was no different.

The band played like mighty Venusian raiders in the sea of swaying sweaty bodies. Bending around, flailing into one another, and in between the anxious extended arms of kids screaming maniacally.

Professor Nitewolf, mighty bassist with a fresh haircut, rocked out alongside a fresh-faced guitarist in Vioden Thorr's place. The newbie stood tall, meshing with the cacophony of sweet licks and feets of sweaty hair cascading wildly against the stickered wall and exposed-beam ceiling.

Finger-flicking, flexing, twinkle-toes, badass, Valient Himself, sharply dressed in white lightening jeans. Fragile and fierce at the same time, his vocals and banter ring with the soothing tone of an earth life spent between the rolling foothills of North Carolina and the grueling guttural chaos of hitting the road on a seemingly endless tour.

As Valient Himself says on www.valientthorr.com, "I might be from another planet, but I know the language Earthlings speak, and it's definitely rock n' roll."

Valient Thorr's ability to make an audience connection is an enlightening, communal, experience amid metal licks and super-loud songs describing the downfall of their home planet. Which struck a chord in the rabid crowd, who sung along in adherence and adoration.

With origins involving "fleeing their overpopulated, war-torn home world of Venus and finding some prime North Carolina real estate...officially announcing their current Earthling incarnations in 2001," as their website notes. Valient Thorr didn't sit quietly in this time stream, instead turning their out-of-this-world inspiration into four albums, DVD releases, and thousands of shows around the world.

Their latest release, Immortalizer in 2008. "This crazy Earth system creates rotten people with messed-up values," Valient Himself says of the album's inspiration on their website bio. "I wrote some of these [Immortalizor] songs about these rich parents who don't care for their kids, they just put 'em on pills and turn 'em loose for the schools to worry about." "Luckily," the bio adds, "[those kids] got Valient Thorr to show them the error of their ways."

Valient Thorr also shows that when North Carolina rocks, it rocks hard. And it enlists a freakin' army, The Throrriors. Comprised of worldwide chapters of denim-clad kids spreading the gospel of Thorrior rock-n-roll. They, according to Thorriers.com, "understand that unspoken, unspeakable message that we all hold deep down, sacred and true as universal brothers and sisters... heads up, hands down, handshakes and highfives. Thorriors unite! and swim away together, asbsorbed in sound."

Oh, how the Thorriors swam in Charlotte. And what a pleasure it was to swim with them. Be on the lookout for the next time these awesome aliens head this way. They'll be back, As Valient Himself said, "We're just getting started. I got some last words, but I hope I don't have to say 'em for a good long while."