Snake Canyon at Niagara

Vocalist Morgan "SuperMorgan" Liebman and guitarist Joe Hogan knew each other from Manhattan's hard rock and heavy metal circuit that seemed to gravitate to Arlene's Grocery and a few other nearby venues. In 2012 they began collaborating on what would become Snake Canyon. Liebman and Hogan recruited solid musicians and played local bars regularly, releasing a debut album in 2016. A second album, Too Damn High, was released on March 15, 2019. After a few personnel changes, Snake Canyon presently consists of Liebman, Hogan, guitarist AJ, bassist Vance Garcia, and drummer Vic Pullen.

Snake Canyon is not averse to performing in small venues, and the back room in Niagara tonight was about as tiny as venues come. Never mind that the musicians and audience are almost belly-to-belly, Snake Canyon drove its signature blue-collar heavy rock as if the stage was at Madison Square Garden. Liebman, always dressed in a black t-shirt and black leather vest, looked like a long-haired southern rocker, and there was a bit of that in him, but his shouting vocals were more grounded in gritty 1970s hard rock. Hogan and AJ were loud and boisterous on their guitars, playing rough-edged leads and fuzz-distorted boogie riffs, while Garcia and Pullen provided the crushing grooves. Snake Canyon fell comfortably at the cusp where hard rock meets heavy metal, bringing full-tilt head-banging to audiences so close that heads were close to really banging against each other.