Tengger Cavalry at the Elbo Room, San Francisco, CA, 5/26/16

Although the band has its roots in Mongolia, it is currently based in the U.S., which is a good thing for those of us who entertained hopes of seeing the band locally. Bandleader Nature Ganganbaigal, in the U.S. to go to study film music composition, has recruited U.S. musicians in order to continue the band on a new continent.

I stumbled across the music of Tengger Cavalry sometime last year, and for once, I don’t remember the exact circumstances, which probably means I reached enlightenment through the internet. I’ve long been a fan of Tuvan music, and I was immediately struck by the similarities. Tengger Cavalry incorporates folk instruments like the Morin Khuur, which to my untrained eyes, looks and sounds like a Tuvan Igil. Also familiar is the Dombra (from Kazakhistan, not Mongolia), which sounds a bit like the Tuvan doshpuluur. Then there is the khoomei, or throat singing. I first heard it in Werner Herzog’s documentary on Russian mysticism, “Bells From the Deep”, way back in 1993 or so, and was immediately obsessed. At the time, beyond a few compilations and a Sainkho Namtchylak CD or two, there wasn’t much available, but now there is an embarrassment of riches when it comes to music from Tuva and surrounding regions.

The idea of combining metal with folk has been done before, although most of the folk metal bands use Celtic or Scandinavian folk as a starting point. Tuvan bands Yat-Kha and to a lesser extent, Chirgilchin, have approach metal from the folk side, with Yat-Kha releasing an album of covers which included, among other things, a Motorhead song (Orgasmatron). Tengger Cavalry is the first band I’ve heard who combine the two styles at a molecular level.

I got to the Elbo Room early enough that there were only a handful of metalheads in evidence. There was also a woman talking loudly and obnoxiously on her phone, walking up and down the sidewalk like she owned it. A metal guy walked over and said something like, “they really do all talk like actresses out here, don’t they?”. He introduced himself, and said he was from New Jersey. It turned out that he was Tengger Cavalry’s drummer. He then introduced me to bandleader Nature Ganganbaigal and shanz player/vocalist Robert McLaughlin.

They wandered off to eat. I waited for the doors to open. The only audience member I knew was Cole, who I’d met at Stella Natura a few years ago. I was worried that there wouldn’t be a good crowd, due to it being a Thursday night, but by the time the doors opened and we ascended the stairs, it turned out that I needn’t have. There was a pretty solid turnout.

The first band of the evening, Shark In the Water, was new to me. There were several plush sharks strewn about the stage, which made me worry that their set was going to be on the cheesy side. When the trio arrived on stage, they were in shark costumes and one of them was waving around a plastic laser gun which flashed alternating colors. Uh oh.

And then they started playing, and my fears abated. The guitar sound coming out of the Orange amp was gritty and pleasing, the music was… thrash surf, I guess. Plus, all of the songs were humorously nautical. Check out their set list below.

They won over the audience in no time with their irreverent banter and songs that were a seamless metal/surf hybrid . For some reason, I was briefly reminded of an old eighties local crossover band called The Boneless Ones. The set was interspersed with “shark facts” which proved to not be so factual (“Sharknado is a documentary”, etc.), and there were a couple of costume changes involving jellyfish and crab hats. A pit started up at some point.

In short, their set was good old fashioned stupid fun. I’d see them again. Check them out on Facebook.

Then it was time for the main event. Tengger Cavalry arrived on stage in barbarian finery, although the effect was humorously muted by a couple of props purloined from the Shark In the Water guys. The intro of resonant Morin Khuur tones and Khoomei created a meditative moment before the metal instruments took over and sped things up to a fast gallop. It’s the galloping rhythms that are the common ground between the two styles. After all, the Mongolians do like their horses.

The set was varied. I’m not familiar enough with the song titles to attempt to piece together any kind of set list here, but the band achieved a fine balance, sometimes sounding like an eighties thrash metal band with khoomei layered over the top, and sometimes sounding more like Tuvan band, Huun-Huur-Tu. The audience ate it up, and there was a sweaty, heaving pit in no time.

Robert Mclaughlin proved to be proficient at a number of Eastern styles, both vocal and instrumental. In the middle of the set, he played a frame drum , shaman style, which proved to be an interesting thing to see and hear during a metal show. The morin khuur player, Uljmuren, was directly in front of me, and for some reason, it was humorous to see someone with such an ancient instrument tuning it with a Snark. His playing was beautiful though, and like the similar igil, the morin khuur can really be made to sound like it is weeping. It wept beautifully.

Bassist Alex Abayav and drummer Josh Schifris, along with Nature on guitar, held down the metal end of the bargain. Despite the often harsh vocals (although I noticed that during this set, we were treated to “clean” vocals and khoomei), the metal shares more similarities to classic metal than to the more modern styles.

Like they all must, the set eventually ended, and we spilled back out into the night. I’m already looking forward to the next time the Cavalry arrives.

The ride home was illuminated by the rising moon, appearing gravid and orange as it crested the East Bay hills. I meditated on how much nicer the scene would have been if I'd witnessed it from horseback.