The Black Angels/Black Mountain at the Grey Eagle, 11/10/10

Black Angels/Black Mountain show

Unfortunately my camera is broken so I wasn't able to take any pictures or videos of the show, the video of the Black Angels is from the show I attended, although I believe the Black Mountain video is from a former performance at the Grey Eagle.

Asheville NC's Grey Eagle club seems like an especially accomodating place to host a tour such as this. As a matter of fact for the past two and half years that I've been a Black Mountain fan I was really just waiting for them to come to Asheville given the band's sort of mountain hippie-rock nods that would endure them to such a location when the actual Black Mountain itself (one of many I'm sure) is merely 15 miles away. The show was still announced months early, but I did well to buy my tickets in advance as the show did sell out on the day of. Alot of this could of have to do with one factor that I was not hip to: The Black Angels, a really good late 60's style psych-rock band that have started to become quite the hot commodoty here lately, even though I didn't even hear the band's name until a few months ago.

My first impression of the Grey Eagle is that its a fairly nice venue, while the stage area itself may not be as nice as the Orange Peel's the restaurant/bar area is pretty classy. I helped myself to a Pisgah leaf amber and talked to friends while a large crowd amassed in front of the stage as the Black Angels began their set. Seeing clearly was nigh-impossible because of the number of people and lowness of the stage but the thunderous tone from vintage guitars could soon be equally felt everywhere. The band played a hypnotic and blistering set of late 60s style psych rock accentuated by Alex Maas' somewhat nasal yet perfectly fitting vocals. The band was cohesive and quite loud, but even with as enjoyable as songs like "Young Men Dead" were, I still caught myself thinking that alot of the songs were starting to sound the same halfway through the set. It was also during their set that I noticed that this show must have been a pretty anticipated event for many as I recognized next to the table I was sitting: members of Savannah, Georgia sludge metal group Kylesa as well as other apparent southeastern musicians from different walks. Once the Black Angels finished their 40 minute set the human flood went in the direction of the bar giving me a chance to finally get closer...

After a nice, quick soundcheck some surprisingly dramatic entrance music announced Black Mountain's taking of the stage. The band opened with the Sabbathian riffs of new album title track "Wilderness Heart". From the very start the band possessed a tightness and commanding power that I was blown away by. They continued with another of Wilderness Heart's heavier tracks "Let Spirits Ride" before they decided to let the head-nodding commence (especially mine) with "Wucan" from their In the Future LP. Here Stephen and Amber's vocals were crystal clear and perfect, the rhythm section played as a single well oiled machine, Stephen's riffs cracked wonderfully and Jeremy Schmidt's Moog synth/Hammond organ/mellotron dominated. They continued with the epic prog of "Tyrants", a song that took on a new meaning in a live setting, evidenced by the fact that I didn't even realize how hard I was headbanging until the end of the song. How much is to be credited with the venue or the band I don't know, but the sound was perfect for every song.

The band then picked up acoustic guitars for two numbers: a beautiful number "Buried by the Blues" which stands as one of my favorites from the new album, and the In the Future acoustic ballad "Stay Free". After that it was a string of favorites from In the Future. "Queens Will Play", "Angels", and "Stormy High" were all highlights for me. They played their new single "Old Fangs" before leaving the stage, but few were convinced that this was the end of the show as an encore brought them back out a few minutes later. They came out with the only two songs from their first self-titled LP that they played all night; the hit single "Druganaut" and fan favorite "Don't Run Our Hearts Around". "Druganaut" was at least ten times better than the album version, with Stephen's myriad of vintage guitar effects ringing clearer and more vibrant than the recording, and the song also ended up carrying an extended instrumental jam that may as well have set the stage on fire. The soulful pentatonic riffing of "Don't Run Our Hearts Around" was a truly great closer to a truly great rock show, one of the best I've seen in a while actually.

Cheers, and until next time!

Corey