[ATTENDED: October 18, 2022] The Black Angels
The Black Angels are a psychedelic band from Austin, Texas.
I’ve known about them for about ten years. Their music sounds pretty similar from album to album–fuzzy guitars, catchy riffs and Alex Maas’ recognizable haunting voice.
I Wasn’t really sure what to expect in a live show from them–I assumed some psychedelia. So I was a little surprised at how stripped down their stage was. There was a five panel screen and some vertical lights between them. The l ights shone all different colors and patterns and set the tone of the stage. The overhead lights were mostly there to add mood.
In other words, I could barely see anyone. Which was kind of cool. It created a dark ambiance and meant you focused more on the music than the band members. The only person I could see with any real clarity was drummer Stephanie Bailey, who pounded the hell out of the drums. The other three guys, Christian Bland, Jake Garcia and Ramiro Verdooren all played guitar or bass or keyboards. There was so much switching around of instruments–even though both Bland and Garcia play left handed guitars!
I stood in front of Bland and it was really fun watching him solo and riff and make some really interesting sounds out of his pedals and amps. He had a bicycle bell on his mic stand (the roadie rang he bell while setting it up), but he never used it in the set.
Alex Maas had a tambourine and maracas. I was really impressed with how clearly all of these smaller instruments sounded–even the maracas were clear when Maas shook them.
The band sounded great playing a lot of songs from the new record, but mixing it up with plenty of songs from their debut. I happen to know Indigo Meadow best and they only played two songs from that album, but they sounded great.
Mostly I really enjoyed the big fuzzy riffs.
This show was barely sold at all. I had been to a lot of packed sold out shows, so it was nice to have more room and to have the crowd who was into it and (mostly) not talking. Weird shout out to the guy at the railing who was on his phone for the whole show checking sports scores. Sorry the concert interrupted your evening’s entertainment.
They played twenty songs in 90 minutes. It was a perfect length of time and a terrific show.
I wanted to get one of their (many many) posters, but the line was pretty long and I was happy to get home at a reasonable hour. Plus, and this was weird, the merch area was really dimly lit by colored lights. It was kind of hard to see the merch at all. I don’t get it.
- Without a Trace ⇔
- El Jardin ⇔
- Entrance Song ≅
- Icon ⇔
- History of the future ⇔
- Don’t Play With Guns ψ
- The River ⇔
- Choose to Choose ⊗
- The Sniper at the Gates of Heaven ℵ
- Manipulation ℵ
- Science Killer Θ
- Broken Soldier ψ
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Vermillion Eyes ⇔
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Firefly ⇔
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Haunting at 1300 McKinley ≅
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The Prodigal Sun ℵ
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Young Men Dead ℵ
Encore: -
Empires Falling ⇔
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Black Grease ℵ
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Bloodhounds on My Trail ℵ
⇔ Wilderness of Mirrors (2022)
ψ Indigo Meadow (2013)
⊗ Phosgene Nightmare EP (2011)
≅ Phosphene Dream (2010)
Θ Directions to See a Ghost (2008)
ℵ Passover (2006)
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