[ATTENDED: December 14, 2022] On Being an Angel
On Being an Angel are a four-piece from Austin. Given that they were opening for Lemonheads and Juliana Hatfield, I was expecting a sound that fit in with them.
They were actually a bit heavier and a bit more fuzzy than I would have expected. And I loved their sound instantly.
And then singer Paige stepped up to the mic and…we couldn’t hear her at all. Was it Union Transfer’s fault? That seemed unlikely. We were very close to the stage and that can certainly impact how you hear a band, but it seemed like the lead guitar (from Nick) was just cranked up super loud and drowned out everything else.
The guy next to me even typed out on his phone (fix the vocal levels) but no one reacted to that.
Then I saw this comment in a 2019 review of them in Austin: “[On Being an Angel] tore apart the crowd’s broken chatter with a roaring wall of sound. Rumbling electric fuzz nearly drowned out Paige Applin’s faint vocals as the slowcore quartet played.” The rest of the band sounded great–a big grungy sound that I was really excited to hear on record, too.
But when I listened to the (first) record, the sound was really different–far more mellow, far less noise. The opener, “Eyes Shut” has a fantastic 90s alt rock sound with a catchy lead guitar riff. But on record, it’s a quiet folk song with no riff at all.
The newer record (on being a tape vol. 2) has a much heavier sound.–much more satisfying. Paige’s vocals are also forward in the mix.
And by the middle of their set you could kind of hear her as well. They ripped through a Lucinda Williams cover (a song that is really all about the lyrics (musically it’s nothing), so not really hearing them made the song sound bland).
Their lead guitarist was good and had a good sound (albeit way too loud in the mix). I enjoyed their song “Brit Boy.” They ended with a new song and that was that.
I really hoped the whole night wouldn’t be plagued by sound issues.
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