I Just Read About That…

[ATTENDED: May 21, 2026] 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 saw them in 2022 and really enjoyed their set, although I remember being surprised at how minimal everything was.  It was also pretty dark on stage–so it was hard to see everyone clearly.

And that proved to be if not the same, then similar for this show.

This was a tour of their debut album Passover.  This album isn’t my favorite of theirs, but I do enjoy a full album show. I got into The Black Angels with their second album and my favorite one is Indigo Meadows, but as they played the album in full I realized just how much I do like it.

I also had  to laugh because there’s a guy who my wife and I saw at the MMJ concert who we called Jim James.  We saw him again at Band of Horses, then I saw him at Pallbearer and now at this one.  He’s a nice guy, a real headbanger.  He and his friends were having a great time at all of these shows, so I figured I was in for a good time.

Before the band came on, their logo was projected on the stage, spinning like the inside of a record.  Then the band came out and most of the lighting on stage was provided by the projections behind them.  This cast the band in eerie lights–sometimes moving shapes, sometimes stripes, visuals that obscured more than they illuminated.  And, connecting to the cover of Passover, it was all black and white.

The opening song, Young Men Dead, featured big fuzzy guitars in a simple riff that introduced Alex Maas’ vocals.  They have a new bassist since 2024, Misti Hamrick who also plays keys.   She and guitarist Jake Garcia switched off on bass (his bass was loud and ponderous on The First Vietnam War).   Although Christian Bland is the primary lead guitarist, Garcia does his fair share as well, playing the intro riff on The Sniper at the Gates of Heaven.

The first surprise (to me) came during Manipulation when Christian Bland sang lead vocals (for a bit).  I didn’t realize that he sang lead–although it’s pretty clear on the album that it’s not Alex singing those parts.  Another surprise came when Alex grabbed the bass for Better Off Alone–now with Mitsi on keys and Jake on guitars.  They stayed in the formation for a bit, with Maas kind of strumming the bass.

It was during this song that I remembered how much I enjoyed watching Stephanie Bailey on drums.  She is fascinatingly robotic and precise.

Christian also sang lead at the beginning of Call to Arms.  On the album Call to Arms is 18 minutes long, but they didn’t play it for that long.  Indeed, the band all left the stage leaving only Bland to sing Mistress Brown, which is about war.  The song is a cover of Jimmy Cliff’s “Vietnam” with modernized lyrics referring to the Iraq War (and now for whatever the hell is going on).

For the second set the projections were now in color  It started out with Ronette a slow moody piece with just Alex Maas on synth.  It segued into the propulsive Bad Vibrations.  And then came the only song from Indigo Meadow, Broken Soldier–“it’s hard to kill when you don’t know what side you’re on.”

They followed this up with six new (or at least unreleased) songs.  The first was Push It which was less riff-based and more atmospheric.  Song 6 was similarly synthy, although Daisies did get things heavier.  The biggest change of style came with a song called Turkish.   The segue between these two songs was a Middle Easter (Turkish?) instrument that Maas played–it was flat on his keyboard but stringed with drone strings.

After all of these new songs, there was much applause for Entrance Song.  They ended with Molly Moves My Generation, a song that was released as a single.  It’s long and spacious.  Atmospheric and meditative.  But it culminated in a visual and audial freakout–with crashing drums, Bland’s total manipulation of pedals and the lights flashing.

I was genuinely surprised at how noisy the crowd was–very vocal and appreciative.  I would have assumed a quieter show, somehow.  But the band fed off the energy and played a killer set.

⇔ Wilderness of Mirrors (2022)
♠ Death Song (2017)
ψ Indigo Meadow (2013)
⊗ Phosgene Nightmare EP (2011)
≅ Phosphene Dream (2010)
Θ Directions to See a Ghost (2008)
ℵ Passover (2006)