Self-styled ‘drone rockers’ The Black Angels, brought their brand of psychedelic, tripped out energy to Manchester’s Gorilla.
Currently touring their fourth album Indigo Meadow, which has been described as ‘their most revelatory collection to date’ expectation was high, especially among the clutch of leather jacketed men hogging the front of the stage in anticipation.
Support band Elephant Stone made a wonderful noise that was full of 12-string guitars, hypnotic keyboard drones and some intriguing sitar playing. If only the effect-laden vocals were higher in the mix, we may well have witnessed something quite special and unique.
The Black Angels walked onstage to a mesmerizing backdrop of psychedelic images projected onto a blank canvas that was constantly evolving throughout the gig.
Opening with Mission District singer Alex Mass greeted the audience: “Good evening! We are The Black Angels from Austin, Texas”. Some people are just blessed with coming from somewhere that sounds cool.
Stephanie Bailey’s drums were reminiscent of the Velvet Underground’s Mo Tucker at first but as the set progressed, it became clear that she is about a whole lot more than just replicating an old sound.
The stage at Gorilla, although fairly sizable, was cluttered by the five members using a clutch of guitars, two or three strange looking keyboards and a mass of effects pedals for all kinds of musical trickery.
Yellow Elevator #2 impressed immensely, especially as the middle-eight actually managed to sound like a piece of vinyl playing at the wrong speed!
It would be easy to compare The Black Angels to their obvious influences such as The Velvet Underground and Spacemen 3 but the fact is that as a band, they are truly out on their own in what they are attempting to create at the moment.
Throw elements of Glam- Rock, Kraut-Rock, Hard-Rock and Electric 12 bar-Blues into the mix and you are still nowhere near to painting a picture of how The Black Angels actually sound.
The visceral noise coming from the stage tonight did actually whip up the audience a little too much at times. A mix of grown men, who are probably IT Manager’s by day, did get a little over enthused and moshed a little too aggressively with some of the younger members of the audience to the point where security had to intervene and tell one or two of the culprits to calm-down!
This whole development amused The Black Angles no end as they watched the whole episode unveil before their eyes from the stage.
Things settled down temporarily until the audience was whipped-up once more and once more security had to intervene.
A genius move then ensued. Twenty or so of those who had been warned to cool-it by security, took the step of sitting on the venue floor for the majority of what remained of the gig!
The Black Angels congratulated the instigators of the move on their ‘silent protest’ and carried on with their mesmerizing set which included Bad Vibrations, Evil Things, a mind blowing Bloodhounds and Black isn’t Black as the bands encore.
After Manchester, The Black Angels moved onto London before heading to France as their tour continues. Meanwhile, back in Manchester, an enthusiastic mosher by night returns to being an IT manager by day, and as he does this, he will probably reflect upon his evening with some amusement, a wry smile and possibly a sore head.
Image courtesy of Neff Conner, with thanks
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