07 October 2010 (gig)
09 October 2010
West London was in state of ferment tonight as the Empire played host to one of the most intriguing bands around at the moment.
First up were Texans Black Angels who opened with a great heavy blast of psychedelia and settled into a groove that hardly changed throughout the set. There was a brief injection of pace mid-way through, but this isn’t a band of peaks and troughs and dynamics. It’s about getting the right wavelength and hoping others are on it too. They just about pulled it off.
It would be very easy to play spot the influence with Black Mountain. Their hybrid of Sabbath, Zeppelin, Floyd, folk and psychedelia it could tag them as That 70’s Band. Yes, their roots are in that decade but the dynamics of the band are 2010, and they’ve created a sound that is familiar, but with enough kinks to make it theirs.
The new album was given a good airing and the songs slotted in perfectly with the older material. We had a thumping version of the Neon Knightish Let Spirits Ride and a super heavy version of Rollercoaster. Alongside the majestic Tyrants and truly awesome Stormy High, Black Mountain are building a formidable catalogue of songs. They took the epic Bright Lights to another dimension that was truly spellbinding. They dished out the brutal bombast of Wilderness Heart, but countered later on with the delicate Radiant Hearts.
Audience interaction was kept to a minimum, just the odd thank you. The performances were uniformly excellent: The rhythm section is one of the tightest I’ve heard in sometime, Stephen McBean’s guitar work and Jeremy Schmidt’s keyboards, complementing each other. Then there’s Amber Webber’s haunting vocal which is the perfect foil for McBean’s voice. If there is a criticism it is that Ms Webber did appear a little stranded on the stage at times, especially when the band locked together, grooved away and seemed oblivious to her.
It took the crowd a little time to get going but eventually the pits started, the bodies were flying, the sweat was pouring and by the end of the night, a triumph for the band.
