Black Angel Setlist Tour Dates
02/07 – Southgate House – Newport, KY
02/08 – Beachland Ballroom – Cleveland, OH 02/09 – Magic Stick – Detroit, MI 02/11 – Phoenix Concert Theatre – Toronto, ON 02/12 – Corona Theatre – Montreal, QC 02/14 – Black Cat – Washington, DC 02/15 – The Met – Pawtucket, RI 02/16 – Union Transfer – Philadelphia, PA 02/20 – The Grey Eagle – Asheville, NC 02/21 – Mercy Lounge – Nashville, TN 02/22 – Terminal West – Atlanta, GA 02/24 – The Social – Orlando, FL 02/25 – Grand Central – Miami, FL 02/26 – State Theatre – St. Petersburg, FL 02/28 – Fitzgerald’s Upstairs – Houston, TX 03/01 – Granada Theater – Dallas, TX All dates with Roky Erickson Read More
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Brooklyn-based desert-psych duo, Golden Animals opened the triple bill, headlined by The Black Angels, with a brief set supporting their Kickstarter-funded, Here Eye Go. Tommy Eisner (vocals/guitar) and Linda Beecroft (drums/backing vocals) with one additional player brought their unique garage-tinged rock to songs like ‘Love is Strange’ and ‘Playful Eyes’, appropriately acting as an appetizer for the main courses to follow.
Roky Erickson
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Roky Erickson Setlist
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Erickson himself seemed in good spirits and didn’t say much in-between songs; only occasionally lifting both arms into the air to applause and chants of “Roky, Roky!” from the near-capacity crowd. Most of the set was drawn from his late ‘60s days in 13th Floor Elevators, with Erickson mostly keeping pace with his younger band, sometimes detaching briefly then re-entering after a breath of recollection.
Songs like the Elevators’ ‘Kingdom of Heaven’ (featured in the recent HBO drama True Detective) were breathed a new life from the collective, haunting but polished, in a sound that bands one-third the age of Erickson, would die for.
Ending aptly with Erickson’s best known song, ‘You’re Gonna Miss Me’, the multi-generational crowd whooped and yelled as the band left, hoping it won’t be another 47 years before he graces a Minnesota stage again.
Alex Maas
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The album’s opener/title track lilted leisurely with its keyboard-driven rhythm and then intensity returned on ‘Black Grease’, a widescreen epic of reverb and fuzz, embellished by trippy infinity lava-lamp visuals.
Christian Bland
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‘You on the Run’ surprisingly broke into a chorus from ‘Chapel of Love’, a 1964 ditty by The Dixie Cups, before it reverted back into its distortion and reverb, and the set ended with ‘Young Men Dead’, which co-guitarist Bland dedicated to the 55th anniversary of the tragic plane crash that took Buddy Holly and others.
The encore started starkly, with only Maas initially emerging for ‘Ronettes’, then rebuilt its sonic wall quickly as the band played several more, ending with ‘Bad Vibrations’ (which the kaleidoscopic visuals no doubt added to the feeling of).
Psych-garage rock is clearly alive and well; some 45+ years after pioneers like Erickson and his 13th Floor Elevators laid the first building blocks, to newer bands like The Black Angels and Golden Animals, who have ably picked up the freak flag to continue the long, strange trip.
The Black Angels at First Avenue, Minneapolis (02/03/14) |
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