THE BLACK ANGELS SETLIST Without a Trace
THE VACANT LOTS EU/UK TOUR Nov 09 Milan (IT) - Arci Bellezza Nov 11 Dijon (FR) - Consortium Museum Nov 12 - Paris (FR) - L’International Nov 14 - Nantes (FR) - Lune Froide Nov 16 - Maastricht (NL) - Muziekgieterij Nov 17 - Liège (BE) - L'Escalier Nov 18 - Dordrecht (NL) - Popcentrale x Bibelot Nov 19 - Berlin (DE) - Synästhesie Festival Nov 20 - Dresden (DE) - Bärenzwinger Nov 22 - Halle (DE) - Hühnermanhattan Nov 24 - Copenhagen (DK) - Loppen Nov 26 - Stockholm (SE) - Debaser Bar Brooklyn Nov 27 - Gothenburg (SE) - Fyrens Nov 30 - Haarlem (NL) - Patronaat Dec 1 - Hastings (UK) - The Piper Dec 2 - London (UK) - Strongroom Dec 3 - Manchester (UK) – SOUP Dec 4 - Glasgow (UK) - The Flying Duck |
The Bottleneck in Lawrence probably saved on their electric bill as Psych Rock leaders The Black Angels and Vermont via NY duo The Vacant Lots both played immersive and atmospheric sets in almost total darkness.
Opening the evening was a brief but impactful half-hour set from Brooklyn duo, The Vacant Lots, in support of just-released full-length,Closure (via Fuzz Club Records). The post-punk electro pair (Jared Artaud- vocals, guitars, poet / Brian MacFadyen — programming, percussion, vocals) create a fair volume of sound for just two people, buoyed by MacFayden’s sharp electro beats and Artaud’s echoing, fuzzy riffs. (and a dash of psych). The sound is minimal on its surface, but with a closer listen, is actually complex, with every note and sound mattering.
The duo are also big William Burroughs fans, taking the name of their previous full-length, Interzone, from his (and Joy Division’s) inspiration and any fans of Television, Suicide, BRMC, and Gun Club, should tune in. The set itself was an atmospheric (and even danceable) mini-voyage, beginning appropriately with 2014’s “Departure”, the new “Thank You” had lyrics dripping in sarcasm but presented in the most deadpan cool manner, and the electro throb and crashing cymbals of 2014’s “Mad Mary Jones”, a textured, swirling song that mentor Alan Vega covered on a previous split-single 10”.
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After six studio albums and two decades, Austin TX band The Black Angels can truly be called godfathers of the modern Texas Psych Rock movement, also helping spawn the multi-city Levitation Festival. Their newest full-length, Wilderness of Mirrors (on Partisan Records) only emphasizes that point and this show, like many others, was delayed by a year or more, so anticipation was high.
Like the openers, overall lighting was minimal at best (not making photos easy) with four narrow vertical light strips added to compliment the venue’s existing lighting. We’d seen the band previous, notably back in 2014 with their guest, the late Roky Erickson of the pioneering 13th Floor Elevators.
The band remains as trippy as ever, and likes to shake up their setlist, starting this 85-min. night with “Without a Trace” from the new record, and singer Alex Maas promising in echo-y, reverbed verse, “we’ll be alarming, we’ll be an army” and on the new “El Jardin” evoking a confrontation with “you can build me up or you can rip me apart”.
Musically, the band mostly remained in their set places, all seemed focused and musically locked in, with drummer Stephanie Bailey, nestled in a stage corner, being the piston that charged the rest of the engine. The band has never said much between songs, preferring instead to bowl you over with their noise wall of sound, not that you couldn't see how grateful they were to return to playing live again.
There’s often a Texas twang to several of their songs, honoring their roots and giving away their origins, such as the campfire strumming that introduces the new “The River” before reverb and fuzz take over.
2013’s “Don’t Play with Guns” is probably the closest thing to a radio hit for the band, still unfortunately as relevant today, as it ever was. The band’s sound continues to evolve, staying both modern and retro at the same time, experimenting with textures and swirling sounds to build their soundscapes.
The back end of the main set seemed to take on a war theme of sorts, with “Broken Soldier”
“The First Vietnamese War”, “The Prodigal Son”, and “Young Men Dead” and Maas singing lines like “It's hard to kill when you don't know whose side you're on”, “why me, why war?”, and “Fire at will, don’t you waste no time”; all making for an impactful psych rock multi-song epic passage.
The band returned for a three-song encore, but that even wasn’t enough for the diehard fans that had been waiting this long for the show to take place, cheering even louder as the band said their quick good-nights.
The Wilderness of Mirrors remains trippy for Austin’s The Black Angels, pioneers of modern psych rock, and though it’s a dark voyage (at least one with very minimal lighting), they seem very appreciative to have live audiences join them again on that sonic voyage.
THE BLACK ANGELS TOUR DATES
OCT 3 Delmar Hall Saint Louis, MO*
OCT 4 Slowdown Omaha, NE*
OCT 5 First Avenue Minneapolis, MN*
OCT 7 Majestic Theatre Madison, WI*
OCT 8 House of Blues Chicago, IL*
OCT 9 Beachland Ballroom Cleveland, OH*
OCT 10 Majestic Theatre Detroit, MI*
OCT 12 Phoenix Concert Theatre Toronto ON*
OCT 13 Théâtre Corona Montréal, QC*
OCT 14 Paradise Rock Club Boston, MA*
OCT 15 9:30 Club Washington, DC*
OCT 17 Brooklyn Steel Brooklyn, NY*
OCT 18 Union Transfer Philadelphia, PA*
OCT 19 Cat's Cradle Carrboro, NC*
OCT 21 Variety Playhouse Atlanta, GA*
OCT 22 Brooklyn Bowl Nashville, TN*
OCT 23 Saturn Birmingham, AL*
OCT 24 Chelsea’s Live Baton Rouge, LA*
OCT 30 Levitation Austin, TX
NOV 5 Hipnosis- Huixquilucan De Degollado, Mexico
NOV 8 #iVoted Festival Live Stream
JAN 27, 2023 LAV - Lisbon, Portugal
JAN 28, 2023 Hard Club - Porto, Portugal
JAN 30, 2023 Teatro Eslava - Madrid, Spain
JAN 31, 2023 Apolo - Barcelona, Spain
FEB 1, 2023 Le Bikini - Toulouse, France
FEB 2, 2023 Rock School Barbey, Bordeaux,FR
FEB 4, 2023 La Belle Electrique - Grenoble, FR
FEB 5, 2023 Les Docks - Lausanne, Switzerland
FEB 6, 2023 Dynamo - Zurich, Switzerland
FEB 7, 2023 Arena - Vienna, Austria
FEB 9, 2023 ROXY - Prague, Czech Republic
FEB 10, 2023 NIEBO - Warsaw, Poland
FEB 12, 2023 Huxleys Neue Welt - Berlin, DE
FEB 13, 2023 Kantine - Cologne, Germany
FEB 14, 2023 Fabrik - Hamburg, Germany
FEB 15, 2023 Vega - Copenhagen, Denmark
FEB 17, 2023 Trix - Antwerp, Belgium
FEB 18, 2023 Doornroosje - Nijmegen, NL
FEB 19, 2023 Paradiso - Amsterdam, NL
FEB 21, 2023 l'Aéronef - Lille, France
FEB 22, 2023 Le Trianon - Paris, France
FEB 23, 2023 Antipode - Rennes, France
FEB 25, 2023 SWX - Bristol, UK
FEB 26, 2023 Invisible Wind Factory Liverpool
FEB 27, 2023 The Button Factory - Dublin, IE
MAR 1, 2023 QMU - Glasgow, UK
MAR 2, 2023 New Century - Manchester, UK
MAR 3, 2023 O2 Shepherds Bush Emp London
* - with The Vacant Lots (click on any image to enlarge and see in full)
john c ([email protected]) ♥ weheartmusic.com ♥ twitter.com |
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