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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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‘It’s a Cold Night for the Alligators’ was the fittingly appropriate opening number as Texas psych-rock legend Roky Erickson played his long-awaited first Minnesota show. His sizzling 45min. mid-concert set on the just-begun Winter Psych Storm Tour, stopped at First Avenue on a cold and blustery Monday night.
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.
66-year old Roky Erickson then took the stage, with his very able five-piece Hounds of Baskerville band in tow, led by backing vocalist/harmonica playing son, Jegar. Only recently back on the road after a near 40-year absence, Erickson had been previously backed by Okkervil River and headliners The Black Angels themselves, but was now fronting a band he could truly call his own.
The driving ‘John Lawman’ (from 2010, done with Okkervil) primed the pump, and the set was in full gear with 13th Floor Elevators’ classic ‘Fire Engine’, Erickson’s now graveled voice craggily snarling like Lemmy from Motorhead, who he now vaguely resembles as well.
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.
The crowd only slightly thinned as visuals were cued up and Austin, TX psych/garage rockers The Black Angels entered, opening with ‘Mission District’ and its droning, guitar-driven pulse. “This is a dream tour for us”, Angels frontman Alex Maas admitted, “it’s an honor to play with them”, referring to Erickson and openers Golden Animals.
The set was similar in scope to last year’s outing at the Fine Line, with the band still in support of its latest, Indigo Meadow (Blue Horizon Ventures) and like last year, played their biggest to-date radio song, ‘Don’t Play with Guns’, relatively early.
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.
The swirling freeform patterns were projected on the band itself, as well as on to the back screen and vertical stage panels. This made it hard to take a clear photo, and was also slightly vertigo-inducing, amidst the guitar throb of Maas and Christian Bland and the reverberating kick drum from Stephanie Bailey, entrenched solo on a back centered platform.
‘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.
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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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The Black Angels at First Avenue, Minneapolis (02/03/14) |
