The Wiz: The Black Angels 🖤😈 (My Live Shows)
What connects a meteor, springtime and a Barbie doll, or perhaps the Barby? "The Black Angels" 🖤😈 - "Young Men Dead".
There are periods when you still enjoy music but feel you have not heard anything truly new in ages 💤. Then, about a decade ago, a dear friend introduced me to something astonishing. I still remember that first reaction: Woooow! What is this 👀?
A little about the band 🎧
"The Black Angels" 😈 combine enormous amounts of psychedelia, garage touches and a Southern flavor with keyboards and vocal effects, plus the occasional devastating scream. But alongside their power is a darkness and gloom I had never heard in this style. It shook me ⚡!
They come from Austin, Texas 🤠, have been around for 16 years and have released five studio albums. Their name comes from "The Black Angel's Death Song" by "The Velvet Underground". Nico's face even appears in their logo. Their latest album, "Death Song" (2017), eases off the accelerator 🏎️ after its opening pair of songs, exploring darker, less aggressive territory that works just as well for me.
A little about the shows 🎙️
I was lucky enough to see their first Israeli visit at the Barby, following their fourth album, "Indigo Meadow" (2013). The title track practically blasted me onto the ceiling 💥! The late Charlie Megira delivered a knockout opening set 👊. Then the Texans arrived, with little audience chatter, singer Alex Maas hiding his eyes beneath his familiar cap. Psychedelic visuals started up, and the hypnotic drums and bewitching sounds drew us deep into the trip.
Their KEXP session from that year gives some sense of that performance:
Our second meeting was at Primavera Sound in Barcelona in spring 2017 💐. After nearly 48 hours without sleep, an overnight flight and six hours on our feet during the first evening, my dear wife Avigail was falling asleep standing up, after heroic hours fueled by adrenaline. We returned to our room. She went to sleep 🛌. I never sat down. Gathering my remaining strength and another burst of adrenaline, I made it back for the Angels.
This performance from another festival that season gives a good impression of the atmosphere. The video art looks even better at night 😉:
Avigail settled her debt to the band just a year later, at our own, now-defunct Meteor Festival in 2018 🇮🇱. For all its flaws, seeing such an array of artists at a major international festival in the Israeli countryside 🌳 was beautiful and moving. Confession: we did not camp. We have grown a little more comfort-loving! I remember the speakers 📢 practically shredding our eardrums. And what glorious pleasure it was!
Here is a sample of a song played at every "Black Angels" show I have attended: "Young Men Dead", from their wonderful debut, "Passover" (2006).
The album version:
And an Austin City Limits performance in front of their hometown audience:
You are very welcome to share, in the Facebook comments, something you heard that suddenly blew you away, or other experiences with the extraordinary, varied music we are lucky enough to discover every day 🤘.
O.Miz🎧
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