We made a late reversal on Friday night, opting to see Black Rebel Motorcycle Club and the Black Angels at Martini Ranch instead of the Black Keys and Jay Reatard at Marquee Theatre. It’s a good thing, too, because I heard Reatard was sick and didn’t play.
From what I can tell, the Black Angels were a last-minute addition to the lineup for the show, which was sponsored by a cigarette company. (No, I didn’t give them any of my information, thank you.)
The contrast of the night was surreal. The Black Angels – full of reverb and psych-rock revival – playing at a venue in the heart of Scottsdale that also happened to be hosting “Juicy Ladies Night” at an upstairs room. Odd, to say the least.
I’m not sure most in attendance knew what to expect when the Black Angels covered the place like a blanket, a thick fog of reverb and distortion. Certainly anyone who stumbled in from “Juicy Ladies Night” knew right away they took a wrong turn. For those of us who didn’t grow up in the nascent days of psychedelia and punk in the ’60s and ’70s, we can be thankful a band like the Black Angels will show us the way.
The group is preparing to release its second full-length, Directions to See A Ghost (Light in the Attic Records) on May 13. You can pre-order the record a month prior to the release date and receive a bonus EP with four unreleased tracks (details here).
Check out the lead single, Doves, described in the record’s liner notes as “an interpretation of love.”
My band was playing a gig with Brodie Foster Hubbard in Phoenix on Friday night, but if that hadn’t been the case I certainly would have been at the Angels show. The last time they rolled through town it was pretty effin’ transcendent. Hurray to Light in the Attic for putting out such a great band.