Four Bands in Two Weeks

This was a rare occasion when I had four concerts to attend in two weeks.

Black Mountain.  Wednesday, November 13 at the Black Cat in Washington, DC.  This club is on Fourteenth Street just south of U Street, thus southeast of Adams Morgan.  It has a very small back room on the ground floor (I think I saw Nebula there a few eons ago) but also a large ballroom up on the second floor, where I saw this band several years earlier, plus Blue Cheer in one of Dickie Peterson’s last performances. 

Black Mountain are another one of these stoner rock bands which doesn’t take Black Sabbath as its starting point, but rather goes hard, soft, and somewhere in between with a refreshing change of pace from song to song which avoids getting boring or repetitive.  They’re from Vancouver, Canada.     

Lineup:  Stephen McBean (guitar & vocals), Rachel Fannan (keyboards), Adam Bulgasm (drums), Arjan Miranda (bass), and Jeremy Schmidt (keyboards).

Albums: Black Mountain (S/T), In the Future, Wilderness Heart, IV, and Destroyer.  I had seen the tour for IV a few years back, also at the Black Cat – the night before seeing Sleep at the new 9:30 Club. 

Setlist:  Mothers of the Sun; Future Shade; Wucan; Rollercoaster; Tyrants; Florian Saucer Attack; Stormy High; Fd'72; Horns Arising; High Rise; Old Fangs; Space to Bakersfield; Druganaut

Loot.  I picked up an olive drab shirt with the band name (no tour dates on the back) and some nice socks.

Monolord.  Friday, November 15, at the Metro Gallery in Baltimore.  This is a small club up in the Wire district (run-down area) with just a main room with a stage, oddly positioned near the exit.  I actually saw King Buffalo here the year before.  My GPS directions generally say take 295 North up from DC, get off on Martin Luther King Blvd, then follow that to Howard Street and go up about 10 blocks.

This is a three piece from Sweden, of all places.  Thomas Jager (guitar/vocals), Mika Hakki (bass), and Esben Willems (drums).  Esben is taking pictures of the audience and posting these.  I generally stand on TJ’s side of the stage.  He plays a Greco (Gibson copy) Flying V through an Orange stack.  I had actually seen them open for Red Fang in DC at the RNR Hotel, then on the bill in Brooklyn for the Desert Fest in April of this year.  Here was my first chance to see them as a headlining band. 

Empress Rising, Vaenir, Lord of Suffering (EP), Rust, and No Comfort.  It’s slow, doomy stuff all tuned down to C#, to the point where TJ has to retune his guitar between songs.   The opening acts were ALMS (OK), and Blackwater Holylight, an all female stoner rock band from Portland, Oregon.  While they’re all pretty cute, the drummer was especially cute and came down to headbang with us for “Empress Rising”, the last song of Monolord’s set.  I also met up with Facebook buddy Bob Maze and his friend.  Good times for all.

Setlist: Where Death Meets the Sea; Lord of Suffering; Audhumbla; The Bastard Son; Rust; Larvae; The Last Leaf; Empress Rising

Loot:  I picked up a t-shirt (seen on my Facebook page with the Black Cherry Wishniak 20 oz bottle).  I already have a black shirt with the gothic logo and cat, and a patch of the same.

    

Electric Wizard.  Monday, November 18, at the Fillmore Silver Spring in Maryland.  This is a large ballroom with a big stage.  I’ve seen Opeth and Ghost here in the recent past. 

Lineup.  Jus Osborn (only consistent member) (Gibson SG and vocals), Liz Buckingham (Gibson SG), Haz Wheaton (bass), and Simon Poole (drums).  I have to confess somewhat of a crush on LB, who stands there impressive with her SG and long, blonde hair, occasionally hitting a solo but otherwise complimenting the screen footage to make what would otherwise be somewhat tedious into an enjoyable experience.  Both Osborn and Buckingham play through standard Marshall JCM800s with 1960A/B stacks.   The band is from England, of all places. 

Electric Wizard, Come My Fanatics, Dopethrone, Let Us Prey, We Live, Witchcult Today, Black Masses, Time to Die, Wizard Bloody Wizard.  I’d seen them back in 2000 at Zaxx in VA, part of a noxious black metal festival.  Here they were headlining with a huge screen up behind them, mainly showing horror movies about Satanic masses.  As I suspected, Anton LaVey got some brief screen time. 

Like Monolord, they play Sabbath type material very slow, doomy and tuned down, to the point where all the songs sound exactly the same.  Was this on Dopethrone or Wizard Bloody Wizard?  Could only tell you if I listened to the album recently.  Oh, Jus did make a callout to LSD!  Thank you.

Setlist: Witchcult Today; Black Mass; Return Trip; See You In Hell; Hear the Sirens Scream; Incense for the Damned; Satanic Rites of Drugula; The Chosen Few; Funeralopolis

Loot.  Although some of the t-shirts had their provocative slogan LEGALIZE DRUGS & MURDER, I wasn’t impressed with the design and stuck with a large patch.  By now I’ve accumulated a few of these from various bands but haven’t yet set up a jacket or battle vest.  I suppose I could teach myself to sew.

King Buffalo.   Thursday, November 21, at DC9 in Washington, DC.  This is a small club on Ninth Street just off of Florida Ave., just a few blocks away from the new 9:30 Club – so I park on the street where I’d normally park for a 9:30 Club show and just walk two more blocks.  It’s very small, but that gave me the option of going up close and talking to McVay.

Lineup.  Sean McVay (guitar, vocals, keyboards), Dan Reynolds (bass), Scott Donaldson (drums).  Dan was wearing an All Them Witches long sleeved t-shirt.  They’re from Rochester, New York.

Albums.  Repeater (EP), Orion, and Longing to Be the Mountain. 

Like Black Mountain, they do this soft >> hard deal which changes up consistently but keeps fresh, although I will say their songs tend to sound the same.  Even so, the impact and heaviness are awesome.  McVay plays a Hagstrom through a Fender Twin Reverb amp and really knows how to get those wailing, reverb-y solos. 

Setlist: Sun Shivers; Longing to Be the Mountain; Drinking From the River Rising; Quickening; Repeater; Centurion; Goliath; Eye of the Storm

Loot.  I already had the only shirt I really like, and a wooden dugout/one-hitter.  They have stickers set up like Genesee Beer, sadly nothing on a t-shirt or patch.   Note, they’ve been recording some of their shows live and making them available for free as a downloaded MP3 of the whole show.  McVay said there might be some technical issues with releasing the DC show, and none of the 2019 shows are yet available.  I downloaded the Indianapolis show from 2018 because the setlist was identical to the Baltimore show I saw.

TOOL.   Tool is coming up on Monday, 11/25 at the Capital One Arena in DC.   This band is obviously different and playing to a larger venue, probably sold out.   Having addressed them fairly recently (along with the Grateful Dead) I can pare off the discussion and hand in my assignment on time this Friday.

Bottom line:  if you still love Sabbath and think “Into the Void” is their best song, by all means check out Monolord and Electric Wizard – especially if you have high tolerance for slow, doomy, detuned music.  By now I can take it in limited doses.   If you prefer your stoner rock a bit more mixed up and difficult to describe, delve into Black Mountain and King Buffalo – and add All Them Witches and Dead Meadow into the mix as well.  I’m happy to see the scene veer off into different tangents, though Black Sabbath will always be our home.