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.

DesertFest NYC 2019

As noted earlier, it’s not my policy to blog about literally every concert I attend, unless I feel it’s somehow noteworthy.  A three day stoner rock festival in Brooklyn, New York may well qualify.  So here goes.

I’d been meaning to see a band called Elder, from Boston, Massachusetts, which has 4 albums out.   They come off as an intriguing mix of prog and stoner, with 9-12 minute songs which jam out a little.   Finally, the opportunity came:  DesertFest NYC, to occur on April 26 (Friday) through April 28 (Sunday).  The Friday show was at the Saint Vitus Bar in northwest Brooklyn, the Saturday and Sunday shows at The Well, also in Brooklyn, close to the Montrose St. station on the L line.  It’s a large enough venue with a large outdoor area, the immediate area in front of the stage protected by a canopy.  This neighborhood is industrial, due east of Williamsburg.

Before I go further: thank you to Dave and Loni for making this adventure possible, each in their own way.  Thank you.

Anyhow.  For reasons most plausibly related to the desert jams out in California with which KYUSS is most closely related, many of these stoner rock festivals invoke “DESERT” in their name even if the locale, downtown Brooklyn, is thousands of miles away from any desert.  Like DC, the NYC area is more like a swamp than a desert.   It was never a desert and if mankind vanishes from the city letting nature retake it, things will probably be flooded and swampy until the Sun expands into a red giant billions of years from now and we’re all long gone (except for Keith Richards).     

For logistical reasons I did not catch Friday night’s lineup, in reverse order from headliner to “who the hell are these guys?”:  Black Cobra, Here Lies Man, High Tone, Son of a Bitch, Heavy Temple.  I think I have some Black Cobra CDs, vaguely recalling them as stoner rock.  The rest I don’t recognize.  In any case I wasn’t there.

Saturday & Sunday had alternate stages full of bands which I ignored. 

Saturday (again, reverse order): Windhand, Weedeater, The Skull, Danava, Electric Citizen (main stage), Steak, Mirror Queen, Worshipper, Tower (second stage).    My prime concerns were The Skull, Eric Wagner’s post-Trouble band, and Danava, who I had never seen before. 

Electric Citizen have a female singer and a worried looking lead guitarist who reminds me of William H. Macy.  They’re not bad, but not particularly memorable, and may well be doomed to perpetual opening band status.  We’ll see. 

Danava are from Portland, Oregon, and have three albums:  self-titled, UnonoU, and Hemisphere of Shadows.  They’re another band that seems to take Black Sabbath as a starting point and change it up with a modest dose of weirdness. 

The Skull gave us the same awesome riffage we might expect from Trouble, for obvious reasons.  Mr. Wagner was in high spirits and shared that energy and enthusiasm with the crowd.  I got to shake his hand twice.  I’ve seen Trouble once with him on vocals (years ago) and saw The Skull more recently at Café 611 in Frederick, Maryland.  While the big four of Metallica, Megadeth, Slayer and Anthrax got most of the attention from thrash fans back in the 80s and 90s, a few lesser known but quality thrash bands were putting out albums if you had the good fortune to know about them.  Trouble added some 60’s psychedelic vibe to distinguish themselves from the others, Manic Frustration (1992) being my favorite album.  Dave Grohl is also a big fan, and said that for him, buying Psalm 9 (the first album) was like buying Sgt. Pepper.    If you’re into Trouble, by all means check out this band, who have two albums of their own: For Those Which Are Asleep, and The Endless Road Turns Dark. 

Weedeater gave me too much of a NASCAR-METH vibe and their cover of Skynyrd’s “Gimme Back My Bullets” was unrecognizable.   Another band with decent tuneage marred by abysmal vocals, thanks to bassist/vocalist Dave “Dixie” Collins.  I have their most recent album, Goliathan, and listened to the prior four albums, all of which sound pretty much the same.  Maybe they should just follow Karma To Burn, whose songs are 80% instrumentals, though confusingly named by number.    

Having seen Windhand in DC in January, I left after Weedeater.  Like The Sword, Windhand are a band with decent enough studio material but live, seem to believe that simply getting up on stage and playing the material is sufficient.  Sadly, neither band has appreciable stage presence.   

Back again for more the next day!

Sunday’s lineup:  Elder, Monolord, ASG, Ruby the Hatchet, Fatso Jetson (main stage); Mick’s Jaguar, Duel, Green Milk From the Planet Orange, Sun Voyager (second stage).   Sun Voyager had a cool dugout/onehitter for sale, but as I had ignored all the second stage bands, and had a King Buffalo one already, I had to pass.

I missed Fatso Jetson and ignored Ruby the Hatchet, another band with a chick singer, in their case a woman who looks like a metal version of Britney Spears.  Like Electric Citizen they’re ok, just not particularly different or memorable, and may well share the same fate of perpetual opening band.  Intriguing that the promoters saw fit to put them on different days. 

ASG.  I had Survive Sunrise and Blood Drive (newest and second newest albums) both of which I liked.  When I saw them on the bill, it was another incentive to catch this show.  Lead guitarist Jonah Citty plays something I’ve never seen, a left-handed Gibson Flying V.   I can’t describe their difference from the baseline of Black Sabbath, but it was enough to discern if not to articulate.  Not bad.

Monolord.  I had seen them a few months back.  They’re from Gothenburg, Sweden, and the guitarist/singer Thomas Jager plays a Greco Flying V.   He has a BOC cross tattooed on his arm.  Slow and drudgy, a bit repetitive, you have to be in the mood for “Into the Void” or “Under the Sun” type songs.  Hell, he was tuned to C, down from E, so he had to retune between each song.   I have all their albums!  In reverse order, Rust, Vaenir, Empress Rising, and Lord of Suffering/Die in Haze. 

Elder.  Finally.  This band is led by Nick DiSalvo, who plays a weird guitar I don’t recognize – usually he’s shown playing an SG.   I had actually purchased their first album, Elder, soon after it came out, followed by Dead Roots Stirring, Lore, and now Reflections of a Floating World, but hadn’t been able to see them live until now.  They start off with a riff, then plunge into an intense jam, and come back again.  Now repeat that for the next four songs in the set….and you have Elder, who blend stoner rock with some prog and jam band elements for an alluring mix. 

Overall an excellent show, which I’m glad I made the effort to visit the NYC area again to attend.   My next out-of-the-area shows are TOOL at Hampton Coliseum in southeast Virginia, May 10, followed by the third Earth Rocker festival in northeastern West Virginia, on July 13, the main attraction being Maryland band Clutch. 

The Vest.  I’m noticing more rock fans showing up with vests adorned with patches.  Usually there’s a large back patch, the rule seeming to be that the patch size is inversely proportional to the fame and fortune of the band.  A band I like, REZN, whose recent stop at the Sidebar in downtown Baltimore was sparsely attended (fortunately myself included) is selling large back patches on its website.   I snagged two smaller patches.  In fact, I’ve accumulated enough patches to start a vest, but at this point I can’t help considering it an affectation.  I still have a denim jacket from Paris around, which dates from my high school days.  The large, central back patch on that is Black Sabbath. 

Oddly, the merchandise options at the Desertfest were fairly modest.  Bands seem to vary in how diligent they are in offering such things, ranging from the basic t-shirts all the way to things like patches – Sleep are the best at that – and grinders or onehitters, again Sleep being the best as well.  Sadly, many of us fans would gladly open our wallets and buy these things.  At the very least you would imagine a band would release tour t-shirts with the current tour’s dates on the back, but I’m seeing that to be the exception and not the rule.  Not my problem, of course, but word to the wise…..