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.

Stoner Rock 101

I suppose it started with Hawkwind…Pink Floyd….Blue Cheer…maybe even Captain Beyond. Up until the early 90s, heavy metal was alive and well, as we could see in “Heavy Metal Parking Lot”. Then Nirvana came around and ruined it all with grunge (see my grunge blog). Now we have “nu-metal”, Good Charlotte, A Simple Plan, Disturbed, etc. all the dazzlingly brilliant and original (ha!) bands on the Ozzfest. Hold on, where’s the real metal? And I don’t mean Manowar….


I’m talking about bands that know, understand, and live for riffs, guitars, guitar solos, old-school, old-style banging around like …Black Sabbath, who are probably the most important influence to many of these bands. But despite the name, you don’t have to smoke dope, or get stoned, to listen to this or enjoy it, although obviously many of these bands are probably chemically inspired in different ways, to various degrees. For some reason many of the bands come from California. Oddly, there’s little jamming and not much psychedelic (except for Gas Giant) – just straightforward heavy guitars and good fun.


So what passes for real metal these days is best known as “stoner rock” and will not be found opening for Ozzy or Black Sabbath. Maybe just as well, because it means we can see these bands at local clubs for $20 a ticket and maybe even meet the band members after the show. Who are these bands? Here are a few of the most important (i.e. these are not only the ones I’m most familiar with, but who are also the most popular and tour the most – with the exception of sHEavy, mentioned below - and the list is by no means exhaustive):


Kyuss. They are considered the first stoner rock band, if you leave out Hawkwind and Black Sabbath (precursor bands). I actually saw them in concert years ago and can’t remember a thing. D’oh!


Queens of the Stone Age. Derivative of Kyuss thanks to Josh Homme. Despite the name, none of the band members are female. This is one of these more original bands with its own sound that’s hard to describe, but it’s definitely heavy and definitely different. My favorite album is Rated R. I’ve been able to see them a few times, including with Dave Grohl of Nirvana on drums (Songs for the Deaf tour).


Fu Manchu. If Black Sabbath were surfers and into vans, cars, etc. you’d have Fu Manchu. Scott Hill is a bit smarter, and has a better voice, than Ozzy. IMHO, their best album is King of the Road. This is the band of these that I’ve probably seen the most.


Nebula. A three-piece that used to be ¾ of Fu Manchu, with Scott Hill being the 4^th who remained the core of Fu Manchu. Nebula sound almost the same, though with a more spacey riffing and losing the vans & surfing themes.


Monster Magnet. From New Jersey, and led by Dave Wyndorf, the closest thing to a rock personality that stoner rock has. They have several albums and are heavily influenced by Hawkwind – they even covered “Brainstorm” and “The Right Stuff.”


Atomic Bitchwax. This started out as a side project of Monster Magnet guitarist Ed Mundell, but now has a life of its own with replacement guitarist Finn Ryan, who looks like a blond version of Jason Lee. More riff-oriented than Monster Magnet; my favorite song is (surprise, surprise) “Black Trans Am.” They even cover Deep Purple’s “Maybe I’m A Leo.” I got to meet the band in Baltimore and talk to Chris Koznik, the bassist/singer.


Electric Wizard. From England, EW tune the guitars down to C and really, really drone on. Their album Dopethrone should be a dead giveaway (wizard w/bong) as to their inclinations. Imagine Black Sabbath slowed down half speed…and you have Electric Wizard.


Acid King. Now…substitute a female singer in EW and you have….Acid King. Pretty much the same deal. They do an excellent cover of BTO’s “Not Fragile.”


sHeavy. Of all these bands, sHeavy have by far the closest sound to Black Sabbath, thanks to the singer, Steve Hennessy, who does a dead on Ozzy impression. For some reason, this Canadian band doesn’t tour. I finally saw the DVD that comes with their latest album, The Machine That Won The War, and could see why: half the band (aside from Hennessy, who looks like he belongs in a band) look like they have day jobs, wife & kids, etc. and can’t go off on a money-losing tour of Canada or the US. Too bad, as they are damn good.


Fireball Ministry. These guys sound like 70’s Black Sabbath with 90’s-era Ozzy singing.


Pentagram. The DC area’s Black Sabbath. Remarkably, they’ve been around since the 70s yet only put out an album until the 80s. The only consistent member is singer Bobby Liebling, though their drummer, Joey Hasselvander, recently played drums for Blue Cheer, and I found out that Liebling was at the Blue Cheer show I saw at Krug’s Place in Frederick, Maryland (see the shot of me and Dickie Peterson on my Yahoo 360 album).


The Suplecs. A trio from New Orleans. Fortunately they’ve survived Katrina, but I haven’t seen them tour around this area yet. “Cities of the Dead” is my favorite song, and they do a knockout cover of the Beatles’ “She’s So Heavy.”


Gas Giant. These guys are from Denmark, not to be confused with an Arizona band called the Gas Giants. They have two albums, Mana and Pleasant Journey in Heavy Tunes, both of which are fantastic. They actually have some pretty psychedelic stuff going on, more so than even Hawkwind these days.


Orange Goblin. This was one of the first of these bands I heard, and I got to see them play in Baltimore. Pretty damn good. They are one of the more Sabbath-oriented groups, though the earlier material from the first three albums, Frequencies from Planet Ten, Time Travelling Blues, and The Big Black, are the trippiest.


Lowrider. Teleport Orange Goblin from England to Sweden and you have…Lowrider.


Valkyrie &The Sword. For some reason I put these two together and can’t pull them apart in my mind. They both sound the same. I suppose it’s because The Sword evoke a lot of Norse mythology, which matches up with the name of Valkyrie. They should definitely tour together.


Wolfmother. This new band from Australia gets lumped in with these other bands. They’ve been compared to Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin, but I hear more Grand Funk Railroad – but I seem to be the only one making that connection.


Even within this narrowly limited genre of rock music, there is much variety, but in addition to cool riffs, they share a remarkable talent for cool album covers, as you can see.