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ACL after-show: the Black Angels
With Rodrigo y Gabriela unable to make their scheduled their ACL after show at Antone’s on Saturday night, it fell to Austin’s resident psychedelic rock collective the Black Angels to pick up the slack. Antone’s announced the “secret” line-up Friday afternoon, with the Athens, Ga.-based quintet Blue Flashing Light in the opening slot after a strong showing in the Sound and the Jury contest and recent Dallas transplants the Strange Boys the middle slot.
Singer Alex Maas kicked off the Angels’ acid trip of a set with a guttural scream and blast of his guitar sending the rest of the band spiraling down the sonic rabbit hole. The band’s live set is a faithful representation of the bass-heavy, slow burn found on their debut CD “Passover,” a sound made to be absorbed by the gyrating throng of a stadium-sized crowd. Saturday’s modest, festival-weary crowd was split between the dedicated fans packed in close to the stage and the curious onlookers drawn in from the street by the hypnotic drone of “Better Off Alone” and “Black Grease.”
Despite critical acclaim from extensive touring both in the United States and abroad, the Angels are still something of an oddity in their own back yard. In a town that abides every indie-rock fancy that streams out of the garage, Austin’s hipsters are equally confused and captivated by the band’s Can-meets-Velvet Underground sound.
With the Angels, songs bleed into one another, spacey guitar solos extend already lengthy jams and Maas’ reverb soaked vocals blend with the ubiquitous organ drone creating a wall of sound that would make Phil Spector proud. Underneath it all is Stephanie Bailey’s tribal drumming, a rumble of tom-toms punctuated by the occasional crash cymbal. You can’t quite dance to the Black Angels, but you can’t sit still either.
The band’s set was the perfect counterpoint to a day spent bouncing along to the high-energy festival rock of bands like the Artic Monkeys and Muse. After a long day at ACL, it was refreshing just to turn on, tune in and drop out.
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