Sometimes when it rains it pours. Australian fans of revered Texan psych rockers The Black Angels had to wait for what seemed an eternity to see their heroes in the flesh prior to the band hitting our shores for the first time in 2011.
With both Sydney and Melbourne shows selling out, their debut tour received rapturous acclaim for their intense but accessible guitar freak-outs and gregarious goodtime vibes, and local followers were overjoyed when the Austin natives were announced as part of the 2012 Harvest Festival line up.
Now – having shored up an even bigger following in these parts – The Black Angels are returning to Australia this June armed with their powerful fourth album, Indigo Meadow.
Indigo Meadow is the first long-player since 2010’s critically-lauded Phosphene Dream, and perhaps the best studio representation yet of The Black Angels’ swirling and ageless psychedelia.
The riffs are crunchier, the drones sludgier, the organ grooves more ominous, and all the requisite hooks and melodies are present and accounted for – no doubt tracks like apocalyptic lead single Don’t Play With Guns and the towering Love Me Forever are going to grace a lot of lists of the year’s best songs come the pointy end of 2013.
But it’s undoubtedly in the live realm that The Black Angels have forged their fearsome reputation, and with good cause – their gigs are some of the most cathartic communal rock’n’roll experiences one could ever hope to partake in, harking back to the glory days when such gatherings were as much a spiritual journey for the participants (onstage and off) as they were a musical pilgrimage.
Led by explosive frontman Alex Maas and his distinctively kaleidoscopic vision (you haven’t seen or heard a theremin in anger until you’ve seen Mass strut his stuff), The Black Angels take you to places beyond the outer reaches of your wildest imagination, vistas you’ll yearn to return to long after the last notes have reverberated around the venue.
This band is on a quest and you’re part of both the journey and the destination – climb onboard when The Black Angels hit Australia once more to deliver their visionary psychedelic sermons this June. Retro rock has never seemed so forward thinking!
The Black Angels 2013 Australian Tour
Thursday 13th June
Tivoli, Brisbane
Friday 14th June
Palace, Melbourne
Saturday 15th June
Enmore, Sydney
Monday 17th
Capitol, Perth
Handsome Tours pre-sale from 12pm AEDT today, Wednesday 3 April.
General public tickets on sale 12pm AEDT Thursday 4 April. Tickets from www.handsometours.com
