It’s a crisp autumn evening here in San Francisco’s Mission District on Tuesday, 22 October, but it feels like a weekend since the Black Angels are in town. The heavy psychedelic rock band from Austin, Texas, is opening a three-night run at the Chapel, with buzz indicating that they will be mixing up the setlists and playing in a stripped-down format. It’s intriguing news as far as how this might alter the group’s powerful sound, yet with the potential to create fresh pathways for sonic exploration.
The Black Angels’ rise over the past two decades has included fostering their local scene with the Austin Psych Fest, eventually renamed Levitation. The festival has kept growing and spawned a Black Angels live album in 2021, with the Live at Levitation release culling tracks from the 2010-2012 editions of the event. The West Coast tour finds the band on a path to return home to Austin to headline this year’s Levitation on Halloween, which makes having the Black Angels here in San Francisco tonight feel like a seasonal treat.
With influences including the 13th Floor Elevators, the Velvet Underground, and Syd Barrett-era Pink Floyd, the Black Angels are known for providing thought-provoking lyrics along with deliciously fuzzy sonic stimulation. “The Velvet Underground song ‘I’ll Be Your Mirror’ – that’s what every Black Angels album has been about,” says vocalist/bassist Alex Maas at the group’s website. “You can’t work out your struggles unless you bring them to the forefront and think about them. If we can all think about them, maybe we can help save ourselves.”
This concept is readily apparent on the Black Angels’ most recent album, 2022’s Wilderness of Mirrors. The single “Empires Falling” is one of the more zeitgeisty tracks of recent years. The propulsive song’s eerie video takes aim at the bloated American war machine, following in the footsteps of anti-war classics like Bob Dylan‘s “Masters of War” and Black Sabbath‘s “War Pigs”. The wider lens on the crumbling American empire continues to resonate with overt fascist and authoritarian enabler Donald Trump being allowed to run for President again in 2024.
With Trump threatening to persecute his critics if he’s able to weasel his way back into power, it’s not a big stretch to imagine a dark future where rock ‘n’ roll bands face prohibition, such as the scenario that Canadian power trio Rush conceptualized in their brilliant 1976 concept album 2112. But insightful acts like the Black Angels can thankfully carry on for now.
Soriah opens the show with a set that features his vocal skill in Tuvan throat singing. Blending the ritualistic vocal style from Southern Siberia with a range of other global music traditions, Soriah imparts the aura of someone skilled in the shamanic arts. He speaks of performing previous sonic healing on this stage and invokes “white light for each and every one of you” as he introduces the last number as a healing song. He concludes the set with a mesmerizing moment of vibrational power that feels downright medicinal, like a mystical sound bath. Soriah’s Tuvan vocal resonance also recalls the Gyuto monks of Tibet, and it has a heady spiritual vibe to take in here at the Chapel.
When the Black Angels hit the stage, they take seats at their instruments, fitting in with the billing for a stripped-down performance. Opening with “Ronettes” from 2011’s Phosphene Nightmare EP sets a tone of trance psychedelia as vocalist/multi-instrumentalist Alex Maas sings, “See the light inside of your cage, Feel the power as you try to escape…” The bass line and twisting guitar melodies start to recall “The End” by the Doors, conjuring some classic psychedelic rock vibes.
“Manipulation” from 2006’s debut album Passover kicks the set into the next gear as the Black Angels lay down one of their essential tunes. The heavy bass line and haunting vocals are complemented sensationally by the ultra-psychedelic Mad Alchemy Liquid Light Show, which turns the Chapel into an immersive sensorium. This local light show generally pops up for Grateful Dead-oriented shows at the venue but provides a trippy change of pace here with the trancey minor key vibe that the Black Angels specialize in.
“Empires Falling” is played in more of a droning arrangement with a slower tempo, making it less of a straight-ahead rocker but opening up a more mesmerizing sonic landscape with emphasis on the song’s bluesy undertones. When Maas sings the chorus, “Empires falling / It’s history on repeat / Our nation’s pleading / From street to bloody street,” the song taps deep into the mood of the 2020s.
“Firefly” is another tune from Wilderness of Mirrors with a lighter mood, as if the audience has been transported to a psychedelic lounge in the 1960s. Maas switches to bass on “Entrance Song” from 2010’s Phosphene Dream, a road song with a heavy groove. When he sings of rolling fast down I-45 and “Bending time, feeling fine,” it is a metaphor for the transportive effect of the group’s mind-bending music.
The set continues to feature Wilderness of Mirrors with a groovy performance of “Icon” and an infectious ride down “The River” for one of the night’s most electrifying jams. The song functions as an ode to the Black Angels’ influences, with Maas calling out for sonic wisdom while the band build a deep groove with trippy riffs that pull the congregation together here at the Chapel. Drummer Stephanie Bailey, guitarist Jake Garcia, and guitarist/organist/drone machine player Christian Bland are in peak form as the group’s unique sonic alchemy surges.
Soriah joins the Black Angels to add his sonic medicine to “True Believers” for a magical moment on a key song from Phosphene Dream. With Eastern melodies and lyrics that ask if “Maybe Buddha is the true son of god’s kiss”, it’s a great song to play at the Chapel and a perfect tune for Soriah to add some of his mesmerizing vocal harmonics. There’s a sacred vibe that generates more vibrational medicine for the soul, providing another peak moment of the set.
Bailey lays down a shamanic trance dance beat on “Snake in the Grass” from 2008’s Directions to See a Ghost, delivering the foundation for one of the set’s deepest explorations. “Always Maybe” is a trippy, downbeat tune with a spooky vibe from 2013’s Indigo Meadow, with the Black Angels utilizing an array of effects to expand the sonic landscape as the groove picks up. The ethereal vibe of “The Boat Song” makes for a great show closer, with the group bringing their sound way down while also imparting uplifting melodies that seem to float through the cosmos. A fulfilled audience exits the Chapel out into the cool San Francisco night after this mind-expanding evening of psychedelic rock.