Dead Meadow (USA) / Black Mountain (CAN); Het Depot, Leuven; November 29th (Guy Peters)
CONCERT REVIEW
When the trio kicked off their set in Leuven, it was obvious they’d been touring for three weeks non-stop. The band
played slow, lethargic, and a bit uninterested, but as the sound became better and the audience more responsive,
the band’s performance gained an intensity that would turn it into a satisfying experience. The intriguing thing
with Dead Meadow is that they’ve succeeded in uniting influences that almost seem irreconcilable on paper: on the
one hand, they’re heavily indebted to the heavy sludge and acid rock of seminal bands like Black Sabbath and Blue
Cheer and by consequence, they lay down lumbering grooves; but on the other hand, they could be lumped in with the
shoegazing bands as well, as the ethereal, nearly whining vocals of Jason Simon perfectly complement his
trance-like guitar playing. With the help of an assortment of pedals and effects, the guy switches from Neil
Young-styled grooves to My Bloody Valentine-inspired feedback to heavy metal-riffing. It could be become a total
and tuneless mess, but the fairly melodic vocals and fresh accompaniment by the rhythm section kept things
interesting.
As the show progressed, the songs became more and more cerebral, extended and noisy, the band exploring territory
between those of like-minded bands like Comets on Fire and Spiritualized. Their set was a bit too long and uneven,
but when they’d finally built up the wall of sound, Dead Meadow were hitting their stride, blending old and new in
style.
Centered around vocalist/guitarist Stephen McBean, Black Mountain
is the kind of band that dabbles mainly in 70s rock (Black Sabbath, Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, you name it if it’s
big), while adding a certain experimentalism by injecting their neo-classicist rock with feedback excursions,
quacking sax (on the album at least), drones and disorienting genre switches. The one moment they’re laying down a
savage groove à la VU’s “Waiting for My Man” and a second later, they’re boldly exploring regions of the galaxy
where no one has been since Pink Floyd got the fuck out of there in 1974. Because the switches are so awkward and
so few sections actually make impact, the straightforward rocking was most successful. Single “Druganaut” is a fine
example of the band taking Hawkwind into the 21st century, while “Don’t Run Our Hearts Around” is one of the better
recent Led Zeppelin-tributes. When the band tries to go beyond a mere homage to their fathers’ record collections,
there results aren’t always as impressive: the songs lack focus, come off as a string of cool ideas hastily glued
together or keep on milking an idea that wasn’t that successful to begin with. McBean’s vocals sound pretty
nice (occasionally similar to those of My Morning Jacket’s Jim James) and so are the contributions of
“singer-with-tambourine” Amber Webber, but many of the keyboard-eruptions, distortion-drenched semi-chaos, plodding
sections and occasional reliance on pop harmonies just seemed too lazy or out of place. It’s okay to have that
record collection and it’s definitely okay to pillage it, but it won’t do to combine the elements and leave it at
that. The playing was excellent and halfway their set, the sound was quite impressive as well, but you simply
couldn’t be sure whether they were in it for real, or because they were a pastiche act wondering whether they could
fool a bunch of Belgians. It wasn’t bad, but this spectator prefers the limited, monotonous appeal of Dead Meadow
over the slightly hollow grandness of Black Mountain any day of the week.
Check out
www.guypetersreviews.com
This double bill will sound twice as good if you’re under the influence of a mind-expanding drug. Psychedelic music
is back and here to
stay. Well, with four albums behind their belt, Dead Meadow are hardly rookies on the scene, but it’s the
first time they got such a high profile gig in Belgium (not that “high-profile in Belgium” actually means anything).
Whereas Dead Meadow’s appeal seems limited to a small, loyal following, somebody decided that Black Mountain would make a sellable
product. The band’s debut album was suddenly all over the place, hundreds of reviews have appeared (and many of them very laudable - even
Mojo included it in their Top 20 albums of 2005) and the band toured with Coldplay. That is high profile. Now, if anyone can tell
me why this band was picked to tour with Coldplay, because it simply doesn’t make sense. I fully agree that an opening band
shouldn’t be a lesser version of the headlining one, but what this band has in common with Coldplay… nada?
I can’t imagine that more than 50 Coldplay-fans were actually interested in the retro-rock of Black Mountain.
Well, maybe I should phrase that differently: I would’ve been able to imagine it if Black Mountain actually lived
up to the hype that preceded them. Unfortunately, they didn’t. What I saw were a few guys with a larger-than-average
record collection trying to impress you with their knowledge of the past three and a half decades of rock music, but
hardly succeeding in creating something “organic.”