Monday, October 12, 2009
Next Big Nashville / The Spin Next Big Nashville Day 3: The Black Angels, Cortney Tidwell, Eureka Gold & More on the Rock Block
Posted by The Spin on Mon, Oct 12, 2009 at 9:55 AM
See the slideshow for more photos.
Knowing we had a long Friday evening ahead of us on the Rock Block, we had ourselves a casual pre-game at Gold Rush before strolling over to Exit/In to catch the last bit of Bear in Heaven's synth-y, washed-out, psychedelic, swelling drone. We soon discovered that all of Exit/In's proceedings had been delayed 45 minutes because of a mix-up regarding the venue's published "door" time versus their announced "bands start" time. It certainly worked out in Bear in Heaven's favor, though, because there was a relatively sizable crowd gathered for the Brooklyn-facial-hair-sporting four-piece, whose sound was something like a less compelling version of Yeasayer.
Our girl Cortney Tidwell was up next with that impossibly immaculate backing band of hers--sans the typically ubiquitous William Tyler, who's currently touring as a solo act (Paper Hats). Local songstress Tristen lent her pristine pipes on a handful of songs, her spot-on vocals meshing seamlessly with Cortney's. We must say, the pair of pumped-up little buddies whooping it up and clapping off-time throughout Tidwell's set--which ended with our jam, "17 Horses"--were something of a breath of fresh air. Hey, their earnest, fuck-studyin', just-smoked-a-big-ole-joint fist pumping was a welcomed break from the notorious arms-folded Nashville pose.
We briefly considered slipping out with our beer concealed, but instead opted to be good little NBN attendees and skull it quickly before slipping across the street to The End for Twin Tigers. As we anticipated, they turned out to be kind of a mini-U2 with their reverb-y post-punk. Then it was back to Exit/In, where the Rock Block had officially just become the Drone Zone, as Disappears kept the fuzzy psychedelia flowing. They're from Chicago and they fucking sound like it. Back at The End, Kindergarten Circus's set was more sparsely attended than we cared to see, but the badass little crew of garage-punkers tore it up per usual, possibly playing the loudest set we saw all night.
The Exit/In was packed to the back the moment Austin's kings (and queen) of super-psych drone and festival headliners The Black Angels commenced. We especially enjoyed selections from 2006's Passover, which came with all the fuzzy darkness you'd expect. Though we were really getting into the bombastic blasting of The Black Angel's foxy lady drummer, about six songs were all we could take in Exit/In's sweltering, elbow-to-elbow crowd. We hustled through the rain to The End to close out the night with a set from Eureka Gold, who broke out a couple of brand-new and very satisfying folk numbers, with keys and vocals perfectly audible for once. Though there were more than a few whispers of after-parties and various happenings all over town, we decided to quit while we were ahead. Hey, we witnessed seven strong sets and somehow weren't plowed into by the NBN shuttle in all of our gratuitous show-hopping. Sounds like a good night to us.
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You walked out on the Black Angels? Dang. I saw them in Philly and would kill to see them again. See some of the show here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7WricrlQY18
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