Showing posts with label night beats. Show all posts
Showing posts with label night beats. Show all posts
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Festival Bands, Man!: Night Beats


Austin Psych Fest, put on by the Reverberation Appreciation Society, is this weekend! This week's Festival Bands, Man! band from the amazing lineup is Night Beats of Seattle, WA. The name Night Beats is a tribute to Sam Cook, and their music is in part, too. Bluesy, groping, and psychedelic, it’s one the best contemporary incarnations of the old stuff there is. 

The Growlers (also performing at Psych Fest) of Orange County, CA, do it well. I’m a huge fan of The Entrance Band (Guy Blakeslee). And there are many other great bands influenced by psych, garage rock, and soul music. The White Stripes, for example. But something about the old fashioned push of Night Beats sets them apart. It’s grungy without excluding jazz listeners, it’s personal, not trite, and it’s sexy. Psychedelic acts usually tip their glasses onto a little nakedness, but the steam dissipates with the immediacy of the voyage. Night Beats doesn’t let the blues bring them down, but swirls it around like a pat of butter on a hot pan. Sizzling, steaming, fattening, it’s delicious in a way new bands that sound like old bands usually aren’t. Like a gourmet dish, you appreciate its history, but the slippery taste of originality surprises you each bite. 

 DETAILS

Band: Night Beats

Festival: Austin Psych Fest, Texas

Venue/Stage: Reverberation Stage

Date & Time: Saturday, April 27 5:45PM  



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Concert Review: The Black Angels w/Night Beats


As a fun little music journalism experiment, let’s see if this show review for the performances of The Black Angels and Night Beats at Town Ballroom this past Saturday night can possibly discuss the happenings of the aforementioned performance without once using the word “psychedelic,” (barring, of course, this expository example). Okay. Here goes nothing.

Though for promoters, it can sometimes be a difficult task to rip people away from their summer haze of cheap beer and backyard parties, it was perhaps because of this haze that music fans turned out in impressive numbers to Town Ballroom Saturday night. It goes without saying that the landmark music venue, with its unique triple-tiered design (giving the impression that one is not watching just the show, but also watching the audience watch the show), is one of the few air-conditioned venues in the city. The crowd, escaping the oppressive heat that had been set upon Buffalo like so many laundromats venting all at once, was at near capacity for the headlining Black Angels, but was still relatively modest when opening act Night Beats took the stage. And that’s unfortunate because if there’s one real story to take away from the evening, it’s of Night Beats’ dynamic set.

Seattle’s Night Beats are a relatively young band, with only one full length LP to their name (though also a handful of excellent 7’’s), but it was that youthful exuberance that made them stand out Saturday night. The band kicked off the set with their garage floor stomper “Puppet on a String,” complete with backing “ah-ah”s from bassist Tarek Wegner (calling to mind the music of former tour mates The Black Lips). Throughout the set, lead singer and guitarist Lee Blackwell tap-danced with his guitar pedals, unleashing thunderous flourishes between his jangly blues inspired riffs. Rounding out the group is drummer James Traeger, whose propulsive drumming complemented the group perfectly, incorporating aspects of jazz and flamenco.

The parade of pot-scented tank tops marked the beginning of The Black Angels’ fans slow trickle into the venue. Their fanbase is an odd mix of new wave hippies, frat guys, and corporate suits that can afford the rather steep $22 ticket. This melting pot of admirers reflects the kind of bland, muddy, mid-tempo brand of music that The Black Angels have basically trademarked at this point. Just this past week The Jesus and Mary Chain, a band approaching 30, were able to deliver a set that was sloppy, confrontational, and above all else, loud. Loud as hell. It was thrilling. The Black Angels, on the other hand, inspired little more than a shrug with their particular brand of polite psychedlia.

Total “psychedelic”s: 1

Bobby Ellis
Photos by Jill Greenberg
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Tonight: The Black Angels



This frankly astounding year of live music in Buffalo continues tonight at the Town Ballroom when The Black Angels return to Buffalo, with Night Beats in support. Austin's Black Angels made a hell of an impression when they played the Tralf a few years ago on the Dropout Boogie Tour with Black Mountain thanks to their mesmerizing sound, excellent 60's American psychedelia (think The Doors, Velvets, The Zombies, and Jefferson Airplane... all at once), and seriously fantastic light show. Night Beats, from Seattle will be opening the show with their intriguing psychedelic r&b influenced rock. Doors open at 7 PM, tickets are $22, and yes they are still available. 





Yeah Buffalo, can we not have a repeat of Yeasayer? How could that happen for Yeasayer? And you were doing so good up to this point. Anyways, city of mine, here's your chance to redeem yourself. Hipster doofuses of Elmwood in particular... here's your chance to really redeem yourselves, and to not just pose but to actually make yourselves useful. 


OK, I'm done. Black Angels. Killer show. Be there.

Cliff Parks
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Know Your Opener: Night Beats



If you’ve been a fan of drone, psychedelic, or garage rock in the past decade, you’ve undoubtedly come across the name The Black Angels at least a few times. In eight years and four albums, the Austin based band has already achieved a veteran status among the mellow-vibed elite. A name you might be less familiar with, however, is that of their tour mates, Night Beats. Though they have only one full length thus far to their name, 2011’s eponymous Night Beats, the band also has a handful of incredibly popular 7’’s and EPs. Their dynamic sound incorporates influences of garage, psych, blues, and, pointing to the primary influence of their side project (featuring members of The Black Angels), The UFO Club, American soul music. But though the name Night Beats may come from a Sam Cooke record, make no mistake: the band is heavy on the acid psych and dirty garage sound that Austin bands have made famous in recent years. The show is at Town Ballroom with doors at 7:00pm.


Bobby Ellis
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