The Black Angels at the 9:30 Club

Go To This Because We Asked So Nicely – A Concert Preview

By Maryann Weber

Photo Credit: Shelley Hiam

The Black Angels are a five-member modern psychedelic rock band with nine albums. It is the twentieth anniversary of their first album, Passover, which will be played in its entirety during this show. L.A. Witch, the opener, is an all-female garage rock punk band with three albums.

When the Internet says a band is “modern psychedelic,” it sends me to the Internet to figure out what they’re talking about. Okay, modern is easy enough. It distinguishes the original psychedelic movement of the ’60s, and related to drugs, like LSD and mushrooms, from any other era of psychedelic music. (Because I’m 70, I vaguely remember some of that as a lived experience.) Since The Black Angels first album came out in 2006, it wasn’t a part of that era, wherefore it is “modern.”

What they mean by “psychedelic” is less evident. The Internet describes psychedelic as containing three D’s: “Dechronicization” is a warped sense of time with loops and draw-out soundscapes.” Depersonalization” describes a feeling of dissolving self, with hypnotic repetition. “Dynamization” is a perception that ordinary objects are alive and moving, usually through effects such as reverb and phasing.

What I am hearing, through sampling, is a rockin’ jam band with apocalyptic themes.

L.A. Witch is comprised of a drum, electric guitar, electric piano and vocals. From my sampling, I’m hearing a very competent drummer. Do you need anything more in order to dance? I’m not saying the piano and guitar are incompetent, but a great drummer, sigh, it’s kind of like the glue that holds the universe together.

The 5 W’s (and a few H’s)

Who: The Black Angels with L.A. Witch

What: Rock, with an apocalyptic flavor

Where: The 9:30 Club, 815 V St NW, Washington, DC 20009

When: Tuesday, May 19, doors at 7 p.m. and the show begins at 8 p.m.

Why: Influential modern psychedelic rock bank performing their debut album, Passover, and other hits

How you might know them: They helped develop Levitation and Austin Psych Fest, two Texas-based music festivals

How to go: General admission tickets are $46 on Ticketmaster.