Rosemount Hotel
Saturday, October 8, 2016
Black Mountain’s lead guitarist/vocalist Stephen McBean has been in the music biz since before I was born so naturally the Canadian rockers drew a crowd of mixed ages at the Rosemount Hotel in North Perth. The five piece are currently on tour promoting their fourth studio album IV.
I have just recently discovered Black Mountain and have been playing their records In The Future and Wilderness Heart repeatedly. With these albums in mind, the gig was not quite what I’d expected. Considering IV consists of tracks with names like Mother Of The Sun, Floridian Saucer Attack, Constellations and Space To Bakerfield, I guess it’s no surprise the sound was more spacey and synth-heavy than previous albums. The first comparison that jumped to mind was Pink Floyd and I overheard someone refer to their older stuff as Radiohead-y three times. They opened with the first track on IV, Mother Of The Sun, an eight-minute trip with Amber Webbers haunting vocals intensifying the atmospheric sound.
There were a few moments of deep grooving, namely throughout Wucan, though watching Black Mountain was like witnessing music being made to guide transcendental meditation, I don’t think I saw drummer Joshua Wells open his eyes once. They were inside their music, not the venue. The loudness and feedback somewhat took away from the power of the lyrics and finer details but like most gigs- the closer the better. Everything in the room seemed to vibrate and when the music resonates through your body like that, it certainly makes you feel part of the experience.
KYRA SHENNAN
