Today was one of those weird weather days – insufferably humid throughout the day until the haze and muck bled into some wickedly ominous and dark horizon clouds. This was primarily the scene driving down I-90 westbound on my way to the Beachland lalast night. I suppose there really couldn't have been better weather patterns for the Black Mountain show. A wave of pinks and heavy purples lit the night sky over the Lake Erie shore, and Jagjaguwar's finest, Black Mountain, brought the sludgy mixture of psychedelic rock anthems that capped off a pretty oppressive day with equally cerebral and lip-curling rock.
I've often alluded to the chemistry of Amber Webber and Stephen McBean vocally. There is a decisive distance between the two and this back and forth evokes much of the band's harrowing stage presence. The band rolled through as much of 2008's In the Future as time would allow. The 7+ minutes of "Tyrants" and the epic jam session that "Druganaut" turned into, managed to leave the band with about 7or 8 nuggets of wailing perfection. "Wucan" was one of my favorite tracks a few years ago, so this was a treat to see in a live setting. McBean stomps on the pedal and sends it into overdrive halfway through. It translated perfectly in the darkened quarters of the Beachland. Most tracks did, and whether it was soloing, the synth-wizardry of Jeremy Schmidt, or the smoky reverb of Amber Webber, each piece was orchestrated brilliantly. There were a lot of Clevelanders that headed to the Black Keys show down the street, but the fairly packed crowd spoke volumes about our growing scene here. Two packed venues, two great bands. A rowdy fan shouted, "Cleveland likes Black Mountain more than the Black Keys!" McBean shot back with, "We'll have to tell Mr. Auerbach about that one." In any event, scheduling bottlenecks aside, the hour and half was well worth it. By the time they slowed it down a little with "Stay Free," folks were locked in and ear drums were pulsing.
I suppose the best way to substantiate this review is to mention that I went to this one solo. No, peanut gallery, I do have friends, but half our crew decided to go the "other" show in town, and I think I made the right choice. The clouds above Cleveland dissipated while I was indoors, but the sullen and retro psych sounds of this quintet were just enough to lift this Clevelander out of the muggy haze. Enjoy our concert footage of "Evil Ways" and the killer six-minute jam session of their "Druganaut" rendition. Fuck the Cadillac commercial. This is how it's supposed to be done. (Concert photos below the vids – Pardon the amateur photography).
It’s not too often that we get 70 degree weather at the tail end of December, but in Cleveland, nearly anything is possible. So with mere hours left in the year, Brian and I were fortunate enough to catch Heartless Bastards at the 
the larger ballroom area. So, on any given night, two bands can play simultaneously and each venue has separate entrances. The last time we saw Heartless Bastards, they played the much smaller tavern area. Needless to say, with increased buzz and a new album coming out in a couple months, they’ve moved onto the more elusive 500-750 person capacity ballroom.
not a lot of unshaking asses for the more raucous numbers for most of the night.
Happily, they thought of this. They opened the encore with two tremendously mellow acoustic songs. Just Wennerstrom and bassist, Jesse Ebaugh, took things down a notch with two songs that were unfamiliar to us, but awesome. I’m curious to see if there’s a move towards more of this sort of thing on the new album. An acoustic track or two would certainly be a change. After the acoustic jam, the drummer, Dave Colvin, returned to the stage for “Grey” and “Runnin’.” No more mellowness for the finish. “Runnin’” is an absolute classic and is even better live; Wennerstrom’s vocals shone through here, even after belting twenty songs already. Happily, even though they’re clearly a finely honed live act, they can still take and crack a joke. Right before launching into the vocals, Wennerstom stopped abruptly and declared, “Am I out of tune? I fucked up that moment.” After tuning, she launched back in and left the crowd with a mammoth finish. The Heartless Bastards rocked, all night, without apology or exception.
luanched it into the folds of the curtain behind the stage, never missing a beat. It’s a little thing, but badass. Jesse Ebaugh was coaxing fascinating sounds from his bass all night; when he kicked in during “Runnin’,” it almost sounded like a Stax-era horn section. Wennerstrom exuded a bluesy energy all night and absolutely wailed for the entire show; I’m imaging a lot of green tea in her near future.
