LIVE: Black Mountain Find Clarity In Montreal
Tuesday March 04, 2008 @ 04:00 PM
By: ChartAttack.com Staff

February 29, 2008
La Sala Rossa
Montreal, QC
by Noah Love

There's nothing quite like seeing a band you love in a tiny venue. Not that I've seen Black Mountain in any huge ones (having missed that Coldplay tour), but their show at Toronto's Horseshoe Tavern in October should have been a great one. Too bad nobody told the sound guy. That performance, where the B.C. group debuted much of the material on In The Future nearly four months in advance, was marred by a muddy mix that was turned up to 17. It was easier to physically feel the set than it was to hear it. In many ways, Friday night's show at La Sala Rossa was their make-up gig.

The show even had a similarly excellent triple bill. Up first were Toronto's Quest For Fire, one of several offshoots from the now-defunct Deadly Snakes. Chad Ross' second non-Snakes venture (the other, Nordic Nomadic, take over opening duties later in the tour) sounds like a cross between Ladyhawk and Brian Jonestown Massacre, which is to say, pretty great. Their epic tracks never dragged and their massive guitar sound and chilling melodies earned them steadily increasing applause from the surprisingly dense early crowd. They also got points for shooting down one heckler who sarcastically yelled, "Go Leafs go!" after Ross repeated the band name and point of origin.

"We have 20 more songs," he deadpanned, quickly discouraging other comedians.

Of course, the small upstairs room wasn't packed early for a couple of ex-Deadly Snakes. No, most in attendance were there for the hotly tipped second act, Jagjaguwar's Bon Iver, a.ka. Justin Vernon. He performed with two other players who contributed to three-part harmonies and the subdued vibe went over smashingly with the stoners, but may have seemed a little out of place to everyone else. The set played out like an Akron/Family performance, minus the feedback and spastic energy. I couldn't help wondering if perhaps Vernon and company shouldn't concede the second slot to Quest For Fire for the remainder of their dates, since the noisy Toronto rockers would have been a perfect lead-in for Black Mountain. Bon Iver were quite good, featuring the intensity and soul of a Jim James solo set. They're just not a great fit for this particular tour.

Black Mountain, on the other hand, are this tour. As much as the crowd was fairly enthusiastic for the first two bands, there wasn't much doubt why people were there from the first chords of In The Future opener "Stormy High." La Sala Rossa couldn't have been a better venue for the quintet. Not a single one of Stephen McBean's riffs, Jeremy Schmidt's keyboard lines or Amber Webber's howls were lost under Joshua Wells' drums or Matt Camirand's bass.

It helped that the group are a lot tighter now than they were in October. Some of In The Future's better tracks seemed a little murky on the first go-around, but all the pieces have now fallen into place. I still don't really think "Bright Lights" is a necessary addition to either the album or a live set, but "Angels," "Wucan" and "Evil Ways" more than compensated.

The only real disappointment was that they dropped "No Hits" in favour of "Modern Music." But given that Black Mountain are stingy about playing songs from their debut and they'll probably be back in this neck of the woods before the end of the year, it was a fair substitution.

As soon as McBean figures out that one 17-minute track doesn't play really well anywhere, Black Mountain will be one of Canada's best live bands. They pretty much are already, but set list decision-making is a skill in itself and the band have a little work to do in that department.