Live Review: The Black Angels, The Laurels, Mezzanine

At 8:08pm, Mezzanine filled the near-empty room with loud sounds. Loud rock sounds. As a local support they did well, especially to a largely non-responsive crowd, who seemed more concerned by the fact pint-sized beers weren't available. Worth a little listen on triple j Unearthed, they've got Mannequin Man up on their as their latest single.

By 8:48pm, the room had filled considerably; word was that only around 160 tickets had been sold, and the rest given away for free by promoters on the day. The Laurels began what was to be a tight set, everything just seemed right on the whole way though. They had pre-recorded loops playing between songs as they switched guitars, tightened strings and brushed the hair from their faces. This four-piece psychedelic treat from Sydney released an album back in 2012, Plains, and I can't wait to get my hands on it. They composed their set around layered vocals, shoegazey guitars and what seemed like a maze of pedals. A totally gnarly set, noticed and appreciated greatly by the audience.

Non-conventional gig nights like Monday always make the work day go faster because you've spent the day looking forward to when it would be 9:47pm and The Black Angels would begin to play. They made the room their own. Dim lighting and moving images were projected on the white sheet backdrop. By the end of the first song, I'd entered into some kind of psychedelic dream-state, where not even the couple making out to the right of me could be distracting. This is just the kind of music that deserves to be bought in vinyl to feel real, as if you need to hear the crackles as you place the needle on the spinning deck before the romantic drones of an era past reverberate through your room. Touring on their fourth studio album, Indigo Meadow, the tracks from this molded around a setlist of crowd favorites including Bad Vibrations and Yellow Elevator. All the way from Texas, The Black Angels had some dancing and others just using the night to get drunk on a Monday. After almost two hours of a solid set, the night was over, there were talks in the crowd from those who had seen them previously that they'd vastly improved their live performance. I can surely say that thanks to them, psychedelic rock is now dominating my music listening once more. Playing in a venue that hosts various bands and club nights on the regular, The Black Angels made us feel as though we had spent the last few hours on a journey to another era, and upon leaving the venue on a crisp winter's evening, I was back to reality.