Black Mountain rules. There I said it. And many times the crowd was echoing the same sentiment at last night’s show at the Empty Bottle. I walked up to about 20 people standing outside who apparently decided they didn’t need to buy tickets before showing up, and of course it was sold out. Luckily I bought my ticket beforehand (Tweedy, anyone?) and once inside watched through the two openers, Nordic Normadic and Birds of Avalon. Both were pretty good. Birds of Avalon had some pretty solid stage moves. But after them it was time for the main event, Black Mountain.

I won’t lie, I had high hopes for the show even beforehand, and they blew my expectations away. This marks the first true face-melt of the concert-going year for me. They kicked off with Stormy High, which I guess is their ‘single’ or whatever, but it really seems like they just wanted to get it out of the way so they could kick ass and take names for the rest of the show without it getting in the way. They shot through their new album ‘In The Future’ (go pick it up) as well as played some other classics, with pretty much every song bringing either blistering solos or inspiring lighter-waving (see above photo).

Now granted, I think these guys could be a bit of a polarizing band, where some people love it and some hate it, but my opinion is that if you go to see these guys you have to know what you are getting in for – just straight up rock and roll. This isn’t new-school indie rock or anything like that, these guys just want to melt your face. So as long as you realize you are going to take a time warp back to the 70s and have your face melted, then you are in the right frame of mind for this show. But I think even detractors of their ‘sound’ or ‘style’ would have a hard time complaining about this show. They rocked.

And the crowd was completely into it also. Looking out across the crowd you could see much fist-pumping and air-guitaring going on as the face-melting proceeded as scheduled. Every song they rocked out was spot on, the band was in perfect form. And they kept on rocking into the wee hours of the morning, I think the show all in total clocked in at around 2 hours.

So then the best part of the night then was when they went off for the encore, and then they come back on, and I full well know that they haven’t played Bright Lights, their 18 minute (on the album) track, yet. So even though it was a one song encore, it was about a 25 minute song, and it was greatness. More lighters came out during the encore as well, of course.

Anyway, Black Mountain has certainly put in my favorite show of the year so far last night, and if any of you get a chance to check them out you certainly should (check out their album also). I am really, really hoping that these guys will make the summer festival rounds this year also, so be on the lookout for them if you see them on the bill at ACL or Lolla or something.

Tonight is the night off in the Spring Break Concert Fest ’08, but we get back on it tomorrow with the great British Sea Power at the same venue, Empty Bottle.

Black Mountain – Queens Will Play – From In the Future