9 Black Alps Receive 4 Gold Stars

And yet another hot new band from the UK kicks off its first US tour and delivers the goods. The 9 Black Alps show at Baltimore's SONAR makes my #4 for the year to date, falling only behind the Arctic Monkeys, The National, and We Are Scientists shows.

This posting is going to be rough...I'm burning the candle on both ends over here. But here's what I liked: These kids have attitude, which in turn created a decent level of confidence on stage. They played their hit smash 'Cosmopolitan' - #3 in their set - harder than I've seen a band play any of their songs this year, giving their all to ignite the crowd (it worked). They tried out new material that they claim to have written over the previous two nights. After throwing a capo on the second fret of each guitar, the songs they played were perhaps the best songs of the night. This naturally leads me to believe these guys have a pretty large amount of potential they haven't even tapped into yet. I liked David Jones using a drumstick to play his guitar at certain parts of certain songs - sometimes as if he was stroking a violen, others as if he was sawing a metal pipe in half with a hacksaw. Their sound as a whole was great. Think Jet mixed with Nirvana, which was a surprise, as I did not catch the grunge influence in many of their album tracks. All in all this show rocked. These kids defintiely have what it takes to make it in the states - whether or not that happens may not be in their control.

Among the good, I have to point out some bad. First and most obvious was the technical difficulties experienced throughout the entire show with the bass guitar set-up. Bassist/Guitarist Martin Cohen probably did not help matters by buttstroking his amp with his bass guitar in frustration. Another obvious ding: a 40 minute set. Granted, it was a 10 dollar ticket, they do not have a giant arsenal of songs, and they gave an amazing show...but the crowd definitely left with a look of confusion on their faces. In reference to lead singer asking us (americans) to 'buy bazillions and bazillions of our records so we can make another return to the states,' an extra song or two wouldn't hurt. Neither would sticking around after the show and interacting with fans instead of running for the border. As stated earlier, they had a lot of attitude, which in addition to confidence, created arrogance. Hearing Forest say 'cheers' after every other song couldn't have been more Oasis-like if they wanted it to be.

9 Black Alps remains in the Northeast for the next couple of shows, most notably Philly, NYC, and Boston. They will also be at a little festival in CA coming up... concert pics to follow...

http://www.myspace.com/nineblackalps