Black Mountain @ Bowery Ballroom, 1/22/08

I like Black Mountain and I get their shtick. I just haven't really felt the urge to see them live. That all changed, however, on the strength of one song. When they released "Tyrants" back in November, I immediately bought tickets when their Bowery show went on sale. That's the best opening to a rock song I think I've heard since Trail of Dead hit me with "Will you Smile Again For Me" in '05. And "Tyrants" sounded amazing last night as did many of their other songs including "Druganaut" and "No Satisfaction." I didn't particularly like all the extra reverb on the female vocals and the band pretty much stuck to the recorded version of the songs. Overall, the show played out exactly as I expected. It rocked unbelievably hard at times, the crowd seemed to really be into it and as is the case with just about every show I see at Bowery, I can't really complain.

Tonight, it's The National at BAM. I read they added string and horn sections for last night's show (and a guest from Sufjan on "Ada" which I could care less about). Yes, I'm excited.