San Antonio Welcomes Back The Black Angels for a Night of Psychedelic Frenzy

The Black Angels frontman, Alex Maas, at Stable Hall. Photo by Alejandra Sol Casas

The Black Angels returned to San Antonio after six years, performing at Stable Hall this weekend. Opening for them was Austin’s neo-psych band, Daiistar.

The trippy, fuzz-fueled godfathers of the psychedelic revival kicked off their set with the corrosive, semi-nihilistic poetry of "Currency." Bridging the gap between sight and sound were the prismatic concoctions by Austin-based visionary TV Eye, projected onto the wooden stage and walls of the former horse stable.

Formed 20 years ago and heavily inspired by The Velvet Underground, The Black Angels adopted their name from “The Black Angel’s Death Song.” Since then, they’ve preserved the culture of psychedelic music through the founding of festivals such as Levitation and Austin Psych Fest.

As they moved through songs like "El Jardin" and "Manipulation," the audience oscillated and pulsated with the beat of Stephanie Bailey’s drums, soaking in Alex Maas’ death-steeped vocals. Halfway through the show, a curtain drop allowing the band members to reconfigure and return with subdued versions of meditative songs like "Without a Trace."

The swirling drone and dive-bomb guitar lines during "Haunting" created a whirlpool of aural paranoia that spiraled into a mosh pit—something rarely seen at a Black Angels show yet not surprising in a standing-room-only venue like Stable Hall.

As for Daiistar, the pandemic-formed band fleshed out upbeat tunes with melancholic drops of shoegaze. Their set included songs from their Alex Mass-produced record “Good Time.”

See photos from the show below.