Mexican Power Authority, Climax Gold Twins By:Lezah Williamson,

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Black Mountain

with Climax Gold Twins and Mexican Power Authority

Saturday, Nov. 3 at Richard's, Vancouver: Scratch Records kicked off their 20th anniversary celebrations with a sold out Black Mountain show. Opening for Black Mountain was Mexican Power Authority from Victoria and Seattle's Climax Gold Twins.

I really enjoyed Mexican Power Authority. Playing their first show in ten years, lead singer Kev Smith (formerly of the NEOS) was in his element. A progressive hardcore band, they claim to have first coined and developed strang, which has since gone international. Smith is funny - funny, funny, funny - and Mexican Power Authority is known as much for its short (sometimes 20 second long) songs as it is for its humour. Smith sounds a lot like a singer from another popular Victoria band, No Means No. They finished their set with a 1972 song from another Victoria band; it was a fantastic song, but I missed the name of both the song and the long-defunct band who originally did it.

Next up was Climax Gold Twins from Seattle. They did a largely instrumental (and experimental) set; I don't think they even sang until somewhere near the end of their set when they did a Bonzo's song.

Finally Black Mountain was up. Of course, Black Mountain is Scratch's darling: their 2005 self-titled album is still Scratch's biggest seller; they were named in Amazon.com's Editor's top 100 for 2005, and their song 'Stay Free' was used in Spiderman 3. Singer Amber Webber and 'brains behind the operation' (as well as many others like Pink Mountaintops) Stephen McBean played a psychedelic set heavily influenced by Sabbath, Zeppelin, Hendrix and the like. I had seen Black Mountain about three years ago and they are much more polished and professional an act now. The entire audience was practically packed onto the dance floor at Richards - I know, because near the beginning of the set I had to make my way from the front, where we were at the stage, to the back of the club - and that was no easy feat. People were packed so tightly it was practically a gridlock. I almost didn't get through - and to get back to the front again? Forget it. If I learned one thing, it's this: you don't give up prime real estate at a Black Mountain show and then expect to get it back. Ain't gonna happen, baby!

Image from wikipedia.org

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Response from Readers

amber at painfullyhip.com said... Hey! I heart Black Mountain too, but that photo is actually of Blood Meridian, which also boasts Matt and Josh of black mountain.
10:52 AM

Anonymous said...

Dude that's not black mountain, that's blood meridian!
7:04 PM

Christine (admin) replied:

My Bad for attaching the incorrect image to Lezah's article. It has been revoved. If you have a good photograph from this concert, pass it on to swanktrendz.