Black Mountain Played Wonder Bar with Ruby The Hatchet, 6/28/16 (PHOTOS)

Black Mountain

Asbury Rocked

Vancouver's Black Mountain came to Wonder Bar on Tuesday, June 28th. It was the beginning of a Northeast / Mid-Atlantic leg of their tour that features Philly / New Jersey band Ruby The Hatchet.

The Wonder Bar appears to be undergoing some significant external renovations. I'm not sure if the work necessitated the disabling of the air conditioning system, but the combination of lots of bodies and some hard rock music made for a sweaty evening.

The quasi-local and growing stature of Ruby The Hatchet ensured that the room was packed out early; and the band turned in a wild set of doomy, bluesy rock. Vocalist Jillian Taylor does a great job of conveying the band's occult-inspired vibe onstage, appearing to lose herself as the music swirls around her when she's not singing. Taylor and the rest of the band, though, revert to gracious autograph signers as soon as the music stops; and there were more than a few fans waiting for their chance before the band even left the stage.

Black Mountain had their own set of devotees waiting for them when they took the stage as people held up camera phones or simply clutched albums throughout their set. Stephen McBean and Amber Webber traded vocals over McBean's guitar experiments, heavy doses of psychedelic keyboards, and the inspired drumming of Joshua Wells. The Wonder Bar shook as Black Mountain delivered one of the loudest sets I've heard in a while.

Black Mountain and Ruby The Hatchet head to Philly's Union Transfer tonight before making their way to NYC's Bowery Ballroom on Friday. Check out some of the pics from last night below. The rest are in the Flickr galleries.