Bon Iver w/ Black Mountain=really weird combo

On friday, I was lucky enough to have tickets to go see Bon Iver open for Black Mountain at the Bowery Ballroom. For those of you who are unfamiliar with Black Mountain, I can easily describe them as psychedelic rock. It is good ol' rock music. The resulting crowd was mainly boys many of whom suffered dearly from meathead syndrome. It manifested itself miserably all the way through Bon Iver.
There was a loyal Bon Iver following at the show, comprised mainly of girls and hipster boys. Fortunately, there were also some annoyingly loud, drunk meat heads too. Bon Iver doesn't really strike me as a concert to yell and scream and pump fists at. Maybe I am wrong, or just too sensitive. At any rate, Justin Vernon had two sidekicks playing along with him, which I guess I hadn't expected as he recorded the entire album by himself.
"For Emma, Forever Ago" was composed alone in a cabin in Wisconsin. Having gone to college in good old Madison for several years, I can appreciate everything about Wisconsin that I see in this album. I oozes with warmth and openess. In my experience, there is something about the midwest that the east coast cannot compete with, I would describe it as earthliness. There is such a solid sense of thankfulness in the album that I really attribute to Wisconsin. I felt that from so many of my friends in college, and I never felt it from anyone I had ever met on the East Coast. My whole life on the east coast was about improving oneself and moving ahead, constantly climbing a ladder, and never being satisfied with oneself. The portrayal of this attitude is key to the pervasive pretentious attitude in Boston. This is not to say that people actually felt that way, they just seemed to project that sense. Also, this is not to say that my peers in college weren't constantly striving to better themselves and competitively trying to move up in the world. They just didn't need to show it all of the time. In fact, many of my closest friends lived in what we would have considered to be near poverty compared to what we grew up with. Also, they were paying their own way through college, rent, tuition, books, everything. It didn't even occur to me when I left for college that someone would have to pay for those things oneself.
I digress...So, Bon Iver. A good show, although honestly I didn't feel that the two fellows that Vernon had accompanying him were really tight. I just felt that the show could have been more powerful. I would absolutely go see him again though since I do think that time would really heal the awkwardness that I sensed on stage. I think they would have benefited from more of a presence from the band, outside of Vernon himself.
Black Mountain was good, but it just isn't really my thing. Although I do think it could become my thing. I had an unfortunate experience surrounding attending the show to begin with, so I was not in a mood to stay and get beat on by the crowd. But Black Mountain was a solid performance of solid psychedelic rock. I would actually like to listen to them a bit and try seeing them again. They had great energy on stage, and also felt unified in a way that Bon Iver didn't.

Thats All for Now!

<3 The Elephant