Friday night, Stephen McBean project Pink Mountaintops blew away a nice crowd at The Echo with their hazy throwback sound. If you weren’t on drugs, you sure felt like you were thanks to the psychedelic acidy sound that McBean and his mini supergroup foursome produced.
Show review by Mark E. Ortega
Photo by David Evanko
That evening, McBean was joined by guitarist Gregg Foreman (Cat Power), bassist Steve Kille (Dead Meadow), and drummer Will Scott, whose birthday the band celebrated mid-set with a cake presented by Annie Hardy, who opened the show with her band Giant Drag.
Kille’s sweet bass lines set a nice rhythm for the rest of the band as McBean ripped through song after song with his hard to decipher vocals. Foreman mixed in some moves behind the guitar, sometimes jumping in the air or squatting down as he ripped through many of the set’s solos. Kille somehow drank a mixed drink and a beer during the hour-long set, though McBean seemed to be further along in the evening’s inebriation.
Photo by David Evanko
The standout song of the set was “Sell Your Soul” from the recently released Get Back album.
One girl near to the stage was feeling the set more than anybody as she danced to her own rhythm, seemingly inspired by the hooky guitar bits and smooth Kille bass lines. For the encore, McBean played a stripped down song on his own before being joined back again by the band.
Having gone in dark on who Giant Drag was prior to seeing them open the show at The Echo, I could have never predicted the set that Annie Hardy’s trio performed in support of Pink Mountaintops.
Photo by David Evanko
Hardy did a Courtney Love impression turned to level 11 all the way down to the vocals and stage banter.
“This song is called ‘You F*ck Like My Dad’,” said the singer nonchalantly. This just one song before they would play “My D*ck Sucks”, another charmingly titled track. The drummer was particularly impressive as the tone setter, though I haven’t yet been able to find his name.
It was definitely a small-scale show at The Echo, but those that came were treated to a late night of throwback rock ‘n roll from a recent staple of the L.A. music scene.
