Leviation Austin – 7th Level Music

Levitation Music Festival Recap – Day Four: Old friends, new friends, old habits, new stains

We started the fourth day at the Levitation Music Festival with another tradition – the Sunday gospel brunch at Threadgill’s restaurant. It’s a pretty good deal, and the music always sound good. The band there this year was the Levites, and they were having a great time.

The first band we saw at the festival was Acid House Ragas, which consists of DJ Al Lover on synths and beats and can-we-call-him-a-friend-by-now? Rishi Dhir on sitar. They got the festival off to a nice start with meditative drone music.

We left Stubb’s to grab a bite at the Moonshine Cafe, which serves “southern comfort food.” Holy cow. That was some of the best blackened catfish I’ve had in a long time. After stuffing our bellies, we returned to Stubb’s in time to almost bump into Christian Bland of the Black Angels and Christian Bland and the Revelators. This was the fifth time I’ve met him, and I thanked him again for the festival. He and his bandmates help curate it, and I told him it was our fourth year there and we already had tickets for Levitation France in the fall. He thanked me and was excited to hear we were going to the fall festival. He’s always in a good mood whenever I bump into him.

We caught most of the set from the Brian Jonestown Massacre. My wife flipped out when she realized band member Joel Gion was “the tambourine guy from Gilmore Girls.” They put on a set to an always appreciative crowd, and frontman Anton Newcombe encouraged all of us to quit using pesticides in order to save bees. We also met up with James from Ancient River and his wife, Nakia, while there. We hadn’t seen them since 2014, and I hadn’t seen James since 2015 when he and his bandmate, Alex, played a gig in Ft. Wayne, Indiana. It was great to catch up with them and meet friends of theirs from England who were also at the show.

Mr. Newcombe later walked through the crowd during the Black Angels‘ set, shaking hands with yours truly and many other fans. The woman behind me gave him a big hug and her boyfriend also shook hands with him. It made that woman’s night. They talked about it for another ten minutes at least.

The Black Angels, as always, put on a great set. They started with “Young Men Dead,” their usual closer, and kept tearing it up from there. Lead guitarist Christian Bland shredded more than usual, and drummer Stephanie Bailey was once again an unstoppable beast.

We headed to Barracuda to catch synth-punks POW!. Unfortunately, we missed most of their set, but what we did hear was a fun and raucous. Their weird cover of the Addams Family theme was a nice treat.

Following them were Oh Sees, who I’ve been wanting to catch for years. James told me he’d seen them perform the previous night and said it was an impressive, high energy set. Sure enough, all the hype you’ve heard is true. A mosh pit broke out within the first four bars and I was soon in it. Various drinks were flying, people were crowd surfing, and my shoes were a stained, dirty mess by the end of it. It was a great way to end the festival on a high note and leave us with enough energy and hunger to grab a late night pizza slice on the way back to our car.

It was a nice return for Levitation Austin. The town, and the festival, needed a good comeback. Multiple people at the festival agreed with me that the vibe there is always good. You don’t see or meet a lot of jackasses at this festival, which is always a plus (but, good grief, why are people still smoking cigarettes in 2018, and especially in the middle of a crowd?).

See you in France this fall?

Keep your mind open.

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Levitation Music Festival Recap: Day Three – Shoegaze, synths, and psychedelia

The third day of Austin’s Levitation Music Festival was off to a good start when we bumped into Rishi Dhir of Elephant Stone and MIEN at a vegetarian breakfast cafe and then the Men at the same place. Mr. Dhir remembered seeing us at a small show in Pittsburgh and told us he and the other chaps in MIEN were a bit nervous about performing their first live show at Stubb’s BBQ that night. We told him we were sure they’d rock it. I also told Nick from the Men that they reminded me of the MC5, and he was a bit blown away by the compliment.

MIEN did indeed rock their first live show. We heard their soundcheck while dining at Stubb’s (Where, by the way, the best deal is the all-you-can-eat menu.) and we again saw Mr. Dhir not long before their set. We told him they sounded great, and they did during the full set. They played nearly their entire debut album and their nervous energy only seemed to benefit the set.

Local synth heroes (and Stranger Things score creators) SURVIVE were up next and put on a deep, creepy set that was longer than they expected. They kept thinking they were out of time, but they still had enough to play three more songs before they really were done. It was funny to see them look offstage and ask, learn they had plenty more time, and then grin as they tried to figure out what to play next.

Finishing up the night at Stubb’s were shoegaze legends Slowdive. I was late to their party, but got on board with their self-titled return album after nearly twenty years of no new music. There was a good-sized crowd there by this point and people went crazy for them. Many professed their love for singer / keyboardist / guitarist Rachel Goswell, who seemed humbled by all the love.

They nearly leveled the place with reverb, fuzz, and dreamy rock. My wife wasn’t sure to make of it. She later told me it nearly put her to sleep, which I suppose is one of the goals of such ethereal music.

We then moved over to the Empire Garage to hopefully catch the last half of No Joy‘s set, but alas they had finished by the time we got there. Dan Deacon already had a big crowd and was spinning up a wild dance party despite his laptop computer giving him fits and a vocal distortion pedal breaking. He had the audience building a tunnel with their arms above their heads and dance through it until his laptop computer crashed.

We left a bit early, and I later read on Twitter than Deacon smashed his laptop by the end of the show after it crashed yet again.

Up next, my wife freaks out upon seeing Joel Gion on stage, Rishi Dhir returns, and I get Red Bull dumped on me.

Keep your mind open.

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Levitation Music Festival Recap Day Two: Scrambled eggs, scrambled brain

The second day of Levitation Austin was going to be a feast of bands from outside the U.S. The number of international acts that play the festival every year is one of my favorite things about it. I’ve discovered many great bands I wouldn’t have heard otherwise at Levitation Austin.

After a great brunch at the South Congress Cafe (which I couldn’t finish), the first of the six bands we’d see that day was Superfonicos – an Austin band of locals and Colombians who play a great mix of Afro / Colombian funk. They played to a crowd that seemed to grow larger with each track, as more and more people walking by the venue came in to hear who was dropping all that killer groove.

Following them were musicians all the way from Algeria – Imarhan. My wife and I have fallen in love with Tuareg music thanks to the Levitation festival, and this was our second time seeing Imarhan there. A lot more people were hyped to see them this time than when we saw them in 2016. It’s not that they were a bad band in 2016 – far from it. It’s that they’ve been working hard, touring a lot, and have a fine new album (Temet) that’s getting a lot of buzz. They had everyone moving and people behind me in the crowd were stunned by their bass player and lead guitarist.

Closing the night at Cheer Up Charlie’s were hometown heroes / aliens Golden Dawn Arkestra, who entered the venue through the crowd and billowing sage incense everywhere before they launched into a sun-worshipping funky freakout that had a packed crowd of dancing revelers all communing with other-dimensional beings. GDA never disappoint, and some people we met that night (one of whom was in a psychedelic band out of Chicago) who hadn’t seen them before thought the set was one of the coolest things they’d ever seen.

We then went over to Barracuda to see Chilean psychedelic rock outfit Vuelveteloca. Unfortunately, we missed the first half of their set, but what we did here was psych-rock as solid as the Andes.

NYC’s The Men followed, and they came out gunning. In the first two tracks I thought, “This might be the closest I ever get to an MC5 show.” They even played some Captain Beefheart-like stuff by the end. They were loud and brash, which made the next set even weirder.

The final act we saw the second night was another Chilean band – Follakzoid. I’d only heard a couple tracks by them before coming to Austin, and they were good ones that bordered somewhere between shoegaze and psychedelia. I didn’t know what to expect from a live show, but I can tell you it about melted my mind. They played two tracks and an encore. The two tracks during their main set were about twenty-five minutes each of droning, repetitive (in a good way) space rock that is hard to describe. Imagine synth bass and riffs combined with drumming from apparently a human metronome (considering how long he kept those beats going) and maybe five different notes played in different ways and with different effects and levels of distortion and reverb. Sound weird? It was – wonderfully so. Sound like it shouldn’t be good? You couldn’t be more wrong. It was one of the best sets I saw all weekend, easily in the top three.

Up next, my wife tries to figure out the big deal about Slowdive, we bump into more musicians, and a laptop keeps giving someone fits.

Keep your mind open.

Levitation Austin artist spotlight: Pow!

Synth-punk weirdos POW! are playing Levitation Austin at Barracuda on April 29th at 10:50pm. It’s a sold-out show at with them opening for Oh Sees. They pay a quirky, catchy brand of electro-rock that I think will be a treat live. I hope you can make it.

Keep your mind open.

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Levitation Austin artist spotlight: The Black Angels

Austin’s own Black Angels not only play Levitation Austin again this year, they also help curate the festival every year. The psych-rock heavyweights will close Stubb’s BBQ on April 29th. I will see them at any opportunity, and it’s rare I get to see them in front of a hometown crowd. Their set will be one of my favorite moments of the festival, I’m sure.

Keep your mind open.

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Levitation Austin artist spotlight: The Brian Jonestown Massacre

The psychedelic rock collective known as the Brian Jonestown Massacre hail from San Francisco and have had numerous lineups throughout the years. Front man Anton Newcombe has always been the steady figurehead of the group, and their fans are legion. The stories of their rock and roll lifestyle are wild and border on legendary. Their Levitation Austin set at Stubb’s BBQ on April 29th will be packed to the gills, I’m sure.

Keep your mind open.

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Levitation Austin artist spotlight: Rishi Dhir

Primarily known for being the front man in Elephant Stone, Rishi Dhir is also now with the psych-rock outfit MIEN and has played bass and sitar for the Black Angels in the past. Dhir will be performing a solo set (probably all sitar) at Stubb’s BBQ on April 29th at 6:00pm at Levitation Austin. Don’t miss it. He’s a good joe and a heck of a sitar player.

Keep your mind open.

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Levitation Austin artist spotlight: Dan Deacon

Electronic musician / DJ / avant-garde artist Dan Deacon will be closing one of the Empire garage sets at Levitation Austin (April 28th at midnight) this year. His shows are apparently wild affairs with audience participation. His videos are weird enough, so a live set from him should be a good time if it’s as odd as they are.

Keep your mind open.

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Levitation Austin artist spotlight: Slowdive

Shoegaze legends Slowdive return to Levitation Austin this year. Their live shows have been lauded ever since their reunion, and I missed them when they were at the crazy, cancelled festival in 2016. Their set will be like traveling back in time, both to the 1990’s and to just two years ago. They close Stubb’s BBQ on April 28th at 10:10pm.

Keep your mind open.

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Levitation Austin artist spotlight: S U R V I V E

Another Austin band that will be melting minds at Levitation Austin this year is SURVIVE. They play a cool, creepy style of synthwave that pays great homage to John Carpenter and they’re well known for their work on the Stranger Things soundtrack. They’ll play the second set at Stubb’s BBQ on April 28th starting around 9pm. This will be the show to see if you’re in the mood for something spooky at the festival.

Keep your mind open.

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