Musician and producer Sam Evian releases “Time to Melt,” the title track from his forthcoming album, out October 29th on Fat Possum, alongside an accompanying video. Carried by its noodly guitar line and Sam’s honeyed vocals, “Time to Melt” emanates a fun darkness with an almost alien jazz feel. The song originally came together when Spencer Tweedy was interviewing Sam for Mirror Sound, a book that delves into the people and processes behind self-recorded music. He asked to see an example of Sam’s writing process, and after firing up a drum machine, Sam wrote the first bars of “Time to Melt.” Of the song, Sam explains “If you’re familiar with tarot, I think of it as pulling the death card in a positive way. It’s like facing the idea of death, which I think everyone thought about a lot this past year, maybe more than usual collectively.”
“It’s time to melt it’s what we do // If anything will comfort me // It’s knowing that we’ll be free”
The peculiar “Time to Melt” video, directed by John TerEick and filmed in the woods surrounding Sam’s home, elevates the song’s otherworldly vibe and offers a peek into Sam’s charm. Sam comments on the video: “I met a lonely alien in the woods and they taught me a jig. As the night went on they convinced me to try huffing some special kind of bug spray, which opened a wormhole vortex to another dimension.”
Time to Melt is a glowing set of soulfully psychedelic pop gems and a testimonial to the life and wisdom to be found when you give yourself the mercy of space. Following a brief decampment to upstate New York to create his last album, You, Forever, Sam realized he could no longer resist the urge to escape the anxious city life. So he and his partner split from New York City to build their refuge and Sam’s studio, Flying Cloud Recordings, in the Catskills. That reflective, relaxing environment shaped Time to Melt, an album of sounds so pleasant and compelling that you put it on and follow the slipstream. There are songs of celebrations, like “Easy to Love,” and tracks that reckon with the weight of our time, even when it sounds largely weightless, like “Knock Knock.”
Next month, Sam will kick off his North American tour with a full band of Brian Betancourt (bass), Michael Coleman (keys), Sean Mullins (drums), and Liam Kazar(guitar, synths), who will also open each show. Tickets are on sale now.
Sam Evian Tour Dates Fri. Oct. 29 – Hamden, CT @ Space Ballroom * Sat. Oct. 30 – Woodstock, NY @ The Colony * Wed. Nov. 3 – New York, NY @ Bowery Ballroom * Thu. Nov. 4 – Boston, MA @ The Sinclair * Fri. Nov. 5 – Asbury Park, NJ @ The Saint * Sat. Nov. 6 – Washington, DC @ DC9 * Wed. Nov. 10 – Philadelphia, PA @ Johnny Brendas * Thu. Nov. 11 – Holyoke, MA @ Gateway City Arts * Fri. Nov. 12 – Providence, RI @ Columbus Theatre * Sat. Nov. 13 – Portland, ME @ Space Gallery * Fri. Nov. 19 – Amagansett, NY @ Stephen Talkhouse Sat. Nov. 20 – Troy, NY @ The Hangar *
My wife and I took a long weekend trip to Nashville, Tennessee a couple weeks ago. We got into town on September 10th and were looking for something to do that night. Lo and behold, I discovered a psychedelic rock show at a dive bar called The 5 Spot, and the lineup was irresistible: local act Mouth Reader, California psych-shoegazers Levitation Room, and, fresh from Psycho Music Festival, Frankie and the Witch Fingers.
Mouth Reader were up first, putting on a good and loud show to their hometown crowd that impressed some other local musicians who were seated near us.
Mouth Reader making our minds drip.
Levitation Room sound like Elephant Stonemixed with Beatles and Pink Floyd. They have a song about a polydactyl cat (“Mr. Polydactyl Cat”) that delighted my wife to no end.
Levitation Room lifting us off the floor.
I need to mention that the psychedelic light and projection effects were done by the Flooded Sun Liquid Light Show, who also have their own doom / stoner metal band called Red Feather. They did a great job, although they didn’t do projections for Frankie and the Witch Fingers for reasons unknown to us.
Frankie and the Witch Fingers played much of the same set that they threw down at the Psycho Music Festival, but hearing it in a smaller venue than the Mandalay Bay House of Blues was a treat. They were just as tight as when we saw them a month earlier and were delighted to be hitting the road after such a long hiatus.
You can tell it’s early in the set because the drummer, Shaughnessy Starr, is still wearing a shirt.
It was a good start to a fun weekend, and The 5 Spot is a cool venue far away from the downtown Nashville honky tonk tourist traps full of annoying drunks and bachelor / bachelorette parties.
Portland, OR band Blackwater Holylightannounce their forthcoming third album Silence/Motion on RidingEasy Records today, sharing the lead single “Around You.” Hear & share “Around You” via YouTube, Spotify and Bandcamp.)
The band also announce tour dates with former RidingEasy labelmates Monolord in Europe in November-December, followed by North American shows with All Them Witches. Please see all dates below.
Empty surrounds all of me. It’s a poignant line from the third album by Blackwater Holylight that encapsulates the search for self when suddenly everything has changed. There’s a theme of processing vast personal trauma throughout Silence/Motion that eloquently — both lyrically and musically — and simultaneously embodies the crushing emptiness, sorrow, strength and rebuilding of recovering from personal devastation.
“There was so much grief both in the world and interpersonally during the process of creating Silence/Motion,” says vocalist/bassist Allison “Sunny” Faris. “The four of us gave one another more space to be ourselves, to experiment with each other’s ideas and to be gentle with one another more than we ever have before.So, we knew this tenderness would manifest in extremely honest arrangements, and I think that you can hear that throughout the record.”
Curiously, considering the dark times in which it was created, this is the band’s most melodic and catchy music so far. Blackwater Holylight, as the name suggests, is all about contrasts: It’s a fluid convergence of sound that’s heavy, psychedelic, melodic, terrifying and beautiful all at once. And, Silence/Motion finds the band honing those contrasts, letting ideas and moods fully develop from song to song, rather than filling every song with a full range of their capabilities. It allows the band to go fully prog-rock here, and simply stay hushed and intimate there. There’s a new confidence to the band in how seamlessly they wield their stylistic amalgam.
“Writing this album was extraordinarily difficult emotionally, however it did come to fruition fairly quickly,” Faris says. “In the past, the theme of vulnerability has always been a big player and it definitely showed up full force while writing this album.” Blackwater Holylight recorded the album as a four piece: Faris on vocals and guitar (on “Silence/Motion”, “MDIII”, “Around You” and “Every Corner”) and bass for the remainder, Sarah McKenna on synths, Mikayla Mayhew on guitar (and bass when Faris plays guitar) and drummer Eliese Dorsay. New second guitarist Erika Osterhout will perform the songs with them live. For Silence/Motion the band chose to work with a producer for the first time, bringing in A.L.N. (of Mizmor, Hell) to produce, along with recording engineer Dylan White — who also helmed their previous album Veils of Winter (2019) — at Odessa Recording Studio in Portland, OR. Guest vocals on album opener “Delusional” are by Bryan Funck (Thou.) Mike Paparo (Inter Arma) and A.LN. (Mizmor, Hell) lend guest vocals to album closer “Every Corner.”
Silence/Motion opens softly with interwoven folky single note guitars over an ominous sounding drone for the first minute, akin to moments from Pink Floyd’s Echoes. Suddenly an irresistibly head-nodding, groovy droptuned riff kicks in with the drums and it’s a full on blackened rocker with soaring synths and Funck’s witchy whispers over the top. “Who The Hell,” the track quoted above, takes proceedings into a Krautrock direction, centered around McKenna’s arpeggiated synth loop and Dorsay’s tom-tom triplets, while 16-note guitar strums add tension as Faris wearily sings, “So tell me who the hell would want to live this way — so afraid/ To feel this void, to dwell in it… I can’t describe this pain I wear/ It suffocates and you left it here.” It’s an incredibly powerful 6 minutes. The title track delivers the 1-2-3 punch of the album’s brilliant opening trilogy. It starts with lightly plucked acoustic guitar, plaintive piano chords and Faris’ voice gliding so softly it sounds more like a Mellotron. The song builds slowly toward crescendo, led by a swinging tom pattern, that abruptly switches back to a heavier version of the opening melody.“Silence/Motion” is about digesting and healing from sexual assault. As Faris explains, “It is an ode to the juxtaposition of feeling paralyzingly blank and and like your entire life is moving through you simultaneously.” Elsewhere, Black Metal guitars collide with dreamlike melodies. “Around You” brandishes a hopeful, hummable synth melody and shimmering shoegaze guitars like throwing down a gauntlet. In the end, it becomes undeniably clear just how completely into their own Blackwater Holylight has come.
“The analogy is that with our first record (Blackwater Holylight, 2018) we were getting into to the car and buckling up,” Faris says. “The second (Veils of Winter, 2019) we were turning the car on, and with this third we have kicked into drive toward our destination. Our destination is a bit mysterious and has the ability to change from day to day, but we’re on our way.”
Silence/Motion will be available on LP, CD and download on October 22nd, 2021 via RidingEasy Records.
BLACKWATER HOLYLIGHT LIVE 2021 – 2022: 11.18 – Oberhausen (DE) – Kulttempel / *11.19 – Utrecht (NL) – DB’s / *11.20 – Nijmegen (NL) – Doornroosje / *11.21 – Antwerp (BE) – Zappa / *11.22 – Bristol (UK) – Exchange / *11.23 – Glasgow (UK) – Stereo / *11.24 – London (UK) – Underworld / *11.25 – Manchester (UK) – The Bread Shed / *11.26 – Dunkerque (FR) – 4 Ecluses / *11.27 – Paris (FR) – Petit Bain / *11.28 – Toulouse (FR) – Rex/ *11.30 – Madrid (SP) – Caracol / *12.01 – Barcelona (SP) – Boveda / *12.02 – Annecy (FR) – Brise Glace / *12.03 – Aarau (CH) – Kiff / *12.04 – Vienna (AT) – Arena / *12.05 – Dresden (DE) – Chemiefabrik / *12.06 – Berlin (DE) – Zukunft am Ostkreuz / *12.07 – Hamburg (DE) – Bahnhof St. Pauli / *12.08 – Copenhagen (DK) – Stengade / *12.09 – Gothenburg (SE) – Pustervik / *12.10 – Stockholm (SE) – Debaser Strand / *12.11 – Malmö (SE) – Babel / *12.12 – Oslo (NO) – Youngs * * w/ Monolord 01.21 – Dallas, TX – Trees # / 01.22 – Austin, TX – Mohawk # / 01.23 – San Antonio, TX – Paper Tiger # / 01.24 – Phoenix, NV – Crescent Ballroom # / 01.27 – San Diego, CA – Belly Up Tavern # / 01.28 – Los Angeles, CA – The Regent Theater # / 01.29 – San Francisco, CA – The Fillmore # / 01.31 – Portland, OR – Wonder Ballroom # / 02.01 – Vancouver, BC – Commodore Ballroom # / 02.02 – Seattle, WA – The Showbox # / 02.04 – Salt Lake City, UT – Kilby Court / 02.05 – Denver, CO – Gothic Theater # / 02.06 – Fort Collins, CO – Aggie Theater # # w/ All Them Witches
Keep your mind open.
[Make a silent motion toward the subscription box while you’re here.]
A Place To Bury Strangers announce a 2022 North American headline tour, and share the new video for single “In My Hive,” from their new EP, Hologram, out now on Dedstrange. The new dates follow a headline show at Bowery Ballroom in New York City on September 15th, a run with Future Islands, and a stop at Levitation Festival in Austin, TX. Tickets for 2022 are on-sale here.
The “In My Hive” video, directed by and starring Manon Aulon Elphick, Niicolé and Dedstrange labelmates Data Animal, is a ghoulish grindhouse tale of revenge served raw. Filmed in gritty wide-angle closeups, this claustrophobic tale of murder, magic, and mayhem is a gothic five-finger-filet deathmatch for the senses. Preparing for a fight, pondering the potential in the sharpness of a knife, glazed over eyes, molten metal poured into the mouths of to-be zombie bandmates, overwhelming flashing lights, all seen through a close-up psychedelic lense.
“‘In My Hive’ is about how I’ve let myself get taken advantage of by other people because I just didn’t care at the time, but it definitely has come back to haunt me,” says A Place To Bury Strangers’ Oliver Ackermann. “It can be tiring to deal with these emotions but it’s best to think about what is going on and work through it.” Watch: “In My Hive” video “I Might Have” video “End Of The Night” video
Tour Dates: Wed. September 15 – New York, NY @ Bowery Ballroom $ Mon. October 11 – New Orleans, LA @ Civic Theatre * Tue. October 12 – Atlanta, GA @ Buckhead Theatre * Wed. October 13 – Raleigh, NC @ Ritz * Thur. October 14 – Washington, DC @ Anthem * Fri. October 29 – Austin, TX @ Levitation Festival Tue. February 1 – Philadelphia, PA @ Johnny Brenda’s # Wed. February 2 – Montreal, QC @ Bar Le Ritz #Fri. February 4 – Toronto, ON @ Lee’s Palace # Sat. February 5 – Detroit, MI @ El Club # Sun. February 6 – Chicago, IL @ Empty Bottle Mon. February 7 – Milwaukee, WI @ Cactus Club # Tue. February 8 – Minneapolis, MN @ First Ave. 7th Street Entry # Fri. February 11 – Seattle, WA @ Neumos % Sat. February 12 – Portland, OR @ Mississippi Studios %Sun. February 13 – Vancouver, BC @ Rickshaw Theatre % Tue. February 15 – San Francisco, CA @ The Chapel % Wed. February 16 – Los Angeles, CA @ Teragram Ballroom % Fri. February 18 – San Diego, CA @ Soda Bar % Sat. February 19 – Tucson, AZ @ Hotel Congress % Tue. February 22 – Denver, CO @ Larimer Lounge % Wed. February 23 – Lawrence, KS @ The Bottleneck % Fri. February 25 – Nashville, TN @ The High Watt % Wed. March 9 – Hamburg, DE @ HafenklangThu. March 10 – Dresden, DE @ Beatpol Fri. March 11 – Warsaw, PL @ Klub Poglos Sat. March 12 – Prague, CZ @ Futurum Sun. March 13 – Bratislava, SK @ Randal Club Mon. March 14 – Budapest, HU @ Durer Kert Wed. March 16 – Bucharest, RO @ Control Club Thu. March 17 – Sofia, BG @ Mixtape5 Fri. March 18 – Thessaloniki, GR @ Eightball Sat. March 19 – Athens, GR @ Temple Mon. March 21 – Skopje, MK @ 25th of May Hall Tue. March 22 – Belgrade, RS @ Club Drugstore Thu. March 24 – Zagreb, HR @ Mochvara Fri. March 25 – Bologna, IT @ Freakout Club Sat. March 26 – Rome, IT @ Largo Sun. March 27 – Milan, IT @ Legend Club Tue. March 29 – Zurich, CH @ Bogen F Wed. March 30 – Munich, DE @ Backstage Thu. March 31 – Martigny, CH @ Caves Du MemoirFri. April 1 – Paris, FR @ La Trabendo Sat. April 2 – London, UK @ Lafayette Mon. April 4 – Antwerp, BE @ Kavka Tue. April 5 – Munster, DE @ Gleis 22 Wed. April 6 – Amsterdam, NL @ Melkweg Thu. April 7 – Groningen, NL @ Vera Sat. April 9 – Stockholm, SE @ Hus 7Sun. April 10 – Oslo, NO @ John Dee Mon. April 11 – Copenhagen, DK @ Pumpehuset Tue. April 12 – Berlin, DE @ Hole 44 Wed. April 13 – Cologne, DE @ MTC
* with Future Islands $ with Maxband & Wah Together # with Glove % with TV Priest
If your band’s name is Shred Flintstone and your album is titled Unlimited Power, you need to have the chops to back up those things. Otherwise, you’ll be dismissed as a “joke band.” Shred Flintstone need not worry. They have enough chops to power a car-crushing monster truck.
Album opener “All My Friends Are Bread” starts us off with post-punk bass riffs Ed Weisgerber and guitar chords from Dan Barrecchia that sound like frantic radio transmissions from a military base being attacked by a giant monster. The whole thing turns into a wild assault on the senses in just a few moments. Wesigerber’s fury continues on the title track while his rhythm section mate, Joey Giambara, locks in everything with crisp chops. “Shred Durst” shreds harder than anything Fred Durst has released in years.
Barrecchia’s guitar work on “Red Dawn” reminds me of early Nirvana tracks. “Friend of a Friend of the Devil” is, dare I say it, a bit psychedelic as Barrecchia sings about trying to run from his fate / sins and then learning to accept it / them. The three of them go nuts on “Big Gun” – a New Bomb Turks-like punk track with the vocal reverb turned up to eleven. “Escape from New Jersey” (the band’s home state) turns the vocal effects up to twelve and drops riffs and drum fills heavier than a dump truck full of broken concrete. “Dirty Boi” comes at you like Leatherface with its heavy buzz and frantic pounding. The album’s closer, “Always,” wraps things up with surf and even a bit of 1950s love ballad crooning.
So, yes, Shred Flintstone have the chops to back up their name and album’s title, as well as knock the speakers off your shelves or walls. If you’re thinking of installing solar panels to power your house, you could just plug this album into your fuse box and save a ton of money.
Keep your mind open.
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The 2021 LevitationFrance full lineup has been announced, and it’s a great one.
The show will be at an outdoor venue this year to be a bit safer during the tail end of the pandemic. The Friday night shows include sets by The Limiñanas and Mars Red Sky, while Saturday night has sets by Shame, SLIFT, Zombie Zombie, Anika, and Wild Fox.
I’d be at this festival were it not for a nephew’s wedding that same weekend, but you should go in my stead.
We’d originally planned to start the final day of the 2021 Psycho Music Festival in Las Vegas at noon to see Warish, but they cancelled their performance before the festival started. So, we had nothing to do but lounge at the pool and spa after breakfast until we headed to the House of Blues venue to see Frankie andthe Witch Fingers for the first time. I’d been keen on seeing them, as their last album is outstanding, and clips I’ve seen of their shows looked wild.
They didn’t disappoint. They practically flattened the House of Blues in “their first show in about two thousand years.” A lot of people in the crowd seemed to not know who they were, but were ardent fans by the end. Later in the day, I overheard a guy talking about them to friends: “Frankie and the Witch Fingers! I walked in not knowing what to expect! Holy shit!” He was right. They put on one of the best sets of the entire weekend.
Franke and the Witch Fingers casting Audible Glammer.
We had time for lunch and then headed to the beach stage to see Dengue Fever – a band we’d both wanted to see for a while. They play a neat version of Cambodian funk and disco and had a lot of the crowd dancing in the sand and the wave pool. Their saxophonist is top-notch as well.
Dengue Fever getting their funk on.
We headed back inside to catch to the Rock & Rhythm Lounge, where Black Joe Lewis and the Honeybears got on stage to bring some funky soul. Lewis is a sharp guitar player, and the crowd quickly picked up on what he was putting down.
Black Joe Lewis and the Honeybears piling on even more funk.
My wife was exhausted by this point, so she went back to the hotel room while I returned to the beach to see Osees pound out one of the loudest sets I’ve seen them play. Part of the volume could’ve been from their usual power bouncing off the water of the beach and up at everyone standing on the beach, and part of it could be from them playing in front of a live audience again after so long. It was a wild set, with people in the pool kicking and splashing water everywhere and the security guards being somewhat dumbfounded by what was happening. Drummer Paul Quattrone was especially on-point during the whole set.
Osees bowling us over with the power of rock.
I also managed to catch some partial sets from Howling Giant, Sasquatch, Mothership, and Black Sabbitch during the festival – all of whom had large, happy crowds in front of them.
The entire festival had a happy vibe to it. Everyone was happy to be seeing live music again and partying with friends again.
Plus, it was nice to lounge at an outdoor pool for a while.
Tickets for the 2022 festival are already on sale, and they’ve announced some of the bands already confirmed, including metal giants like MercyfulFate, Emperor, and Boris, as well as prog-metal heavyweights Year of No Light.
We only had four bands on our itinerary for day three of the Psycho Music Festival in Las Vegas. One was a must-see for us (especially for my wife) and another was someone I, for some reason, had never seen before this festival.
First up were shoegazers Flavor Crystals, who played the early afternoon at the Rock & Rhythm Lounge to a small crowd, but a small crowd full of shoegaze fans. They dropped a heavy sound bomb on the place, flooding the casino with fuzz.
Flavor Crystals melting faces and minds.
They also added to my set list collection from the festival.
Thanks, fellas!
We took a break for a few hours and then came back for three consecutive shows at the Michelob Ultra Arena, which is connected to Mandalay Bay. Meanwhile, Summer Slam was happening at the stadium across the street, which made for a weird mix of T-shirts seen in the casino. You saw everything from shirts for wrestlers like John Cena and Rey Mysterio, Jr. to bands like Dying Fetus and Cephalic Carnage.
The first band at the Michelob Ultra Arena certainly weren’t the death metal category, but were rather Thievery Corporation, who put on a fun show combining bhangra, reggae, dub, rap, and funk. It was my second time seeing them, and the first time I saw them was also in Las Vegas (at the Cosmopolitan Hotel Casino rooftop pool), so it was an interesting return for me. They put on a fun set.
Sitar, drums, congas, bass, synths, and vocals from Thievery Corporation.
Next were The Flaming Lips, who are one of the best live bands going right now and one of my wife’s favorite bands ever. It was, as always, a delightful, uplifting experience. The usual spray of confetti into the crowd was minimal, and there were no giant, confetti-filled balloons launched into the crowd due to COVID concerns, but there was still plenty of fun to be had. It was fun to stand next to a guy who’d never seen them before then, and he gave me a happy thumbs-up during the show.
Wayne Coyne versus a pink robot.
My wife went back to the hotel room after the show, and I stayed to see Danzig. I’d somehow gone my entire punk teenage years, college years, and post-college years without seeing Danzig, Samhain, or any variation of The Misfits. Danzig started a little late, but Glenn Danzig and his band came out to an appreciative crowd and played the entire Danzig II: Lucifuge album and then some of their favorite hits. It was an impressive set, and the guitarist was especially talented. Glenn Danzig wasn’t too concerned about possible COVID infection, however, as he tossed multiple used water bottles and face towels into the crowd – half of whom left before his three-song encore, which baffled me.
One funny conversation I overhead as I was leaving the Danzig show was between two guys. One was checking the set times on his phone. His friend asked who was currently playing. “Cannibal Corpse,” said the man with the phone. His friend replied, “Yeah! Let’s fucking get brutal!”
Danzig being his spooky self.
I made it back to the room after wandering the casino a bit and being a bit overwhelmed by all the visual and aural stimulation, not to mention all the smoke of various kinds I’ve been around all day. We had an easy morning planned for the last day, and then a night of wild rock, Cambodian funk, soul funk, and metal lined up for Sunday.
We started off the second day of the Las Vegas Psycho Music Festival with what would become our morning ritual over the next three days – lounging by the Luxor Casino Hotel’s pool in the dry heat after picking up a breakfast sandwich at one of the somewhat-overpriced restaurants in the hotel. We’d relax for a couple hours, wash off the sweat, and then go see some bands. It was a great way to save money because we had little time to spend at the gambling tables and slot machines.
Our musical entertainment began with Foie Gras and her industrial-goth set at the Mandalay Bay House of Blues venue. She put on a good set to an early crowd, and my wife loved her combination of a T-shirt and flamenco dancer sleeves.
Foie Gras with her rockin’ sleeves and blood-painted knees.
Up next was something completely different – a set by Deathchant, who I can probably best describe as sounding like a fuzzier Thin Lizzy. The played the “Rock & Rhythm Lounge,” which is in near multiple restaurants in the casino, so you can get your eardrums blasted while enjoying your expensive wine and French cuisine – or while shoving money into video slot machines. Deathchant were loud and rough and a wild afternoon wakeup call.
Deathchant playing like every song was their finale.
We took a five-hour break, more than enough time to get a nap and dinner before coming back to the Lounge to see British stoner metal quartet Psychlona. It was their first gig win Las Vegas and only their second show of their U.S. tour. “We are so fucking stoked,” their lead singer said, and they certainly played like it. Afterward, their singer told me their set was better than the one they’d just played in San Diego the previous night.
Psycholona – stoked to be there.
Shoegaze quartet Highlands were up next and brought a welcome change of sound to the Lounge and the festival in general. I’m a big shoegaze fan, and they didn’t disappoint. There was a nice, reverb-laden wall of sound coming from the stage for their whole set.
Highlands bring the fuzz.
We then zipped across the casino and back to the House of Blues to see one of my most anticipated sets of the festival – a Bossa nova set from Claude Fontaine. The set was lightly attended, and I couldn’t help but think many were there from a previous metal set or waiting for the next metal band to play after her. The crowd wasn’t sure what to make of her at first, as they’d been so used to metal that a soft set of Bossa nova tracks with dub influences seemed alien to them. Ms. Fontaine put on the loveliest set of the festival (her first time playing in Las Vegas) and the small crowd did come around to appreciating the hypnotizing, alluring music she gave.
Claude Fontaine making all of us swoon.
Our night ended at the Mandalay Beach stage, which sits opposite a man-made beach on a wave pool, where we saw Ty Segall and his band shred the place with their loud psychedelia – their first gig in two years. Segall’s wife even sang lead on one track. They sounded great, and the volume of the band was amplified not only by electronics, but also the water bouncing it all over the place.
Ty Segall and his crew partying at the beach.
It was our busiest day of the festival for bands – six in one day – but there were plenty more to come.
Up next, more shoegaze at the Lounge and three arena shows ranging from dub to goth metal.
I wasn’t sure what to expect at the 2021 Psycho Las Vegasmusic festival. I’d bought tickets to the 2020 festival, but that was, like everything else, cancelled due to the pandemic. I kept the tickets in hopes that most, if not all, of the bands would return. Most did, but there were some absences that were bummers (Windhand, Mephistofeles, and Boris in particular). There were also additions that were quite welcome (Osees, Frankie and the Witch Fingers, Thievery Corporation).
I also had no idea what to expect in terms of healthy safety measures and how I, my wife, and people in general were going to react to be at a music festival again, or even in a casino and among large groups of people again. Nonetheless, we took our vaccinated bodies to Sin City and were happy to discover that the airplane, airport, and all businesses in Nevada are under a mask mandate.
My guess is that 70% of festival crowd was masked nearly all the time. The only person I heard complaining about it was Glenn Danzig (more on that later). The biggest health hazard complaint I had was due to the stunning amount of smokers. I’ve been gone from festivals for so long that I’d forgotten how many people smoke at them, let alone in casinos. Plus, marijuana is legal in Nevada, so the stank of the sticky-icky was everywhere. It’s illegal to smoke it in public, but the odds of you getting cited for it are slim to none.
The festival opened on Thursday, August 19th, with the “Psycho Swim” kick-off party. The festival is held at the Mandalay Bay Casino Hotel, and the “Psycho Swim” is at their Daylight Beach Club – where the security didn’t allow you to bring in a wallet chain or even gum. The pool was full of metal fans, psych-weirdos, music nerds, and, yes, some sexy people.
Everyone is sinking in this pool because the festival was so metal-heavy.
No, we didn’t get into the pool. It was too crowded by the time we got there, and we were mainly there to see bands for the first time in almost two years. The first was Here Lies Man, who opened the entire festival with their groovy, Afro-doom riffs.
Orange amps never fail to sound great.
For the record, I was the only one in the crowd with a Here Lies Man shirt (which I picked up from them at the last Levitation Music Festival in Austin). I got to thank many of the HLM members after the show, and J.P., the bassist, was kind enough to give me his set list.
Thanks, J.P.!
It was their first show in two years. This would be a repeated theme from nearly every band we saw over the weekend. All of them were excited to be playing a live show in front of a crowd again.
Up next were Blackwater Holylight, who started off their set by saying, “Okay, we’re going to play some depressing songs for you.” Their doom-psych was appreciated by the crowd, and their upcoming album should be pretty good – judging from the songs they played from it.
Blackwater Holylight were perhaps the only band all weekend who appropriately dressed for the desert heat.
We left for a little while to enjoy some air conditioning and lunch at an Irish pub in the shopping center that connects Mandalay Bay and the Luxor (where we stayed for about half the price of a room at Mandalay Bay). I recommend the turkey burger. We returned in time for Death Valley Girls‘ set, which was the best of the night. They played a wild set of mystical psychedelia. Lead singer Bonnie Bloomgarden, seeming to draw power from the moon, wore a red dress that made her look like a ghost from a Dario Argento movie and a belt that looked like she won it in a professional wrestling match with a cyborg from the year 2305 (and, for all I know, she did). There were a few times when I wasn’t sure if she was wiping sweat from her face or tears from being so happy that they were performing their “first show in about three hundred years,” as she put it. Guitarist Larry Schemel was on fire as well, unleashing some heavy riffs throughout the set. I chatted with him afterwards for a moment, and thanked him for coming out to the festival. He thanked me and said, “This feels weird. It’s our first show after so long…It’s bizarre.” He also gave me his set list, which was a surprise gift.
“Look at the moon!” – Bonnie Bloomgarden (in red dress) points out her cosmic guide for the evening.Thanks, Larry!
It was a good start to the weekend. We had good music, good food, everyone was being cool about each other’s health (the resorts had plenty of hand sanitizer stations and free masks), and we had plenty of time to sleep in the next day.
