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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Canadian shoegazers No Joy will be playing the Empire garage during Levitation Austin (April 28th at 11:10pm). They have a cool, heavy sound that I love. Their album Wait to Pleasure was one of my favorites of 2013 and their new collaboration with Sonic Bloom is outstanding.
Keep your mind open.
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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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The first wave of lineup announcements for Levitation Austin 2018 has been released, and (as usual) it’s great.
The festival is no longer being held at the Carson Creek Ranch, but rather at multiple venues in downtown Austin like Stubb’s BBQ, Empire, Barracuda, and more. You can buy tickets for the individual shows, which vary in price. They offered full weekend passes for all shows for $400.00 (quite a price jump from previous years), but they sold out in minutes. Screw you, ticket buying robots!
Regardless, the first lineup already has many great artists on it. Rishi Dhir of Elephant Stone will be performing solo and with a new venture he has called Mien. Dead Meadow, Thee Oh Sees, Slowdive, the Black Angels, Electric Wizard, the Brian Jonestown Massacre, Ministry, Chelsea Wolfe, Ty Segall, Golden Dawn Arkestra, Imarhan, the Men, and Al Lover are all stand-outs.
Don’t wait too long to get tickets. Tickets to individual shows at the 2016 festival sold out quick and many tickets went to scalpers who flipped them at outrageous prices. More announcements are due in the early part of 2018, and that will only cause tickets to sell faster.
Keep your mind open.
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File this under: Best News You’ve Heard Today. Austin, Texas’ annual Levitation Festival returns April 26-29, 2018.
The flagship Levitation festival (the others are in Chicago, Vancouver, British Columbia, and Angers, France) was cancelled this year after the organizers, the Reverb Appreciation Society, took a heavy loss due to the 2016 Austin festival being cancelled due to storms and flooding. Make up shows were quickly scheduled, but many attendees got shut out of those thanks to ruthless ticket scalpers. The RAS bounced back a bit this year with their Angers festival, but fans hoped the Chicago, Austin, and Vancouver shows would return soon.
There’s no word on the Chicago festival (which is usually the first of the four and held in early spring), but the announcement of the Austin festival’s return is great news and a good omen for the other Levitation shows.
Tickets for Austin aren’t on sale yet, but don’t wait too long to score them. The demand will be greater than normal. See you there.
Keep your mind open.
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While Levitation Austin didn’t happen this year, Levitation France is a go on September 15-16th! This bodes well for the Levitation shows (a small one is being held in Austin the first weekend of May) making a full return next year.
The first wave of band announcements includes the Black Angels, Slowdive, Acid Mothers Temple, and Kikagu Moyo. As usual, the Levitation festivals always have a great lineup, and this will be no exception. Get to Angers, France if you can.
Keep your mind open.
Levitation France has released single-day tickets, daily lineups, and additional band announcements. The additions of Follakzoid, Alex Mass (of the Black Angels), and Klaus Johann Grobe are great ones. Don’t miss this festival. It’s sure to be an excellent two days.
Keep your mind open.
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The last night of Levitation Chicago was a good one. It started with local acts Natural Information Society and Bitchin’ Bajas. They played a beautiful set of trance-inducing instrumentals combining jazz, world music, and electro.
Up next were one of my favorite bands, Night Beats. They get better with each performance and are slaying it right now. They never turn in a bad performance. I got to chat with them after their set. They were all humble and appreciative. Drummer James Traeger was surprised that I’d been promoting them since 2013.
Another group of humble, appreciative guys I got to talk with were Earthless. They flattened the place with an epic three-song set of their space / stoner rock. Afterwards, a young man next to me asked if all their songs were so big and long. “Yes,” I said. “All of their stuff is that epic.”
“They just don’t stop,” he said. “They just keep going.” He’s right. They lift off and like a rocket and don’t come back for a while.
I took a break and came back for part of Faust‘s set. They had four women knitting on stage to “keep things from getting out of control.” It was weird and quirky.
The night ended with a loud, powerful dark wave set from Chelsea Wolfe. Her voice is as powerful as her heavy sound. She slithers like a snake and sings like a siren.
It was a good end to the festival. I’d like to come back next year, and need to track down more new music now.
Keep your mind open.
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Night #2 of Levitation Chicago didn’t have the same “wow factor” of the first night for me, but there were still some good moments.
The first was a good shoegaze performance from Nite Fields, who came all the way from Australia. I was glad that more people showed up by the end of their set because it got better with each song.
Blanck Mass came out next and put down a great set of electronica that had people dancing and trancing. Each song flowed into the next without interruption and ended with a dropped beat and a wave good-bye. I need to pick up his full-length album.
One neat thing about a Levitation festival is that you can jump genres on the same stage and both performances will be good ones. Ryley Walker and his band came out after Blanck Mass and performed a fine set of blues-influenced Americana rock. It made me think of the Allman Brothers Band in their heyday.
I ended the night a little early when I couldn’t bear any more of Lightning Bolt‘s set. They continued their tradition of setting up on the main floor and being surrounded by the audience. The set was punishing. I was about ten bodies back and the force of their bass-drums combo literally hurt my stomach. I dared not get close enough to get a photograph. I had to walk away and decided to call it a night.
Tonight’s line-up for me is Natural Information Society and Bitchin’ Bajas, Night Beats, Earthless, Faust, and Chelsea Wolfe.
Keep your mind open.
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I headed to Chicago’s Thalia Hall after a fine Mexican dinner in time to see Vadaat Charigim, who put on a fine set of shoegaze dream-rock. Yuval Haring‘s spaced-out guitar sounds like he’s playing it from across the street yet it’s still loud enough to hear. Yuval Guttman has some of the best cymbal fills I’ve heard in a long while, and Dan Fabian Bloch looks like Julian Cope and plays bass like Peter Hook.
Up next was the avant-garde legend himself Gary Wilson and the Blind Dates. Let me say right away that the Blind Dates are a killer band who can give anyone a run for their money. They’re probably the closest I’ll get to seeing the Mothers of Invention. Mr. Wilson came out in a floor-length smock, scarf, and his ubiquitous sunglasses and dishwashing gloves and carrying a large piece of thin plastic tarp and a female mannequin’s head. He started with a classic, “6.4 = Make Out,” and went on to tear through a stunning set with songs like “Linda Wants to Be Alone” and “Gary’s in the Park.” He freaked out a girl to my left, who couldn’t bear to look at him as he nearly crawled off the stage toward her while holding the mannequin’s head in his hand. I will see him whenever possible, as should you.
My night ended with Health, who flattened the place with a big set of booming industrial rock and some of the best drumming I’ve heard from any band in a long while. I seriously don’t know how Benjamin Jared Miller makes that much sound with a snare, kick drum, floor tom, one mounted tom, two cymbals (one with about a 3″ x 3″ piece missing from an edge), and a high hat.
It was a good time, and Thalia Hall is a nice venue. Tonight Nite Fields, Blanck Mass, Ryley Walker, and Lightning Bolt are on the list for me.
Keep your mind open.
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