I had a blast at live shows this year, seeing nearly 50 different bands. I hope I can match or beat that in 2017. I’m going to highlight the top 50% of the bunch, five at a time.
Levitation Austin always brings in at least one Tuareg artist, and Imarhan played a packed house at the Empire in downtown Austin. It was early in their first U.S. tour and they put on a fine show of uplifting music.
These two maestros of their respective instruments (Gourisankar on tabla and Indrajit Banerjee on sitar) wowed the crowd at the Stoop Inn. My wife and I were right in front and their energy had us and the whole crowd buzzing.
They were the first band we saw at Levitation Austin in 2016, and they had to play an abbreviated set due to showing up a bit late (Thanks, Austin traffic.). As a result, they played a wham-bam-thank you ma’am set of all their rockers. They threw down the gauntlet early.
#22 – Bleachedat the Grog Shop in Cleveland, Ohio October 21st.
They were a blast, the venue was great, and the crowd was appreciative. They were even better live than I thought they would be and friendly to anyone who stopped by their merch table after their set.
I saw Night Beats three times in 2016. This was the second time, and the third time I saw them came in at #26 on my list of live shows and was only two days later at San Marcos’ MR Fest. They closed the first night of Levitation Austin, after nearly everyone had learned the festival had been cancelled, and they made everyone forget their blues for a little while. It was a raucous set, and we all needed it.
Which shows made my top 20 for 2016? Come back tomorrow to find out.
A stunning tour will hit the west coast beginning in February. The Desert Daze Caravan will bring Temples, Night Beats, Deap Vally, Froth, and Jjuujjuu to California, Oregon, Washington, Nevada, Arizona, Texas, and even Canada. Don’t miss this tour if you’re out west. I’m tempted to buy airfare to Phoenix just to see this lineup.
2/22/17 – San Francisco, CA – The Chapel
2/24/17 – Portland, OR – Crystal Ballroom
2/25/17 – Seattle, WA – Neumos
2/26/17 – Vancouver, BC – The Rickshaw Theatre
2/28/17 – Felton, CA – Don Quixote’s Music Hall
3/1/17 – Nevada City, CA – Miner’s Foundry Cultural Center
3/2/17 – Pomona, CA – The Glass House Concert Hall
3/3/17 – Pioneertown, CA – Pappy & Harriet’s Pioneertown Palace
3/4/17 – Los Angeles, CA – The Regent Theater
3/5/17 – Solana Beach, CA – Belly Up
3/10/17 – Las Vegas, NV – Neon Reverb Festival
3/11/17 – Phoenix, AZ – VIVA PHX – Downtown Phoenix
3/17/17 – Dallas,TX – Not So Fun Weekend @ Trees
Keep your mind open.
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Don’t miss your chance to see Night Beats if you’re on the west coast. They’re hitting it hard through November and touring with Mystery Lights – a band I’ve been meaning to check out for a couple weeks now.
The Night Beats are killing it right now, and I’ve yet to see them put on a bad show. They are well worth your time and money.
It’s been a good year so far for music. I’m finding excellent stuff every month. We’re halfway through the year, so here’s a quick recap of my top 10 records of 2016 so far.
King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard – Nonagon Infinity: Easily the craziest record of the year so far. You can play it on an infinite loop beginning with any track and it will repeat without any noticeable pauses, stutters, or breaks.
WALL – self-titled EP: WALL are currently my favorite discovery of 2016. They’ve brought back a fierce post-punk edginess that I didn’t know I was yearning for until I heard them.
Radiohead – A Moon Shaped Pool: One word to describe this record – Heartbreaking. Most of the songs are about the end of Thom Yorke’s 20+ year relationship with his girlfriend.
Not taking time to rest on their laurels, Night Beats have announced a North American tour after completing their European dates with performances at the Glastonbury Music Festival.
The North American dates can be found at their website. See them if you get the chance. They are killing it live.
Keep your mind open.
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What do you do when you fly from Indiana for Levitation Austinand it gets cancelled due to bad weather? You go to another music festival in San Marcos not even thirty miles away.
The Levitation coordinators and Travis County Emergency Services were putting out photos of the damaged festival site at Carson Creek Ranch by the time Saturday morning rolled around.
You can’t levitate when you’re stuck in mud.
That’s just one photo. Others showed vendor tents wrapped around trees. You can see collapsed tents in the background. The camping area was underwater. There would’ve been many injuries and perhaps worse if campers had been there during the storm.
We got a nice breakfast, my wife got a manicure and pedicure, and we were off to San Marcos for MR Fest. My Radio Fest (AKA MR Fest) is put on each year by Texas State University radio – KTSW. It’s an indie rock festival taking place over one day and two nights in eight different venues in downtown San Marcos. The best part? All the shows are free. They were actively Tweeting for people devastated by the loss of Levitation to come down for it. I was sold once I learned Night Beats were playing Saturday night for free.
We got into town around 2:00pm and happened to park next door to Superfly’s – a wrecka stow that was also one of the eight venues. We walked in and saw a three-piece rock band called Sloe Your Rollwho were putting on a good set of blues jam-rock.
Sloe Your Roll
We then wandered down to a nice underground bar called Kiva and saw a Hum-like three-piece called Sidechick. “They could play Levitation,” my wife said. She’s right. They have a solid sound that mixes shoegaze with hard rock.
Sidechick
Strange Lotplayed right after them. They were a mix of psych and stoner rock and so good I picked up their two CD’s after their set.
Strange Lot
We got a snack and then came back to see a partial set from Jumping Moons, who were a heavy two-piece that played to the back wall.
Jumping Moons
We then headed across the street to Stonewall – a local gay bar that was hosting four different bands that night. The first we saw was The Real Hands, who played a set of mellow rock and a lot of songs about relationships. Another fun part about the Stonewall shows was that KTSW was giving away hundreds of CD’s from their archives. I snagged a copy of Bob Mould‘s Life and Times.
The Real Hands
Up next were Dayluta Means Kindness, who were the loudest band we’d seen so far. They played a great set of instrumental heavy shoegaze / drone rock. I need to find their material.
Dayluta Means Kindness
We went to dinner at a local brew pub and realized the place was packed due to the NBA playoff game between the San Antonio Spurs and the Oklahoma City Thunder starting about the time our food arrived. The pub was full of Spurs fans (as San Antonio is about 40 miles from San Marcos), so we joined in on the fun for the first quarter and then left to see the last half of the set by Mr. Lewis and the Funeral 5 (even though there are only four of them) – who play blues rock with a gothic twinge.
Mr. Lewis and the Funeral 5
We walked across the town square to The Marc – a nice concert hall venue – to see Golden Gravesopen for The Night Beats. Golden Graves played to a welcoming crowd who liked their alt-rock style. You could tell they were having a good time, and that energy transferred to the crowd.
Golden Graves
The Night Beatscame out and put down another killer set. They had some issues with the Marc sound crew not getting stuff right in their monitors, but they soldiered through the difficulties and wowed the crowd by the end. It was their first time playing in San Marcos and they won many fans that night. They are gunslingers on stage, and the crowd knew it. “My face is melting!” yelled one college lad.
The Night Beats
That was about the time I realized my wife and I were among the oldest people in the crowd. Truth to tell, I’ll still be going to shows like this thirty years from now.
We left tired but happy. It was a fun day that took us somewhere unexpected. Plus, we got to see the Night Beats twice in three nights – and once for free. I’d also scored tickets to a Sunday Levitation makeup show featuring Golden Dawn Arkestra – who was high on my list for the festival. Sunday was looking good.
Next: Double sitar and tabla, killer BBQ, electric shocks, the Karate Kid, and Ra worship.
We flew into Austin for our semi-annual trip to the Levitation Music Festivalon April 27th. I dropped my sunglasses in the Austin airport, cracking the left lens. It wasn’t in a spot that affected my vision, but it still wasn’t a good sign. There were no festival-related gigs going on that day, so we spent our first day in Austin getting good food, and checking out the Sfanthor wax museum and a couple wrecka stows before settling in for a nice sleep at the Air BNB house we’d reserved months ago.
Day 1 of the festival was actually April 28th. The Thursday night pre-festival shows are always worth flying into town a day ahead of the full festival. My wife and I have seen great bands at the Thursday night shows: A Place to Bury Strangers, Night Beats, Sisters of Your Sunshine Vapor, Elephant Stone, and more.
The festival had expanded the Thursday night shows from two venues to three this year. Unfortunately they also added separate admission prices for each venue. Buying a weekend pass to the festival got you into the Thursday night shows for free in previous years. The Levitation promoters have stated they hope to return to this format in the future. I hope they do, as shelling out another $30.00 (for two people) per venue wasn’t something I couldn’t afford. I had to choose just one of the venues, so I chose the Empire – a converted auto mechanic garage with indoor and outdoor performance areas.
We’d get to see Night Beats, the Blind Owls, the Hollow Trees, Al Lover, the Golden Dawn, and Studded Left there. It meant missing Blaak Heat, The Well, Death Valley Girls, Silk Rodeo, the Turns, Vinyl Williams, and the Coathangers at the other venues, but I won’t skip a chance to see Night Beats, the Golden Dawn are Texas psych legends, and the Blind Owls were a new discovery that sounded like they were good rockers.
They were. The Blind Owlswere the first band we saw at Levitation, and they kicked it off well. They, like us, arrived late due to heavy traffic on I-35, so their set was cut a bit short. “No slow ones,” my wife said as they launched into early 1960’s garage-style rock that knocked you back on your heels.
The Blind Owls
I met most of them afterwards and told them I’d be playing them on WSNDthis summer. They said they’d send their full-length album for me to play there. Let’s hope so, because everything from it sounds great.
I saw posters at Empire advertising the official app for the festival. I downloaded it and then I learned what everyone else was learning.
Levitation Austin 2016 had been cancelled.
Travis County Emergency Services pulled the plug on the festival due to flash flooding the previous week causing the festival grounds at Carson Creek Ranch to be oversaturated with water. Further flooding was a serious concern, mostly for the camping and parking areas. There were also predicted heavy storms due to hit Austin the following day around 1:00pm – exactly when the festival started. These storms were supposed to bring hail, 60mph winds, rain, and maybe a tornado or two.
We were stunned. We’d flown from Indiana for this. We knew that thousands were descending upon the city for the festival, many from even further away. People and bands come from England, Australia, South America, Europe, Africa, Japan, and even more countries for this festival. Campers would be left without places to stay. Bands would be left without gigs. Vendors would be left without sales.
The Levitation folks were as shell-shocked as any of us, but they promised full refunds for purchased tickets, and that they would scramble to find venues for makeup gigs throughout the weekend. Those gigs would be a separate admission price, unfortunately, and would likely sell out since thousands would be competing for tickets to a small venue. The upside was that the proceeds from these shows would go to victims of the recent flooding.
The word quickly spread as we watched the Hollow Trees play their trippy and heavy psych rock.
The Hollow Trees
After that came a good set by the Golden Dawn, who played to an appreciative crowd.
The Golden Dawn
Back inside, people were drowning their sorrows with any drinks they could buy. We sat in the Control Room, the Empire’s interior performance space, for part of psych-DJ Al Lover‘s set and mused on what we were going to do all weekend. Would we still get to see Brian Wilson, Lee Scratch Perry, King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard, Caribou, Slowdive, the Black Angels, David J and the Gentlemen Thieves, or any of the 20+ bands we wanted to see?
Al Lover
We were cheered by the Night Beats, who have yet to play a bad set whenever I see them. This set was faster and angrier than their Levitation Chicago set in March. It was as if they were saying, “You know what? Screw you, bad weather.” and venting everyone’s frustrations. One great highlight was them including a new cover of Bo Diddley‘s “Mama, Keep Your Big Mouth Shut.”
The Night Beats
We caught the first part of Studded Left’s (a side project of Indian Jewelry) set inside before getting some nice food truck BBQ and then heading to our rented bedroom to sleep off our travel exhaustion and blues.
Studded Left
Tomorrow: Scrambling for tickets, crashed websites, breakfast in outer space, Travis County ES faces wrath, and gangster kittens.
I will see Seattle, Washington’s Night Beatsany chance I get, so I was happy to see the Empire Garage main stage on April 28th at the Levitation Austinkick-off show there.
I just saw them at Levitation Chicago, and their set was in the top three I saw there. They get better every time I see them and they’re at the top of their game right now. See them before they take off on their tour of the UK. If you’re in the UK, don’t miss them.
Keep your mind open.
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It is fitting, crucial in fact, that the name of the newest Night Beats record isn’t Who Sold My Generation? It’s Who Sold My Generation. No question mark. Night Beats (Robert Levon Breen – bass and backing vocals, Danny Lee Blackwell – guitar, vocals, piano, percussion, bass, James Traeger – drums) aren’t asking who sold their generation to career politicians, multinational banks, and corporations. They already know. It was sold by “spitting news anchors,” people selling toxic junk as food and drink, those in power who let that power corrupt them, and, mostly, damningly, their generation for allowing it to happen.
“Celebration #1” is a spoken word manifesto over a freak-out beat, blues bass walk, and dark alley guitar. “When they come into your down, the sons of a sold generation, they’ll grab what isn’t nailed down,” Blackwell sings. Millennials don’t expect things to be handed to them, but they are tired of their future being bartered, sold, and stolen. They are here to take it back.
“Power Child” makes sure you know this is a Night Beats record because it is full of their usual great grooves, reverb, slick drumming, and sound that would be just as fresh if they’d originally opened for MC5. Blackwell’s shredding solo on it closes out the song, leaving you wanting more. Don’t worry, because “Right / Wrong” is just as good. I always like the vocal effects Blackwell uses. It’s hard to discern sometimes where his normal singing voice ends and where distortion and reverb begins, and I think that’s great.
“No Cops” is the first single from the record, and it’s a burner with Been’s bad ass bass, Traeger’s floor-stomping drums, and Blackwell’s guitar that seems to be everywhere at once as he sings about a couple days in the city gone horribly wrong. It’s nice to hear the band branching out into border rock territory with the Spanish lyrics in “Porque Manana,” which could be translated as “Why Tomorrow?” Since there’s no question mark here either, I’m guessing it’s actually “Because Tomorrow.” Act now, because tomorrow isn’t guaranteed to any of us.
Traeger plays drums and a maraca at the same time on “Sunday Mourning,” creating one of the best beats on the record, and Been’s bass line on it holds the song together so well that I imagine he’s a bricklayer when he’s not on tour. Been is the newest member of Night Beats, and his addition has taken the band to another level. His bass work is a hot mix of boogie blues, psychedelia, and funk. Not to be outdone, Blackwell’s guitar on “Sunday Mourning” might make your jaw fall off your head.
“Shangri Lah” and “Bad Love” reveal the band’s love of surf music. “Burn to Breathe” is a slow burn of excellent psychedelia that calls back to the 1960’s better than most modern psychedelic bands can even attempt.
The Monkees’ “Last Train to Clarksville” is about a young man about to be sent to Vietnam. Night Beats rock far harder than the Monkees, of course (although “Clarksville” is a great tune), but I can’t help wondering if “Last Train to Jordan” might be the band’s tribute to members of their generation who served in the Middle East.
“Ain’t gonna wait for tomorrow, ain’t gonna wait for tonight,” Blackwell sings on “Turn the Lights.” Again, complacency is the enemy of us all. The song has a great harmonica solo. So, as a sloppy player of the Mississippi saxophone myself, I love it.
The album closes with “Egypt Berry” – perhaps the most raucous rocker on the record. Pay attention, upcoming bands: If you’re wondering how to end your album, you might want to take a lesson from Night Beats. End with a song that combines Arabian-flavored guitar, Elvis Presley rhythm section beats, Johnny Cash bass, surf cymbals, and a false ending that gives you one last hit before you go.
This is already in my top records of 2016 so far and will most likely be in the top ten for the entire year. Night Beats get better with each record, so buy this and their whole catalogue. Do not hesitate. Hesitation helped sell a generation to one percent of the populace. Night Beats have warned us to not let it happen again.
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 Societyand Bitchin’ Bajas. They played a beautiful set of trance-inducing instrumentals combining jazz, world music, and electro.
Natural Information Society and Bitchin’ Bajas
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.
Night Beats
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.
Earthless
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.
Chelsea Wolfe
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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