April 28, 2025 by A.S. Van Dorston

The Reverberation Appreciation Society put together another winning lineup, including Kadavar, Blackwater Holylight, Black Mountain and Dinosaur Jr.

When fests like Pitchfork and Psycho Las Vegas crashing and burning, it’s always a concern on how a good music festival can grow without collapsing in on itself. Austin has been a focal point for psychedelic music since the 13th Floor Elevators and others sprouted up sixty (60!) years ago, and has been beautifully curated by The Reverberation Appreciation Society since 2008. The fest name flip-flopped between Austin Psych Fest and Levitation, and in 2023, it split into two fests for the year, with APF in the spring and Levitation in the autumn, a great move. There are some growing pains for sure. They’ve introduced VIP packages that restrict more and more spaces to those who can afford the higher priced tickets, which is a slippery slope. And like last year, valuable space was also taken up by corporate sponsors replacing food trucks and a pop-up record store. Additionally, the middle day was filled with indie-tastic artists who do not have much to do with psych rock, like Geordie Greep and Darkside, but can draw larger mainstream crowds. However, if that can enable them to attract important European heavy psych/fuzz bands like Sweden’s Truckfighters last year, and Germany’s Kadavar this year, that’s a compromise I’m willing to tolerate. I can only hope they bring more like them over in the future. My wishlist is at the end of this piece, if anyone cares.

I hadn’t seen Kadavar live in nine years, so it was great to see them twice at APF. In both sets, they played a few songs from the upcoming album, which I’m not so sure about. “I Want to Be a Sound” sounds like they wanna be Primal Scream, and “Hysteria” made me think of when Prince put together the band The Family in 1985 with a white singer, featuring the first version of his song “Nothing Compares 2 U.” He said in an interview “Ima get that Duran Duran money.” While Kadavar dabbled in Uncle Acid style psych noir on For the Dead Travel Fast (2019), now I think they’re going for that Ghost money. More power to ’em! “Regeneration” is a bit closer to their hard rockin’ sweet spot, but with some electronic effects on percussion. On the older songs they’re the same old Kadavar, just a bit less hairy (drummer Christoph “Tiger” Bartelt cut his hair short) and bassist Simon “Dragon” Bouteloup still has the classic hard stare and serial killer grimace.

The Black Angels guitarist Christian Bland and the Revelators opened at the 13th Floor on Thursday, and while it was cool to see him, 11 years after their last album was released, I was reminded why I rarely go to shows at small Austin clubs like the 13th Floor anymore. While the fest kept a tight schedule, these folks keep stoner hours. My understanding was that the show was to start at 9. Nope. We had to hang outside to avoid the DJ for TWO HOURS until they started, with Kadavar not coming on until nearly 1 AM. It’s a freakin’ weekday!

On Friday, Blackwater Holylight were a big reason I bought tix for Friday’s installment, as I had not yet seen them live, despite following them since their 2018 debut. I like how they’re progressing, keeping one toee in their mix of psych noir and the dark and murky doom waters via their doomgaze approach, but also exploring slowcore, dream pop and art rock (nothing says art rock more than a violinist!). Their sublime cover of Radiohead’s “All I Need” was beautiful. And while the latest EP has the least doom, their stage show added the heaviness to the ethereal.

I hadn’t seen Black Mountain in nearly 20 years, so it was a real treat catching their showcase set. I never quite understood why they seemed to be the acceptable face of stoner psych to the indie crowd to the exclusion of others, but their chill hippie trippy stage presence was extremely pleasant, punctuated by the occasional heavy drum/bass/fuzz blast.

Godspeed You! Black Emperor drew the most compressed crowd. I hadn’t seen them since 1999 at the tiny Lounge Ax venue. Their early EP and albums as post-rock classics, but I much preferred the vibe at a recent MONO gig. Still, it was pleasant to have their music in the background as I retreated from the mob and bought some merch.

I skipped Saturday because four days in a row ain’t happening, as much as I’d like to have seen Water Damage, Color Green, Dummy and Kim Gordon. On Sunday, La Luz were la lovely, very chill vibe for a sunny afternoon that thankfully wasn’t scorching hot for once. King Hannah was good, Dean Wareham/Galaxie 500 closed their set with Joy Division’s “Ceremony,” which was perfect. The Mystery Lights are a personal garage noir/punk/psych fave, and they were even more energetic than when I saw them over a decade ago. Holy Wave were also chill and Yo La Tengo’s set went exactly as I predicted, with Ira thinking, oh this is a psych fest, so they’ll want long extended, boring guitar drones! Those guys! Love ’em anyway. I don’t get the appeal of Bôa — they sound like third rate alt/post-grunge but apparently TikTok exhumed them from the indie landfill.

I forgot Dinosaur Jr. were doing the entire Without a Sound (1994) album. I guess the fest organizers felt the album was underrated and deserved attention. Not sure if Mascis agreed, as he seemed to do it begrudgingly and listlessly, with the exception of “Feel the Pain” and “Over Your Shoulder,” where he added a slight amount of gusto. He dragged the solo “Seemed Like the Thing to Do” to over 7 minutes, and it was a nailbiter how much time they’d have to do other songs, as there was a hard stop at 10 pm.

They had 15 minutes left, and started with “Freak Scene,” and then asked for requests. I and several others shouted “The Lung” but they played “Little Fury Things” instead. I would say good ’nuff, except that it’s hard not to feel cheated when just three days prior, the band also played “Sludgefeast” and “The Lung” in Amherst, as well as “Forget the Swan.” Rats! At least J was actually animated and turned up the guitar for once. They also squeezed in “Just Like Heaven” and “Start Choppin.” Props to Lou and Murph for making up for J’s lack of energy through the whole set, especially since neither were even in the band for that album. Lou was especially animated and played really well, at times spanking his bass like it he was punishing it. He also looks like he’s in his 30s, totally fit with a glorious mane of curly hair. WTF!

Levitation Room were playing at the 13th Floor later that night but I’d have to cough up another $30 plus fees, and after standing in the sun and smoke (so, so much smoke — how about we ban smoking from in front of the stage and put the smoking zone behind the port-a-potties?) for eight hours, I was spent.

Another successful Austin Psych Fest in the books. I noticed a poster at the 13th Floor on Thursday that showed The Moving Sidewalks, Billy Gibbons’ pre-ZZ Top psych band, played the fest in 2013. I’d love it if they did something like that again. Also, my wishlist for future fests: Syd Arthur (they’ve been dormant but not broken up as far as I know, and played a killer set at Riotfest in 2016), Colour Haze, Motorpsycho, Ufomammut, Graveyard, Rosalie Cunningham, The Sonic Dawn, Jess and the Ancient Ones, Witchcraft, Dungen, Spidergawd, Uncle Acid & the Deadbeats, Lola colt, Blood Ceremony, White Denim, The Vintage Caravan and Monster Magnet doing Spine of God (1991).