October 31, 2022 by A.S. Van Dorston

Fifteen years after it’s humble beginnings, Austin’s psychedelic freak fest Levitation features one of it’s best lineups ever.

It was exactly a year ago today that I arrived at my new home in Rancho Bulboso on a dark, spooky Halloween night. I just missed the Levitation festival. A big disappointment, but I couldn’t change my moving date. I’ve been wanting to go to it since it started as the Austin Psych Fest in 2008. After changing its name to Levitation the previous year, the 2016 fest was cancelled at it’s Carson Creek Ranch location was cancelled due to weather damage, and they scrambled to host it in 20 alternative venues throughout the city. It was cancelled in 2017 and again in 2020 due to the pandemic, and in 2021, the dates were moved from the spring to Halloween weekend, an excellent time of the year for a psychedelic freak fest. It took 15 years, but I finally made it.

The Jesus and Mary Chain

I can see why this band were chosen. Their debut album Psychocandy (1985) was a game changer in the UK post-punk indie scene. The sheer volume of their distorted guitars reportedly prompted riots, as the punters lost their minds at the overwhelming full-body sensations. However when I saw them at Riot Fest in 2012, all we got was a fairly listless performance of their most popular alt pop tunes throughout their career. I had a feeling they’d unpack the pedals and give us something special ten years later at Levitation. They did, more or less. though I got a bit nervous when they started the set with “Amputation” for their inconsequential 2017 album Damage and Joy. I would have loved a run-through of all of their first album and key singles. Their remained stingy with the candy, treating us with just two songs, “Taste of Cindy” and in the encore, “Just Like Honey,” plus “Some Candy Talking” from an EP. Three Darklands (1987) tunes and “Head On,” the Automatic (1989) deep cut that the Pixies covered, placated me enough to end up a successful kick-off to the fest.

Slift

For me the real headliner of the opening night was Slift, from Toulouse, France, who really put it into interstellar overdrive. On the last stop on their triumphant inaugural U.S. tour, Slift plowed through the majority of their second album, Ummon (2020), which made a big impact during it’s pandemic year with heavy guitar-laden psych and space rock, which increased the intensity from debut album La planète inexplorée (2018) by a large margin, which explains why they didn’t even bother with selections from it. My photos didn’t turn out, so here’s one from Levitation France 2021. Oh yeah, Levitation is now a global brand. They would do well to have additional fests throughout Europe, because much larger audiences there appreciate psychedelic rock.

King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard

What a month for this Melbourne band, formed in 2010. In October they released albums #21, 22 and 23 with Ice, Death, Planets, Lungs, Mushrooms and Lava, Laminated Denim and Changes. The prolific band has already toured the U.S. several times in their twelve years, impressive coming all the way from down under. And now they headlined not one but two nights at Levitation. Through hard work and a fairly high success rate in recordings, though they cover a lot of stylistic territory, from thrash metal to synthpop, they’ve built up possibly a bigger following than any other band here, including festival founders The Black Angels. They started the set at full velocity with two songs from their 2019 thrash album Infest the Rats’ Nest. Omnium Gatherum, released earlier this year had four songs featured, as well as four consecutive songs each from early album I’m In Your Mind Fuzz (2014) and Murder of the Universe (2017). Three more tracks from albums released this month and one from Oddments (2014) made for a stellar set. I was not put on the list for their second show on Saturday, but they played a completely different set with cuts from the popular Flying Microtonal Banana (2017) and Polygondwanaland (2017). For years I felt like they should focus on releasing one stellar album in a year instead of three to five. But I’ve accepted the band may never do that, as they thrive on the creative freedom of recording whatever inspires them quickly and often.

I’d love to have seen fellow Aussies Tropical Fuck Storm, but I didn’t have access.

Frankie & the Witch Fingers

Prolific by normal standards, the L.A. via Indiana band has released six albums of frantic garage psych since 2013. While they played a later set at The 13th Floor, a bar opened by Black Angels in September. The set I saw was opening for the Angels and La Femme at Stubb’s. The band has a fair amount in common with Osees, who played all four nights, just good noisy songs. I have most their albums but don’t know them well enough for particular songs to stand out.

The Black Angels

I last saw the Black Angels in 2014 touring with Roky Erickson. After a practically secret sold out album release show at The 13th Floor on September 16, this is a far more dramatic celebration of their best album, Wilderness of Mirrors (see review). On a perfect fall night, the sound outdoors was great, except for occasionally the throbbing bass got distorted and overwhelmed the sound (nearly all the members have played bass at some point in recordings, so I won’t call out the culprit). The set appropriately was weighted toward the new album with 9 songs, plus four from the still popular debut Passover (2006), one from Phosphene Dream (2010) and two from Indigo Meadow (2013), nothing from Death Song (2017). It was a nice moment near the end of the fest, lots of people wearing costumes, a spider web extended over the entire audience, and giant killer spiders were defeated by the band with lasers shooting from their instruments. Kidding about that last part. The abstract light show was plenty psychedelic though. With a growing audience and one of the best albums of the year, the word of Levitation and The Black Angels should continue to spread far and wide.

Moon Duo

It was after 11 and I had to work the next day, but I had to drive across town to Feels So Good to catch Moon Duo. Unfortunately, it was unexpectedly indoors, as opposed to the outdoor shows I’ve seen previously, and I was not up for spending an hour surrounded by maskless mouth breathers indoors. The early part of the set hummed along nicely, not all that different from Wooden Shjips when I saw them in 2018.