REVIEW: AUSTIN PSYCH FEST 3

by Bret Zausmer.

My ears have finally stopped ringing from Austin Psych Fest 3 this past weekend, and I wanted to share a little bit about it with y'all. Quick background - I am a 25 year old kid from Austin and have attended all three APFs. I have seen The Black Angels play down here for five years running and I've been a 13th Floor Elevators fan much longer than that. Lastly, I am not a writer nor was I sober for the festival, so please lower your expectations for this article immediately.

I was absolutely blown away by the turnout this year. Each day hundreds of people packed into Mohawk's two stages and upstairs patio to hear the tunes and drink some Lonestar. The crowd was really young too - further proof that psych rock is making a big comeback without the help of our nation's burnt out hippies.

Friday
The Black Angels' Christian Bland kicked off the festival with his side project, Christian Bland & The Revelators. Paranoid vocals and guitar riffs combined with fuzzy, droning reverb to create music that could've easily headlined a 1967 show at the Vulcan Gas Company. Their debut album will tentatively be released this summer - it cant come soon enough.

Afterwards, we immediately went outside to see the show stealers of the weekend, Warpaint. These beautiful women hypnotized the entire crowd and jammed out for a LONG time. I heard people talking about them for the rest of the weekend. I can't wait to see them again and ask one out to a nice dinner.

The Raveonettes were the last act on the main stage, and they can't seem to catch a break in Austin. They missed the Austin City Limits Festival last year cause of some visa problems, and then showed up minus two members for APF3. The goddamn unpronounceable European volcano was to blame. They still sounded pretty good, but I definitely felt we were missing out on the entire experience. I hope they'll come back soon.


Saturday
My day started off a little late with Telepathik Friend at 4:30pm. This group has a lot of potential and I look forward to following their progress. They are pretty raw right now, but their style is similar to The Psychic Ills.

Smoke & Feathers, and Headdress rocked the outside stage after Telepathik. I proceeded to blackout/time travel and find myself front and centre for Spindrift at 10pm. They amped up the massive crowd with their western showdown-style ballads and served as the perfect segue to The Black Angels.

That night we got to hear all ten songs from The Angels' new album Phosphene Dream, expected in July. I am an obviously biased Austinite, but I can't seem to find a better live music experience than The Black Angels. The new tracks sound amazing and seem to follow their unique formula - a nice mix of tribal, euphoric tunes like 'Entrance Song' and 'Yellow Elevator,' as well as the dark and dreary 'Haunting at 1300' and 'River of Blood.'

After the ten songs were done, we heard an encore which included 'You On The Run,' 'Black Grease,' and 'Science Killer.' Lead singer Alex Maas ended the show by mentioning the festival was a "dream come true." The crowd stuck around begging for another encore as I ran over to catch some of The Vandelles. They were great as always and my posse and I were off to 6th Street.

Sunday
Nursed the hangover with more beer while others took part in a crawfish boil. The Black Angels played a drone session for their second set at 7pm. We were treated to extended, droned out versions of 'Empire' and 'Surf City,' among others. For this set I brought my Nikon along and you can see some snaps I got here.


The Warlocks were up next and played a very solid set. 'Red Camera,' 'So Paranoid,' and 'Song for Nico' are absolute classics and we were lucky enough to hear all three. They mentioned how much fun they have coming to Austin, and I hope it stays that way. Immediately after The Warlocks, my liver failed and I was legally deaf; it was time to call the weekend to a close. I wish I could have heard every single band kind enough to travel down to Austin, but I'm sure they will all come back soon.

Psych Fest has grown exponentially these past three years and I can't wait to see what our hosts, The Reverberation Appreciation Society and The Black Angels, have in store next year. To everyone who wanted to come down but couldn't, I hope I offered a taste of how much fun everyone had. We'd love to have you in Austin for APF4 - if not before.

Thank you to Bret for generously sharing his images and insight on the weekend's events.