About Last Night – Levitation Day 2

Austin Psych Fest was always one of our favorite festivals, for many reasons. But, now rebranded and relocated, Levitation has quickly risen to the top of our list of Austin musical events. Friday night brought tons of great shows, with the highlight on most people’s list being Night One of the King Gizzard Stubbs Extravaganza. J and I hit up some different sets, trying to cover as much as we could.

Nathan.Lankford Favorite Bands

I set out to Empire thinking Godspeed You Black Emperor would be the highlight, but having not seen them in a hot minute, my band of the night was Austin’s Troller, followed closely by Austin’s Grivo. Troller just have this dark, primal blend of goth, electronica and post-punk; it’s like the Knife, if they were willing to flirt more with melody I was just mesmerized, and almost forgot they were the final piece before GSYBE came to the stage. Grivo brought subdued noise, reminding me how much they’ve developed since I first caught them years ago.

Nathan.Lankford Random Thoughts

People are going to be people. I walked out of Troller, with about 8 minutes before Godspeed took the stage. The place had gone from empty earlier in the night to “drone room only.” I’m okay with a packed house, but, the band took the stage and began building their nuanced sound, stand-up bass, violin growing in noise. But! Everyone just kept chatting away. Even as the sound swelled, the chattering continued. What I expected to be my highlight quickly turned into me being the old curmudgeon. But, it’s nothing new, just expected more.

J.Wagner Favorite Bands

Tie: It was a battle of shredmaggedon last night between Stubbs to see King Gizzard melt faces and Psychedelic Porn Crumpets at Mohawk showing no remorse of their own with an epic, thundering hour and a half set. Gizzard just gets special points for unreal crowd support and maybe the biggest mosh pit Ive ever seen at Stubbs. Day 2 fucking rocked.

J.Wagner Random Thoughts

Crickey! What is in the water in Australia this past decade?! The sheer amount of creative energy coming from down under is simply mind blowing. KGLW just casually dropped 3 LPs in October, no big deal. Whatever is happening in the upside down seems to be working.