About Last Night: Levitation Night One (10.26)

I left my day job early to go get in on the action at Levitation 2023, heading out to the Far Out Lounge to catch a handful of great guitar acts from the 90s take the stage; it was there where I was greeted with a reminder of what a nightmare festival pricing can be. Let’s be real, a $13 Miller Lite draft? $20 parking when there are no other options in proximity? I mean, I get overhead, and a convenience fee, but for real, fuck that. Shitty decision making out there, and kind of soured me in the setting. Don’t even get me started on one food option, and it being outside the venue.

But, in terms of music…it was great to see Ted Leo and Chisel take the smaller venue stage near the entrance. Ted was having some string issues during the set, but if, like me, you got into Chisel via Leo’s later work, then every single you fell in love with was played right there in front of you. Codeine hung on the main stage as the night crept in; they still sound so incredible, brandishing this slowcore that’s never been matched, save for a Bedhead record here and there. Karate was the night’s highlight (though I know everyone was there for Unwound). Honestly, you might not catch a tighter band, as a unit, as every guitar lick and drum hit seemed perfectly matched to one another; I know all the old 90s Austin music heads were in love, as I saw them all there. Unwound, was indeed solid, I took in about 10 bangers before heading back into town.

When I got back into town, I took advantage of the great formatting of Levitation; I bounced over to catch about a half-dozen tracks from Ty Segall; he’s still got it, but feel like I’ve seen him enough, so I headed over to Mohawk to catch the Church. After dealing with an audible buzz on the stage, they were able to turn on the charms, bringing in those huge ringing guitars to the stage, with Steve Kilbey clearly still running a tight ship. They did a nice job balancing the new LP (which I clearly need to spend more time with) and old standards. I left to catch my most anticipated act of the evening, Jonathan Bree at Empire Control Room. It was a dark stage, but the band’s neon-lighting and absence of faces made for a really impactful performance. I love how they just get right to it, like a hired house band of artists who just came to do a job. But, that job was stellar…be it the choreography or the upticks in some of the guitar lines, I definitely had it on my list of wins in Day One.

WINNERS: Jonathan Bree, Karate
LOSERS: Pricing at the Far Out Lounge.