“WARNING: Strobe lights in use. May cause seizures.” Austin’s Psych Fest II….
The psychotropic Victoria Renard of Austin, Texas, graciously documented the Psych Fest II that is held before that music industry orgy referred to as SXSW….having fully recovered from 2 straight weeks of shows this is her account of the Psych Fest…
When you live in a town that greets you with a sign at the airport “Welcome to Austin, TX: The Live Music Capitol Of The World” and there’s an approximate 50 music fests per year and at least 150 operating music venues per night excluding sushi joints, vintage shops, backyard BBQ’s and grocery stores you tend to get a little lazy, even complacent about getting out to see live music. Not such the case when it comes to the annual Austin Psych Fest. The first of the “annual” tradition started last year in 2008 the week before the much anticipated/dreaded South By Southwest music festival by event organizer Adam Demetri of Live Music Capitol and Austin’s guardian angel of psychedelia, Christian Bland of The Black Angels.
The Black Angels
Psych Fest was conceived as a tribute to the legendary 1960′s psychedelic venue Vulcan Gas Company which hosted local bands 13th Floor Elevators, Moving Sidewalks, and The Golden Dawn as well as a mixture of experimental and roots music like The Velvet Underground, Moby Grape, Big Mamma Thorton, Muddy Waters, and Mississippi Fred McDowell. Whereas the Austin Psych Fest kicked off in 2008 at the inconspicuous Red Barn in north Austin it made it’s sophomore effort at the newly opened Radio Room on 6th Street, Austin’s equivalent to Bourbon Street, in 2009. Joined this year by powerhouse publicist Jennifer Marchand of Bleu French Laundry Productions, who organized day long music fests tributing the year 1967 in music and John Lennon, Austin’s annual Psych Fest was a little more determined to bring the music to the masses: “the masses” being nostalgic local hippies, Spring Breakers, and foreigners (anyone outside the Texas border) with high dollar South By Southwest badges. As a South By Southwest “lifer”, I feel like five days of 24/7 live music and an influx of 70,000 visitors is total sensory overload… but what better time to bring the cream of the proverbial crop ranging from today’s reigning sounds of neo-psychedelia to the real deal 1960′s performers responsible for the whole tripped out mess?