AUSTIN PSYCH FEST 2013, DAY ONE, PART ONE: GARY WAR, BASS DRUM OF DEATH, THE BESNARD LAKES, & VIETNAM!

Tuesday, April 30, 2013

Back home in Seattle after my trippy trip down to Austin, Texas to attend the amazing Austin Psych Fest 2013! All in all, I photographed 25 bands, ate chicken in a waffle (twice), survived a downpour which resulted in a (temporary) field of clay soup, procured another drawing of a dog in a party hat for Miss Ten, made many new friends, saw old friends, and, as I fully expected, saw and heard a stunning and diverse musical lineup that was pretty much MADE FOR ME. I wish I had been triplets so I could've seen all the bands on all three stages, I truly do, for I am only one of me and couldn't be everywhere and I know I missed some insanely good performances. What I can tell you is that the 25 I saw were all fantastic. When does that happen, folks, huh??? JOY! (As always, click on the photos to enlarge and go to Flickr for more!)



























After the late evening at the APF Kick-Off Party at Red 7 (see Chatham Rise HERE and Fairfield Parlour and Allah-Las HERE and Rain Parade HERE), I arrived via shuttle at Carson Creek Ranch, the new outdoor site of APF,  got my bearings and zipped over to the Levitation Tent to catch one-man psych machine Gary War...and made it for the last 30 seconds of his performance. He was frying the sun!!




























I was very eager to hear Bass Drum of Death and was AMPLY (get it) rewarded! I absolutely loved them -- super-catchy garage rock is MY THING. I was smiling the whole set. Now I'm gonna buy all their stuff and go broke.































Next for me, also on the Reverberation Stage, was Montreal band The Besnard Lakes. I was familiar with their cool waterfall shimmer shoegaze from "Albatross," but was further impressed with their mighty onstage sound and fierce performance style.

































After enjoying quite a bit of The Besnard Lakes, I made it over to the lovely Elevation Amphitheater, right on the Colorado River, to see the last part of VietNam's show. The hill leading down to the stage was packed with fans. They have a classic early '70s rock sound, with a touch of the Velvet Underground.

(VietNam Flickr set)

































That's it for now! Back tomorrow with more from APF 2013 Day One!!

(Update: click HERE for final post with ALL my APF 2013 links!)