As the skies darken, Austin gets psyched with the psych-rock of Levitation, Thursday-Sunday, October 31st – November 3rd:
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 31st
Stubb’s
5:00 PM – The Strange Lot
6:00 PM – Boogarins
7:30 PM – Mdou Moctar
9:10 PM – The Black Angels
Brazilian psych-rock outfit Boogarins (QRO photos) return to Levitation for a second time.
Niger’s Mdou Moctar (QRO photos at a ’22 festival) plays modern rock music inspired by Tuareg guitar music, in his Tamasheq tongue and the takamba & assouf guitar styles. He comes to Levitation (QRO photos at a ’23 festival) behind this year’s Funeral for Justice (QRO ’24 photos).
Austin’s great music scene has many dimensions, but the band that opened up the psychedelic side of the Live Music Capitol of the World is The Black Angels (QRO spotlight on). The group (QRO photos), fronted by Alex Maas (QRO interview), bring the psych-rock of 2013’s Indigo Meadow (QRO review) and 2010’s Phosphene Dream (QRO review) and more back home to Austin (QRO photos at a festival), after having toured all over America (QRO live review) & Europe (QRO photos at a European festival), not to mention being the creators of (and regulars at) Levitation Festival itself (QRO photos at Levitation ’21). They come back to Levitation (QRO photos at a ’23 festival) behind last year’s Wilderness of Mirrors (QRO ’24 live review).
Empire Garage
8:00 PM – Agriculture
9:20 PM – Starcrawler
10:50 PM – Boris
The wild, expressive glam-rock of Los Angeles’ Starcrawler (QRO photos) come back to Levitation to Devour You (QRO ’22 photos).
Japan has adopted and remade everything from car manufacturing to the club sandwich, and metal’s no different – thanks to Boris (QRO photos at a festival). Along with ‘bor’ bros Boredoms, Boris has taken metal into whole new arenas, both geographically and musically, and return for their first Levitation in over a decade.
Empire Control Room
8:40 PM – Porcelain
10:10 PM – Yhwh Nailgun
12:00 AM – A Place To Bury Strangers
Brooklyn’s A Place To Bury Strangers (QRO spotlight on) challenge Spinal Tap for claim of ‘loudest band ever’, but AP2BS (QRO interview) are also skilled musicians, from their self-titled debut full-length (QRO review), 2009’s Exploding Head (QRO review), 2013’s Onward To the Wall EP (QRO review) & Worship (QRO review) full-length, 2015’s Transfixiation (QRO review), 2018’s Pinned (QRO review), 2021’s Hologram EP (QRO review), and this year’s Synthesizer. They (QRO interview) come to psych out Austin once again (QRO live review) as they play their fifth Levitation (QRO photos at Levitation ’21).
Mohawk
8:50 PM – Her New Knife
9:40 PM – Frost Children
10:40 PM – Julie
Hotel Vegas
8:00 PM – Kairos Creature Club
9:00 PM – Osees
Hailing from The O.C. (the name was original ‘Orange County Sound’, then ‘OCS’, then Thee Oh Sees, then Oh Sees – well, you get the idea…), John Dwyer formed the band now known as Osees (QRO photos at a festival) to put out his experimental, instrumental home recordings, but over seven records has morphed into a full band and a wild live show (QRO photos at a festival). Osees come back to Levitation (QRO photos at Levitation ’15) for a fourth time – to play it four times! (see below)
Antone’s
11:00 PM – The Point
12:00 AM – Khun Narin
Elysium
10:00 PM – Modebionics
11:00 PM – Semantix
12:10 AM – Nitzer Ebb
An essential act in both electronica and industrial, Nitzer Ebb (QRO photos) have their own essential legacy.
Kingdom
9:00 PM – Brett Johnson
10:00 PM – Musclecars
11:00 PM – Patrick Holland
12:30 AM – Axel Boman
13th Floor
11:00 PM – Spirit Mother
12:00 AM – Acid Mothers Temple
Levitation brings psychedelic rock from around the world, like Japanese collective Acid Mothers Temple (QRO photos at Austin Psych ’14), who comes to the festival for the fourth time (QRO photos at Levitation ’18).
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 1st
Empire Garage
8:00 PM – Indoor Creature
9:00 PM – Arc de Soleil
10:30 PM – Mildlife
Empire Control Room
9:20 PM – FCUKERS
10:30 PM – Girl Ultra
The Mexico City R&B of Girl Ultra crosses the border into Texas.
Mohawk
7:00 PM – Yungatita
8:00 PM – The Drums
The indie-pop of Brooklyn’s The Drums (QRO live review) mixes new wave, girl-group, Sweden, electro, and, above all, reverb, for something unique (QRO photos at a festival). The group (QRO photos at a festival) comes to Life Is Beautiful behind last year’s Jonny (QRO ’23 photos), and brings their killer live show (QRO live review) as well.
Hotel Vegas
7:00 PM – special guest
8:00 PM – Osees
Far Out Lounge (Willie Stage)
5:10 PM – special guest
6:40 PM – Gang of Four
8:30 PM – Dry Cleaning
10:40 PM – The Jesus Lizard
The original post-punk comes to Levitation in Gang of Four (QRO photos at a festival). They date all the way back to when punk was punk in the seventies, but have always been ahead of the curve.
More modern English post-punk also comes to Levitation in the form of Dry Cleaning (QRO photos at a festival).
Austin (with some Chicago thrown in) natives The Jesus Lizard (QRO photos at a Chicago festival) were acclaimed punk-noise forebears who broke up in 2000. They reunited ten years later to positive reviews, only to break up again – and reunite again in 2017 (QRO photos at a festival), and now have an swear-to-Jesus new album, Rack!
Far Out Lounge (Janis Stage)
4:30 PM – Meatbodies
5:50 PM – Fat Dog
7:40 PM – Pissed Jeans
9:30 PM – Slift
Of course Allentown hits hard, with the hardcore of Pissed Jeans (QRO photos at an Austin festival).
Elysium
10:50 PM – The Veldt
11:40 PM – The March Violets
12:40 PM – The Chameleons
Antone’s
7:00 PM – special guest
8:00 PM – Adrian Younge
Parish
7:00 PM – Witches Exist
8:00 PM – Trauma Ray
9:00 PM – Swirlies
Kingdom
9:30 PM – Suxxy Puxxy
10:30 PM – FCUKERS
11:30 PM – MJ Nebrada
12:30 AM – Doss
13th Floor
11:30 PM – En Orbito
12:30 AM – Los Espiritus
SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 2nd
Stubb’s
7:00 PM – Alison’s Halo
8:00 PM – Wisp
9:20 PM – Panchiko
Mohawk Outdoors
8:30 PM – Teenage Mortgage
9:40 PM – Die Spitz
11:10 PM – Destroy Boys
Bringing some punk rock to Levitation is Sacramento’s Destroy Boys (QRO photos at a ’22 festival).
Mohawk Indoors
8:00 PM – special guest
9:10 PM – Gus Baldwin & The Sketch
10:30 PM – Chokecherry
Hotel Vegas
8:00 PM – Grocery Bag
9:00 PM – Osees
Empire Garage
8:40 PM – special guest
10:00 PM – Fugitive
11:40 PM – Integrity
One of the first bands to combine heavy metal and punk, Integrity of the rock ‘n’ roll mecca of Cleveland, Ohio (albeit now in Belgium) has never broken up in their thirty-five year history.
Empire Control Room
9:20 PM – Dregs
11:00 PM – Paradise
12:50 AM – Banged Out
Far Out Lounge (Willie Stage)
5:00 PM – Hania Rani
6:40 PM – Washed Out
8:40 PM – Tycho
Back in the before-time there was the ‘chillwave’ movement, whose sound is about as defined as that term, but one its mainstays has been Ernest Greene (QRO interview) who moved his work out of the bedroom (where he recorded Life of Leisure EP – QRO review) and onto the live stage (QRO live review) as Washed Out (QRO spotlight on), as well as recruiting a full band (QRO photos at a festival) for 2011’s Within and Without (QRO review), 2013’s Paracosm (QRO review), 2020’s Purple Noon (QRO review), and this year’s Notes From a Quiet Life (QRO review).
Ambient electronics comes to Levitation in the form of Scott Hansen (QRO photos at a festival), a.k.a. Tycho (QRO photos).
Far Out Lounge (Janis Stage)
5:50 PM – Arushi Jain
7:50 PM – Wu Lu
Antone’s
6:10 PM – DJ set
7:00 PM – Cortex
9:40 PM – DJ set
10:30 PM – Cortex
Parish
9:30 PM – Iguana Death Cult
10:30 PM – Death Valley Girls
11:50 PM – Wine Lips
Elysium
10:00 PM – Night Drive
11:00 PM – Rendezvous
Kingdom
10:00 PM – Ian Orth
11:00 PM – Damon R.
12:00 AM – Grrl X Made of Oak
1:00 AM – The Dare
SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 3rd
Stubbs
5:40 PM – The Well
6:40 PM – Rickshaw Billie’s Burger Patrol
7:40 PM – Pentagram
9:10 PM – The Sword
O.G. punks The Well play their fourth Levitation (QRO photos at Levitation ’21).
Bringing the metal is Austin’s own The Sword (QRO live review). The heavy metal band has previously opened for the likes of Metallica and Motörhead, but can more than hold their own (QRO live review). They come back to Levitation (QRO photos at Levitation ’21) for a third time, so watch out (QRO live review)!
Far Out Lounge (Willie Stage)
5:20 PM – Glare
7:00 PM – Drop Nineteens
8:40 PM – Slowdive
Shoegaze was always at its biggest in Britain in acts like My Bloody Valentine and Slowdive (QRO photos at a festival), whose members spun off into various other projects in the nineties (including Mojave 3 – QRO photos), but started a reunion on 2014 (QRO photos at 2014 festival). It’s kept going on both sides of the Atlantic (QRO live review in the U.K.), including 2017’s full-length (QRO review) and last year’s Everything Is Alive (QRO review), now coming to back to Levitation (QRO photos at a festival).
Far Out Lounge (Janis Stage)
4:40 PM – Sad Cell
6:00 PM – Airiel
7:50 PM – Ringo Deathstarr
Though they hail from right in Austin (QRO photos at an Austin festival), Ringo Deathstarr (QRO spotlight on) have found more success in the U.K. (QRO live review in England), to the point of signing to a British label and even adding the ‘u’ to the title of their debut, Colour Trip (QRO review) – but they still find time to play their umpteenth Levitation (QRO photos at Levitation ’21 – QRO photos at Levitation ’15).
Hotel Vegas
7:00 PM – Sailor Poon
8:00 PM – Osees
Mohawk
8:00 PM – Quiet Light
9:00 PM – Nilüfer Yanya
Mixing her international heritage is Nilüfer Yanya (QRO photos abroad), who comes to Levitation (QRO photos at a festival) behind this year’s My Method Actor.
Antone’s
8:40 PM – DJ set
9:30 PM – Cortex
Parish
8:40 PM – Bleary Eyed
9:30 PM – Farmer’s Eye
10:30 PM – Hello Mary
11:50 PM – Illuminati Hotties
Sarah Tudzin’s indie-rock Illuminati Hotties (QRO ’22 photos) have been getting serious notice the last few years, so Let Me Do One More and show her POWER (QRO review).
13th Floor
10:30 PM – Queen Serene
11:30 PM – Annabelle Chairlegs
12:30 AM – Color Green
Playing their fourth Levitation in a row is Annabelle Chairlegs (QRO photos at Levitation ’21).
