Over the past few years, no Halloween weekend in Austin is complete without the sights and sounds of Levitation – a multi-venue celebration of psychedelic music and the adjacent sounds of industrial, metal, ambient, and more. Beginning on Thursday, October 31st, and running through Sunday, November 3rd, this year’s edition featured a nightly residency by Oh Sees, a rare sighting of the ‘70s doom legends Pentagram, and an autumn sound bath by Tycho. Each performance at the event was brought to life with meticulously curated light shows spanning from ‘60s-era liquid light projections to Studio 54-era disco balls to modern LED strobes and floods. One would be hard-pressed to find another music festival so dedicated to psychedelia’s audio and material culture that also immerses concert-goers into a truly elevated experience.
The Far Out Lounge has served as a South Austin satellite space for Levitation and the local psych rock scene since 2019. The large outdoor location is notable for their storied musical history; Janis Joplin once performed there and Willie Nelson shot a music video there. Willie and Janis are also the names given to the venue’s two stages, Janis being the smaller of the two. On Saturday evening, the oppressive heat and humidity that lingered into November came to a welcomed end when a fast moving thunderstorm blew through parts of the city, mellowing the plumes of dust that swirled around the rocky grounds.
Rain quickly came and went during Arushi Jain’s performance at the Janis stage, an intimate graffiti-adorned space on one end of the grounds. Born in Delhi and based in Brooklyn, Jain builds up ethereal songs with her voice and synthesizers that are minimal and meditative, matching the dramatic weather as the parting dark clouds revealed a dazzling sunset. Jain’s unique soundscapes combine modular synthesis and digital manipulation with Hindustani classical music creating an immersive environment of ambient sound which is exemplified nicely in this year’s Delight. Her elevated compositions were performed at the Museum of Modern Art in New York in August and served as a welcomed palate cleanser after a beer soaked evening in the mosh pit at the Oh Sees.
Washed Out was saved from being literally washed out of Saturday’s performance at the Willie Stage, only starting 15 minutes after their intended 7:15 pm time slot. The chillwave band is known popularly for providing the theme song for Portlandia, a satirical comedy show about woke cities like Austin, and was a big enough act to draw a substantial crowd eight miles from the center of festival activity in the Red River Cultural District. Washed Out, the Ernest Weatherly Greene Jr. project, has been touring extensively in support of this year’s Notes from a Quiet Life (QRO review). Building up from a single note, Greene emerged on the stage flanked by two droopy mesh projection screens before the beat kicked in on the song “Waking Up”, the first track on the new album. As the set progressed into “All I Know” from 2013’s Paracosm (QRO review), the rectangular screens at the rear of the stage parted revealing members of the touring band surrounded by billowing black and white projections of figures, mouths, and eyes. The vibe was noticeably delicate and dancier than the festival’s earlier performances and provided the perfect soundtrack for the amateur mycologists at the fest.
After Washed Out’s hour-long set, the crowd dispersed to chat with friends, grab a free can of Guayaki Yerba Matte, or saunter over to the Janis Stage to catch Brijean, featuring the San Francisco Bay Area multi-instrumentalist Brijean Murphy on congas and multi-instrumentalist producer and collaborator Doug Stuart on bass guitar. The stage took a new dimension after dark, bathing the side of the festival in liquid light projections. While not as well-known as some of the other acts on the festival lineup, there was a certain familiarity to their songs. Doing more research revealed that Murphy’s catchy tropical dance rhythms are featured in collaborations with Poolside and another Bay Area chillwave artist Toro Y Moi. Murphy’s placement on the lineup as a bridge between Washed Out and Tycho sets was superb and was a pleasant new discovery of the weekend for those who like their dance music on the groovier side.
Over at the Willie Stage, Tycho, the project of San Francisco musician and songwriter Scott Hansen, closed out the evening as spotlights shot diffused lights off a giant disco ball overhead. Kicking off with “Phantom”, a futuristic new drippy and poppy song off of this year’s Infinite Health (QRO review), Tycho settled in and delivered over a dozen songs that leaned on the new album, as well as Awake from 2014 and Epoch from 2016. Tycho’s synth and guitar driven musical soundscapes are reminiscent of low-budget ‘80s movie soundtracks and were brought to life with colorful abstract projections of sunsets in saturated orange and magenta hues. The lighting and projections at the Willie stage were perhaps the most sublime and well executed of the entire festival and rewarded those making the trip to South Austin.
