By Lisa Burke
August 25-28 2016, Hard Rock Hotel & Casino, Las Vegas NV: Metal festivals in America are few and far between and in comparison to large European festivals such as Wacken, Download, and Hellfest, to name a few, they hardly measure up in size, days, and quality of line-ups. Psycho Fest has proved to stand tall as the best we have in America and is primarily a stoner doom metal festival that has manifested itself in California the last three years. This year, however, from Thursday August 25th to Sunday August 28th, Psycho Fest made its way along with somewhere around 5,000 metalheads from all over the world to Las Vegas, where over 90 bands graced three stages all located in the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino. These three stages were namely The Joint which is the largest size but not too large to see the stage even from the comfort of the balcony seats, and next door to it the Vinyl stage is the smallest stage and most intimate experience, while the pool stage serves as the only outdoor stage where often times you’d find oddities such as metalheads in a pool tossing a beach ball to black metal.
Technically the festival was three days with an opening pool-only pre-party on Thursday featuring headliner Mudhoney. With all the gambling, drinking, smoking, and lack of regular sleeping that goes on in Vegas it’s hard enough to survive two days of 12-plus hours of metal, let alone four days of it, so most people showed up Friday, or later Thursday evening. Although watching Greenbeard at a pool at noon would have been pleasant, I arrived mid-afternoon for Electric Citizen who put on an electrifying show as always excelling in the female lead vocal department. The highlight on this first evening was the Mothership trio with their non-stop creative stoner riffs and killer beats driven home with purely wild Texan energy and stage presence. They also had the smarts to play shirtless because although getting towards the night hours, that desert heat was still scorching throughout the night. Mudhoney of course also stole the night, and although arguably an odd choice, they were the correct choice to close the show and also a favorite among the crowd. Problematically however, for some ridiculous reason Mac Sabbath was crunched in between the two bands with serious talent. As much as I really wouldn’t have minded seeing a couple of them go up in flames from the heat like an overcooked burger only to put themselves out in the pool, I couldn’t be so lucky, and the only thought that kept me from drowning myself in the pool was the thought that Grimalice was still playing bass accurately despite his insanely large and hot costume, so three cheers to him. The rules on entering the pool stage seemed to change daily through the different security, from no gum, to no mints etc, although not bringing in any drinks was top priority so the attendees were left drinking water to avoid buying a $17 cocktail while out there. Basically, you scarfed down any booze before entering the pool and planned on staying dry till the final escape if you were smart and on a tight budget. The indoor stages were less strict and lower in price where if you bought a drink at one venue you could take it to the other one, although unlike the pool you couldn’t smoke in the indoor venues, but right outside in the casino you could purchase cheaper drinks while pretty much doing whatever the hell you want except murder people as is normal Vegas protocol.
The next three days of metal started at noon and ended as late as five in the morning in some instances. If you paced yourself and didn’t waste time with trifles such as a sit-down dinner or a nap, then you as I did would have managed to see an average of fifty bands out of the ninety-plus in attendance. I suppose less would have been more, however the options and the line up and schedule which changed slightly upon arrival was actually really well thought-out, and because of this, I only had a few conflicts of interest some of which could be rectified after the festival because they were playing in LA the week after, as was the case with Death Alley, who is a must-see for their sheer energy and talent. I saw no “five finger death punch myself in the face over how much I hate it” bands except Mac Sabbath but they obviously were either the joke band or the joke of the festival, so it still could have been worse. The other genius at work here was despite popular belief there was no monotony in any of these bands despite genre similarity. With the order of the bands and highlights of each day, there was no dissatisfaction, and everything from the slow drone funeral doom of Demon Lung to the wild stage spectacle show from Alice Cooper was entertainment at its finest. Some highlights from day one were Black Heart Procession with is odd flavor of classy rock mixed with psychedelia that even had a modern Sinatra appeal in vocals and song structure. Yob came on after that and blew minds with their exceptional stoner doom jams, and Gozu at Vinyl was a blast to rock out to, and for me Wovenhand beat out Elder for their great ethereal trippy stoner psychedelic rock and great stage presence. As it was the first real festival day, there were the most lines to get in the venue and everyone had their special indestructible fabric ribbon bracelet that was their ticket that they showered with daily because if you lost it that was the end of Psycho Fest, but even the most self destructive champions of the festival couldn’t shake them.
After the plan of exit and entry had been mapped out and put into effect, it was time for the third most exciting band of the day, Pentagram, with a reputation that precedes them, all started by the legendary Bobby Liebling who was sighted throughout the festival at all hours of the night perhaps acting out a scene or two from the movie Fear And Loathing. I am somewhat convinced that someone replaced his insides with cyborg parts sometime back in the seventies because it seems he still lives in that decade most days anyway. Regardless, he wore a purple silk big sleeved seventies shirt and put on the best performance I’ve seen live from him while patrons in the pit went crazy. The rest of the band is just as exceptional as his voice is to this day, and it was a very memorable set for sure which ended with the magic trick of Bobby putting on a jacket over that big sleeved shirt with amazing grace and ease that blew my mind, as I myself couldn’t have pulled off that feat. Too bad unfortunately for the next band up which was Down because I was less than thrilled by the ego warm-up and escaped after a couple songs despite that I do enjoy Phil Anselmo and Pepper in other contexts, and maybe even in Down on a different day and situation. I am glad I did, however, because seeing Tribulation at the pool stage was my absolute favorite band from day one. They were a perfect European blackened melodic death metal hair party that gave it their all in stage presence and performance.
The Shrine was after and actually held their own and refrained from any guitar smashing and amp throwing, as I once witnessed from a past show’s technical difficulties that almost resulted in me getting knocked in the head with a guitar neck that was hurled through the audience. Needless to say, attitude is as important as the performance and I was happy to see this energy used towards an entertaining set. Then it was time for Death, and no, not the death metal band, but the seventies punk trio from Detroit who rocked off everyone’s socks even if they weren’t wearing any. Afterwards, while some people were excited for Zombi which was up next pool side and happens to be a two-piece electro act with no vocals and interesting history, I bailed to The Crazy World Of Arthur Brown which won second place in the awesome department on day one. So, this was a 74-year old man who much like David Bowie is full of odd costume and mask surprises and just other stage oddities such as lighting random objects on fire, sometimes even including his own head. In addition to still possessing a great singing voice he also got with the times and wore a colorful LED suit for a bit of the performance. While Alice Cooper on the final night was as good as it was in spectacle, this was more unexpected and therefore rose above in charm. While most people concluded their day one after this, I went all out and stayed up to see The Rare Breed at two in the morning in Vinyl, and I’m so glad I did as it was an extremely enchanting time of young Sabbath-esque vocals and seriously creative stoner jams, and one great aspect of this festival is that I felt all bands were given appropriate set times where they could do all they wanted without feeling the rush.
After day one of too many bands followed by too much fun, I went to do it all over again for day two. After a green tea and visit to my favorite slot machine ‘The Dragon Mistress’, I went back into Vinyl to catch Demon Lung whose doomy female vocalist sings out the gloom from under her cloak. Other noteworthy bands were Mondo Drag with their quality vocals and psychedelic progressive doom vibe, along with A Place To Bury Strangers with their post punk and noise rock with gothic undertones who sparked my interest for sure. The winner of day two for me happened to be Boris from Japan who absolutely blew minds and served up a great mosh pit with the female guitarist Wata who crowd surfed with her guitar at the end of the set while the crowd hovered close. The clear pink-rimmed drum kit with a small gong behind it was the perfect dichotomy to describe the band’s music. It is very avant-garde, and coming from Japan and being metal, you know it can’t be boring. It was by far the most unique, and the bass player and vocalist pulled out a double neck that had a guitar on one level and a bass on the other and he played them both. The gong was a great addition and fit in so well with the bizarre yet fantastic tunes, and really I’ve never seen anything comparable.
Read more on Psycho Las Vegas on Page 2
