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Saturday Levitation Fest Preview

  • Post Author
    by Web manager
  • Post Date
    Thu Mar 10 2016

This Saturday, March 12, will be the third and final day of Levitation Chicago, and we at WSUM are pumped for the finale of what should be an amazing weekend.

The Australian trio Methyl Ethel will start the night with their mellowed-out glam rock. The beautifully kaleidoscopic sounds of Chicago's Natural Information Society & Bitchin Bajas follow, and will be sure to set the cosmic tone for the rest of the night. Their set will hopefully contain all the soporific loops and drones their excellent 2015 release Autoimaginary does. Circuit des Yeux, a beautiful Chicago-based experimental project fronted by Haley Fohr, is set to continue the weirdness brought in by her Chicago colleagues. Her set something I'm very much looking forward to. In Plain Speech, her most recent album, features Cooper Crain (Cave, Bitchin Bajas), Whitney Johnson (Verma), Rob Frye (Bitchin Bajas), Adam Luksetich (Little Scream), as well as beloved former Madison resident Kathleen Baird of Spires That In The Sunset Rise. I would personally love to see her make an appearance during this show! Seeing her live is always entrancing, and I'm sure the same can be said of Fohr. The fuzzed-out Seattle garage rock group Night Beats will also take the stage. They are favorites of the festival- they're on the The Reverberation Appreciation Society label, the Austin organization that Levitation was created by.

Up next is Earthless, a psychedelic rock group from Southern California, who are sure to bring the loud high energy guitar solos and a hypnotic slow burning set. Influenced by krautrock and Japanese psych rock, the band rejects the stoner rock label although you can be sure things will get a little freaky. The goth queen of hell Chelsea Wolfe will be sub-headlining and I'm excited and terrified all at once. Her version of goth rock paints a scape of a cold misty graveyard on the outskirts of a village that's preparing to hang the local witch. Headlining the night is Faust, the legendary German group that pioneered the 1970s krautrock sound and is known for wild sonic experimentation and quirky, unique performances. If history serves, we may see an amplified tea kettle on stage or hear spoken word in-between their long, unfurling pieces. Faust still sound as out-there today as they did 40 years ago. A festival aimed at showcasing the weird and wonderful corners of the world's sonic landscape couldn't have picked a better way to end what will be a thrilling and satisfying weekend of music.

This concludes our set of previews for the festival, which means it starts TONIGHT! It's going to be a psyched out weekend – and we at WSUM hope to see you there!

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