This weekend celebrate festival season right with the worst of the bunch at Vegatron’s self-dubbed 2nd Best Fest, barter your way through reels on reels on reels at Cassette Fest, and declare yourself the commander of CLIT Fest. Come say hi, we’ll be everywhere from head thrashing during Vegatron to grooving and body moving while BLSHS plays.
Friday:
The number of truly astounding bands in this city that manage to fly under the radar boggles my mind. Not that I’m complaining! It’s pretty awesome to be able to see some of your favorite performers every other week for little to no cost. Vegatron is one of those bands that are right on the precipice of something big, and now is your chance to catch them before that happens. Seeing Vegatron live is an experience in itself, they bring an energy that causes passersby to stop mid track, stick their heads into the bar, and tell the door guy to shut up and take their money. The promise of two new songs, one of which sounds like stoner metal rock with a barely there bluesy flair that would make The Sword jealous, only adds to the laundry list of reasons to see this show. With head banging openers DSNGS and Blurry Visions, this will be well worth the measly $6, and Vegatron’s eclectic and wide-ranging style will make for good times regardless of your preferred genre. See you at Red 7 at 9pm sharp!
Saturday:
Whodathunkit? Cassettes are back, baby! Its affordability and tangibility as an actual physical copy instead of just an MP3 has made tapes a staple of the punk scene for ages, and tape popularity is only spreading. Graveyard Orbit is bringing us Austin Cassette Fest with record vendors and merchandise, tape swapping, and of course a slew of live performances. With a cadence and songwriting ability deceivingly beyond her 14 years, prodigy Grace London will be playing the fest along with electronic dance entity Artificial Earth Machine whose latest album has been a permanent fixture on our daily playlists. The all day fest is poised for nonstop rock with straight from outer space experimental electro ManOfTheDown providing tunes and grungy garage rockers Pope mixing things up. Mostly though we’re particularly excited to see synth-pop trio BLSHS blow away the crowd. Their full-length album Abstract Desires is my favorite girly guilty pleasure that will remind you of a more seductive Little Dragon. It all starts at noon at the Mass Gallery for a $5 donation, but it’s okay if you can’t make it out during the day! Cheer Up Charlie’s will keep the fest going with a $5 after party starting at 8 featuring The Vegetable Kingdom, Chipper Jones, and Basketball Shorts. Come out, support the tapeheads, and help us scavenge for that LAFM: Live at Beerland cassette!
Sunday:
CLIT Fest (Combating Latent Inequality Together) is an activism and acceptance festival centered around music and DIY culture. This is a festival where all are welcome, and besides some amazing music there will also be workshops and outreach. CLIT Fest actually will be going on all weekend with some of our local favorites BLXPLTN and Big Bill playing Cheer Up Charlie’s on Friday, and the hard-hitting Brain Attack and lo-fi weirdos Mom Jeans playing The Museum of Human Achievement on Saturday. However if there’s only one day you can attend, then Sunday is not to be missed. The bill is packed with upbeat indie pop-rockers Spoonboy, the fast and in your face Mindless, impressive newcomers to the hardcore scene Jailsex, on the rise rockers XETAS who we saw blow the roof off Trailer Space last week, and the always entertaining So Unloved who have been relatively quiet the last year. There’s only one reason I need to give you to be at this show, though… Feral Future. Austin’s favorite riot grrrls are absolutely slaying it right now. Their fantastic second album Haematic is a flawless and unflinching masterpiece, and there seems to be no stopping their boldness as they just get better and fucking better. Come be a part of it at Hotel Vegas starting at 2pm for $12 or if you can make the whole weekend, 3 day passes are available for $30. Stick around Hotel Vegas afterwards for The Memories, Fungi Girls, and Dumb. If you feel hesitant about getting drunk and moshing at 2 pm on the lord’s day then A) we can’t be friends, and B) just remember it’s for a good cause.
– Nate Abernethy