The Cosmic Clash

Live music review: Swedish metal legends Meshuggah packed ACL Live with Cannibal Corpse and Carcass

April 18, 2025 Case Cockrell 363 Views ACL Live, Cannibal Corpse, Carcass, death metal, grindcore, hardcore, live music, Meshuggah, metal, Review, rock n roll

Heavy metal music doesn’t get the spotlight as much as it should in Austin. Multiple stacked tours skip Austin and opt for San Antonio and Houston. For a near-sold-out crowd that flocked to downtown Austin to see legendary Swedish players Meshuggah, the metal gods made an exception for the live music capital. For Tuesday night at Austin’s premiere venue, ACL Live, the unbridled barrage of extreme metal didn’t let up across all three performing acts

Case Cockrell Live Music Preview

Live music preview: Six bands to watch at Austin Psych Fest 2025

April 17, 2025 Case Cockrell 396 Views Alex Maas, Austin Psych Fest, Black Mountain, Christian Bland, Etran de L'Air, experimental rock, Far Out Lounge, Godspeed You Black Emperor, Gordie Greep, Kadavar, Levitation, Levitation Room, live music, Maya Ongaku, post rock, preview, Primitive Ring, psych-rock, Queen Serene, Ringo Deathstarr, rock n roll, stoner rock, Suuns, The Octopus Project

Levitation’s Austin Psych Fest will return to Far Out Lounge and Stage in 2025, coming with a stacked lineup that features acts from all over the world to commemorate its third Spring edition since the return to an annual Springtime, one-location, two-stages, no-overlap festival experience. The three-day festival will feature legacy acts and underground picks that showcase yet another year of reverberation appreciation from the homegrown Austin festival. To help audiences prepare for the event, the team at The Cosmic Clash has curated six bands to watch for the festival during the last weekend of April (25-27), including the kickoff and late-night shows after each day of music

Ty Segall acoustic Parish landscape Troy Gonzales

Case Cockrell Live Music Review

Live music review: Haunting acoustic sets by Ty Segall and Mikal Cronin at Parish

April 16, 2025 Case Cockrell 321 Views acoustic, acoustic guitar, acoustic tour, indie rock, live music, Mikal Cronin, Parish, Review, Ty Segall

y Segall and fellow songwriting partner Mikal Cronin shared an intimate acoustic bill on Sunday, April 6 at Austin East Side venue Parish, and the results were a haunting series of tunes to a seated crowd. A masterclass in both recording and touring, the duo pulled from various records that showed them presenting a side of them that we don’t hear that often. There was no electric guitar mania to be found, but something different was brought to the table by the two living indie rock overlords, and the results showed a realm of musical honesty and longtime friendship.

Agnostic Front 6 at Ballroom Justin Clark

Live Music Review

Live music review: Hardcore godfathers Agnostic Front at 29th Street Ballroom

April 8, 2025 Robert Dean 427 Views 29th Street Ballroom, Agnostic Front, hardcore, live music, punk rock, Review, Roger Miret, Victim in Pain, Vinnie Stigma

This isn’t a shaking-fist, “it’s all changed” rant. It’s a look back at a community, a genre that changed my life. What I fell into at 13 is still going. Kids are still discovering punk and hardcore, and this music that once lived in bowling alleys, VFW halls, and anywhere with a slab of concrete is thriving. Seeing legendary acts like Agnostic Front on March 28 in Austin no longer requires the dues it once did through record shops and gatekeeping.

Lauren Mayberry 6 Scoot Inn Drew Doggett

Drew Doggett Live Music Review

Live music review: Lauren Mayberry begins captivating new chapter after CHVRCHES

April 2, 2025 Drew Doggett 572 Views CHVRCHES, electro pop, electronic music, Historic Scoot Inn, Lauren Mayberry, live music, new music, reverb, Review, Scoot Inn, shoegaze, Vicious Creature

Lauren Mayberry has spent over a decade commanding festival stages as the charismatic front woman of CHVRCHES. I remember seeing her at Pitchfork Fest 2015, right after Mac Demarco, playfully pointing out the scattered cigarette butts left on the floor. The sound of CHVRCHES is filled with shoegaze-y synths, shimmering reverb and pulsating beats. But on February 26 at the Historic Scoot Inn in Austin, she stepped out in a new role as a solo artist.

Album Review Robert Dean

New music: Teddy Long, Dim Light and Hugo Monster albums are fresh finds

March 28, 2025 Robert Dean 464 Views album review, Americana, Dim Light, Duct Tape and Super Glue, Head for the Hills, Hip Hop, Hugo Monster, lounge music, neo soul, new music, rap, singer, songwriter, Teddy Long

I wanted to give you a few new things to listen to if you’re in the market for new ear candy. When the world is a constant depression machine, the power of music is unmatched, a salve that can make us feel human again when there’s just too much punishment on our hearts and souls and by the grace of god, some caveman, somewhere, figured out that if you beat a few rocks together with sticks over a cowhide, the beautiful noise happened.

Tear Dungeon 2 HV SXSW 2025 Troy Gonzales

Case Cockrell Live Music Review

Live music review: SXSW 2025 finished with Space Agency Booking, Webberville Block Party

March 24, 2025 Case Cockrell 753 Views electronic musc, experimental rock, Gus Baldwin, hard rock, High On Fire, La Sécurité, live music, Matador Sphere, Play to the Plants, psych-rock, Review, Riverboat Gamblers, sludge metal, South by Southwest, Space Agency Booking, SXSW, SXSW 2025, Tear Dungeon, The Opera, The Thing, Webberville Block Party, YHWH Nailgun

Austin’s South by Southwest finished things up with countless showcases that made the last two days of the music festival a pick-and-choose affair that didn’t let up until the crack of 2 a.m. on Saturday night. For most festival goers, energy can run slim on these last two days, and seeing what you can before the festival’s end is essential to closing the book on yet another March festival edition. Here’s who we closed out our SXSW with on the final two days of our festival experience at Hotel Vegas for Space Agency Booking’s annual showcase along with a closing festival celebration at the Webberville Block Party followed by a return to Hotel Vegas to close out SXSW 2025.

DoomBoyz 2 Stoner Jam SXSW 2025 Troy Gonzales

Case Cockrell Live Music Review

Live music review: Midweek SXSW 2025 jaunt to Radio East and Stoner Jam at Far Out

March 19, 2025 Case Cockrell 557 Views Amplified Heat, Being Dead, Bridge Farmers, Cardinals, Castle Club, DoomBoyz, Far Out Lounge, Native Sun, Pooheh Presents, Radio East, Slumbering Sun, Stoner Jam, Wand, Wishy, YHWH Nailgun

A hectic downtown Austin isn’t exclusive to the annual South By Southwest Festival. Whether a college student is people-watching on

Case Cockrell Live Music Review

Live music review: SXSW 2025 music week began with a wide range of musical styles

March 13, 2025 Case Cockrell 939 Views classic rock, cold wave, Exotic Fruitica, experimental rock, Frankie and the Witch Fingers, Grocery Bag, hardcore, Holy Wire, John Fogerty, live music, Mugger, Mulch Cult, My Son the Doctor, pop-punk, Population II, Porcelain, Portrayal of Guilt, post rock, psych-rock, punk rock, Review, Rickshaw Billie's Burger Patrol, rock n roll, Skloss, South by Southwest, SXSW, The Holy Temple, TVOD

The 2025 South By Southwest music festival kicked off on Monday and Tuesday this week, featuring artists from around the Austin music scene and worldwide. Each day of music starts at noon and usually continues until the 2 a.m. closing time for each day of programming. For the first two days of the SXSW music showcases, we rounded up some of our favorite acts that started off our music festival coverage with stops at Hotel Vegas, 13th Floor and Stubb’s BBQ to see bands with a wide range of musical styles from the hardcore noise punk of Exotic Fruitica to experimental act Skloss to legendary songwriter John Fogerty and back to the heavy psych rock of Frankie and the Witch Fingers. SXSW runs the musical genre gamut as our coverage attests.

Live Music Review Robert Dean

Live music review: Not So Fun WKND with Trapped Under Ice, God’s Hate and more at Far Out Lounge

March 12, 2025 Robert Dean 663 Views Dmize, Far Out Lounge, God's Hate, hardcore, hardcore music, live music, metal, Not So Fun WKND, NSFW, Parade of Flesh, Queensway, Review, rock n roll, Sagebrush, Suburban Scum, Trapped Under Ice

I bitch about Austin a lot—parking, traffic, rent prices. But every once in a while, the city gets it right. Not So Fun WKND at The Far Out Lounge March 8 was one of those moments. The all-day fest with Trapped Under Ice, Parade of Flesh, God’s Hate and many others took place at the popular South Austin venue. An opening party was held Friday, March 7 at Sagebrush with Suburban Scum, Dmize, Creeping Death and more. Hardcore bands from across the country descended on Austin, turning the weekend into a cathartic release of bad vibes and raw energy.

farmers wife sxsw 2025 hotel vegas drew doggett

Case Cockrell Live Music Review

Live music review: SXSW 2025 opening weekend ramble

March 11, 2025 Case Cockrell 678 Views 13th Floor, Almost Heaven, Andrew Cashen, Annabelle Chairlegs, Club X, Dead Canyon Family Reunion, Die Spitz, Do512, Farmer's Wife, French Film, Geto Gala, Golden Dawn Arkestra, Grandmaster, Gus Baldwin, Heartbyrne, Hotel Vegas, Lauren Lakis, live music, Night Ritualz, Queen Serene, Review, rock n roll, Smoke Show, So Many Cults, Soundcheck Saturday, South by Southwest, Strange Lot, SXSW, Tremours, Urban Heat

. The SXSW week began with opening all-day showcases such as the Hotel Vegas Anniversary Party, SX Soundcheck, Do512 Smokeout, and others, there’s plenty to keep music attendees busy before official music week begins the following Monday. Here’s what stood out to us in the opening days of SXSW, all of which will likely perform again before the week concludes. Follow these acts on social media for the most up-to-date information on live appearances throughout the festival.

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