Live music review: night two of Levitation at Hotel Vegas: Osees and Warm Drag

October 30, 2022 Brian Hillsman 323 Views El Combo Oscuro, Hotel Vegas, Levitation, live music, Osees, The Oh Sees, Trucha Soul, Warm Drag

Austin cooled off quite a bit on Friday evening, just in time for night two of LEVITATION, and Osees were at Hotel Vegas for the second of a four-show run. On this night, the opener was Los Angeles duo, Warm Drag.

Paul Quattrone (Osees, !!!) and Vashti Windish make up Warm Drag, the Los Angeles-based duo with an unorthodox approach to psych-rock. Quattronne slammed the drums and pedals, and operated a sampler, while Windish handled up the vocals, with the aura of a psych-punk lounge singer, often throwing maracas in the mix.

“Warm Drag gives me the chance to blend genres up into a musical milkshake that remains uniform despite all of its parts. I can scream, dance, cry, rage and seduce, all in a single show” Windish explains via their label (In the Red Record) bio. Quantrone elaborates: I basically wanna make Bomb Squad versions of rock n roll songs. It sounds weird but I can hear a common ground where girl groups, dub, harsh noise, minimal synth, repetitious industrial, voodoo percussion, power electronics, black eather jacket rock n roll and DJ Screw-inspired slowing down/pitching down of samples all meet.

Warm Drag Setlist:

Lost Time
High Wall
End Times
Rupture
Cube
Wanderer
Cave Crawl
Cruisin’ the Night

Osees immediately opened with their signature heavy, psych-punk sound, hammering out heavy chords, packed with not one but two banging drums, fiery lyrical delivery, and some impressive guitar solos by front man and founder, John Dwyer scattered throughout the performance.

The band, formerly of San Francisco and now based in Los Angeles, delivered hit after hit, and had show goers bouncing, moshing and crowd surfing non-stop once the group hit the Hotel Vegas patio stage. It was a glorious mess of sweaty fans, dust and music that mixed together into the perfect concert recipe.

Fans who couldn’t score tickets into the sold-out show stacked the alley behind the venue. One fan was reeling following the bombastic set, “that was the best show I’ve ever seen!”

The quintet consisting of Dwyer(vocals and guitar), Tim Hellman (bass), Dan Rincon( drums), Paul Quattrone (drums), Tomas Dolas (keyboards, percussion) wowed the crowd, putting on a legendary show, echoing heavy tunes throughout the 1500 block of East Sixth street.

Many of the songs played, meshed together with the previously-mentioned guitar solos and psych-infused jam-outs. A few of the songs included in the set were:

I Come From The Mountain
Scramble Suit II
Tidal Wave
The Dream
The Daily Heavy
Funeral Solution
Scum Show
A Foul Form
C

Night two of LEVITATION at Hotel Vegas was a real doozy, continuing into the early morning hours on the indoor grandstand with Latin fusion locals, Trucha Soul and El Combo Oscuro.