Live music preview: Frankie and the Witch Fingers set to play Parish with Spoon Benders
Thursday evening at Parish LEVITATION veterans Frankie and the Witch Fingers are set to play with Portland’s Spoon Benders. The lineup is sponsored by the vaunted psych-rock festival, The Cosmic Clash and our favorite, Austin independent booking outfit, Resound Presents. Much like the companies partnership during LEVITATION which brought Meatbodies and Spoon Benders with local rockers, The Well to Antone’s during last year’s downtown fest, this week’s lineup features crowd-pleasing live acts like Frankie and the thrilling Spoon Benders. The evening promises to both be an energetic live show on its own and foreshadow an incredible lineup at the psych rock festival which takes place Halloween weekend in venues around Austin. Advance tickets are still available.
Frankie are touring in support of their latest release, Data Doom which we’ve found polarizing for Frankie fans who love some of the tracks and appear puzzled at others included in the Los Angeles-based act’s seventh full-length effort. Opening track “Empire” is classic Frankie, with a long, slow-build intro that explodes into heavy, fuzz-laden guitars and pounding drums that fans have come to expect from the group. The nearly seven and a half minute jam has Austin fans like The Cosmic Clash staff frothing at the mouth to see the track performed live.
The two other opening songs on their latest which is on our friends at Greenway Records’ label, “Burn Me Down” and Electrified” continue in that delicious sweet spot until “Syster System” and “Futurephobic” which head in a more monotonal, electronic direction that has some fans puzzled and others a bit upset. Frankly (see what we did there?) we like that the now venerable garage-psych masters aren’t afraid to experiment and don’t hold their sound too precious as they explore other sonic avenues.
With an entirely new live set, most Frankie fans are looking forward to an evening of wild, rock n’ roll abandon at Parish this Thursday. The L.A. act is touring with new(ish) members as well. Band founders, Dylan Sizemore (vocals, guitar) and Josh Menashe (lead guitar, synth) have newcomers bassist Nikki “Pickle” Smith (formerly of Death Valley Girls) and drummer Nick Aguilar (Mike Watt) with them this tour. Expect the same great intensity along with some new energy coming from their latest rhythm section.
The icing on the cake is the inclusion of Spoon Benders on this bill. We honestly didn’t know what to expect from this PDX outfit last year at Antone’s and found ourselves transfixed with the early birds (they were first on) at the club by the group’s highly entertaining and acrobatic performance by the heavy, indie rockers that made our team sit up and take notice. Considering the group has been on tour nationally since the beginning of August with a late swing West for some hometown dates and other West Coast locales before hitting ATX, the show should be tour-sharp by now.
The group is touring their most recent album, How Things Repeat which you can sample below to get a flavor for the band we’ve become fans of over the past year. Tickets are still available for this performance, although you should probably grab them now if you’re thinking of going as the venue has limited tickets on hand and has an intimate capacity of around 400 people.
Spoon Benders photos by Harper King courtesy of Spoon Benders
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