Live music review: Night Beats and Daiistar gave Austin a modern psychedelic rock treat Saturday
When a band in Austin gets to make a record after playing their material for local audiences for months, sometimes years on end, it’s worthy of multiple rounds of applause. For Austin shoegaze/noise-pop act Daiistar, it’s been a long time coming. To celebrate the release of Daiistar’s new album Good Time, the rising Austin act enlisted the help of Seattle-born, now Texas-based band Night Beats, who are on a new album cycle of their own. The venue for their Austin stop on the circuit was East Side staple Hotel Vegas, a mecca for psychedelic rock and all of its adjacent genres. An open-air patio venue, Hotel Vegas is known for both chaotic and introspective shows, an ideal setting to discover what lies beneath the surface when exploring Austin’s vibrant music scene.
As it drew closer to 9 p.m., the Austin venue started filling up, with fans crowding the stage in anticipation of the Austin shoegaze outfit’s first Austin appearance since the April edition of Austin Psych Fest. When Daiistar took the stage, the group wasted no time to give the audience a good time. “Star Starter,” off the new record, kicked off the night with an upbeat tune that made the audience dive straight into the groove. The onstage lineup also featured Lindsay Mackin of Austin band, Annabelle Chairlegs handling auxiliary percussion duties. Mackin also collaborated with Daiistar for 2022’s edition of Levitation Festival for their opening set that featured local legends The Black Angels and Los Angeles rockers Frankie and the Witch Fingers.
For the entirety of Daiistar’s set, the banter was little, if any—just the Austin shoegazers ripping through song after song with mind-boggling urgency. The crisp baselines from Misti Hamrick and the fuzzy strummed guitars from frontman Alex Capistran shined across every track in the set. The band was extra loud on Saturday night. They needed a noisy presentation to showcase their upstanding musical efforts that had been leading up to Saturday’s record release.
“Tracemaker,” the lead single from their new record, appeared in the set list, showcasing the sprawling opening chords that sent the audience on a face-melting trip. Another highlight came with “Say it to Me.” The longest cut from Daiistar’s new record made for a jammier section of the set. This is where the sonic expertise was showcased, with all kinds of shoegaze and post-punk sensibilities shining through in a wall-of-sound manner. 7-minute Primal Scream monster, “Burning Wheel” and “Purified” closed the performance, creating a majestic foundation for Night Beats to take the night further.
Around 10 p.m., the Night Beats trio took the stage. Since appearing at this year’s edition of Austin Psych Fest and front man Danny Rajan Billingsley’s appearance with UFO Club, co-founded with Austin psych rockers, The Black Angels’ Christian Bland, the front man has been no stranger to Austin audiences in 2023. Night Beats’ set revolved around the psych act’s new record, Rajan, released earlier this year. For this new release, Billingsley has assembled a talented rhythm section to accompany him on this tour, a daunting task to account for all the out-of-this-world psychedelic sounds Night Beats has become known for. Night Beats didn’t wasting any time during their set—unleashing song after song with little BS to be found much like the opening act. An early set highlight came with psychedelic blues number “Blue,” complete with instrumentation that fizzled out into a psych-rock-sprinkled, jazz abyss.
Night Beats didn’t stop there. The band kept marching on through their new album with determination, slicing through cuts like “Thank You” and “Cautionary Tale,” the former had a more chaotic Black Rebel Motorcycle Club-esque attack with searing guitar leads that sounded straight from the garage scene from which Night Beats was born. When Night Beats was finished tearing through the new record, the trio returned for a triple-barrelled encore of band classics. “Right/Wrong,” “That’s All You Got,” and “Puppet on a String” acted as the epic finale of the evening, continuing a pattern of Night Beats ripping through their music with unbridled indie-rock enthusiasm.
Fans were hoping for more from the back catalog, but the statement Night Beats made was a testament to where they are currently. Since Billingsey’s recent relocation to Texas, Austin appearances might become more frequent. The neo-psych heads are here for it, reverb-ready and all. Night Beats isn’t billed for this year’s Levitation music festival, but there are all the possibilities up in the air for Austin Psych Fest next Spring. Either way, we can’t wait for more from Danny Rajan Billingsley and Company. There are always good tunes to be had when the prolific musicians plug in to play.
Night Beats continue their U.S. tour through October before wrapping it up in San Francisco.
All photos by Michael Maly
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