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

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. All tickets can be purchased via See Tickets on the Levitation website.

Austin Psych Fest 2024 Kickoffs & After Parties

Before the festival kicks off in South Austin, three kickoff showcases will take place downtown for early-coming festival goers featuring local and touring talent. Mohawk in the Red River Cultural District will feature local shoegazers Ringo Deathstarr featuring the likes of frequent Austin flyers LSD & The Search For God, along with a bill taking place at East Side staple Hotel Vegas featuring Nigerian outfit Etran de L’Aïr with Japanese psychedelic act Maya Ongaku. After the two showcases conclude, festival founders The Black Angels-owned The 13th Floor will host a late-night session with Christian Bland & The Revelators and Austin Psych Fest performing artist Kadavar. The 13th Floor will host three late-night shows after each day of festival programming. Featured artists will include Suuns, Queen Serene, Heavy Blanket, Primitive Ring, Levitation Room, and Los Blenders. 

The Octopus Project

The Octopus Project is a local band whose creativity takes many forms. Known for bringing new elements of their sound when they emerge to take the stage, The Octopus Project has been an actively performing act for 26 years with a trajectory that spans more than being a prolific experimental electro-psychedelic rock act. The local outfit has scored films, supported the likes of Devo and Aesop Rock, and produced mesmerizing visual elements with their rotating gauntlet of different sounds produced by auxiliary instruments that stretch their sonic boundaries. The Austin long-runners have also shared the stage with festival headliner and Austin-hailing Explosions In The Sky, an opportunity that sculpted an “ambient set,” showing that the shapeshifting Austin band knows no limits.

Kadavar

German stoner rockers Kadavar dabble in the classics like Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath, but their modern take on throwback sounds makes their sound-barrier-breaking cuts a direct emulation of their live shows. Formed in 2010 and seven studio albums deep with a handful of singles and EPs in tow, the Berlin quartet will be a mosh-ready excursion on the first day of Psych Fest festivities. With a production style that mimics that of their hard-rocking forefathers that cranks to 11, the buzzing amplifiers that rattle the senses check the boxes for the 2025 festival year. 

Black Mountain

Vancouver’s Black Mountain are a Levitation mainstay, but the 2025 installment of Austin Psych Fest will mark their first Central Texas stay since Levitation 2019. Armed with a massive concussion of rock n roll, the Canadian-bred group has released a handful of records that pay a tasteful homage while crafting a sound that’s as hard-hitting as it is anthemic. Students of the relics of ’60s and ’70s rock, frontman Stephen McBean has made the most of his music career by taking his audiences on a tour through the decades. With a rhythm section that backs his explosive vocal delivery, the Black Mountain ensemble packs a convincing case for the current state of guitar-driven retrofits in the current era.

Geordie Greep

London’s Geordie Greep was the mastermind behind European jazz-prog powerhouses Black Midi. After the band’s disbandment in 2024, Greep struck off on his own with a new solo studio record, The New Sound. With all of the signature guitar shredding and an explosive backing band intact, the brute force of the musician’s delivery has been honed in an exponential manner since going by his own name to mark a new era. As he’s moved around the touring circuit with impeccable mechanics and enchanting charisma, Greep and his band of misfits are not stopping their mission in making their mark in the ever-changing music landscape. A top anticipated act of Austin Psych Fest 2025, this one will hit – hard. 

Godspeed You! Black Emperor

As one of the key innovators in the post-rock genre, the adventurous nature of GSYBE is nothing to underestimate. After a sold-out show at Empire Garage at Levitation 2023, the Montreal ensemble brings a sound that drifts between beautiful soundscapes and deafening drones of widespread instrumentation. With multiple classic records under their belt, such as F♯ A♯ ∞ and Lift Your Skinny Fists like Antennas to Heaven, the legendary unraveling of the group stretches the thresholds of each concept they bring to the table. With new LP No Title as of 13 February 2024, 28,340 Dead, titled for the current wartime in Palestine, Godspeed You! has important things to say even if it comes without sung lyricism. 

Alex Maas

With this year’s lineup missing festival founders The Black Angels, frontman and multi-instrumentalist Alex Maas is bringing a solo serving that asserts his psychedelic philosophy from his somber side. Since hopping on the promotion cycle for supergroup MIEN, Maas is putting yet another busy year on the books, including tours with his main band, an overseas tour with MIEN, and sporadic solo appearances that bring something special along with featuring Black Angels member Jake Garcia to his titular performances. An Alex Maas show makes you contemplate with blissful, ghostly forms of storytelling and emotional deliveries, all foretelling a prophecy over 20 years in the making as Maas’ career has progressed.

Featured photo by Sheva Kafai courtesy of Levitation