Live music review: Weedeater played Austin metal stronghold The Lost Well
If you haven’t taken a trip to the new location for Austin’s legendary metal stronghold, The Lost Well, put a pilgrimage to the East Austin music venue high on your to-do list. The Lost Well returned in August this year with a vengeance, and the gig calendar has been stacking back up to a blistering, business-as-usual. According to owner Marcello Murphy, Tuesday night (December 16) for Wilmington, North Carolina doom metal act, Weedeater was the new Austin space’s biggest ticketed show yet. With an upgraded capacity, better parking, and a glorious “Badd Burger” food truck on the back patio, Murphy and his team moved fast from getting pushed out of their original Webberville location last Fall to the new spot. If the familiar wall decor (Including an endlessly rotating eyeball sculpture from the OG location) is any indication, all is alive and well for the heavy metal haunt.
The Lost Well now holds around 300 attendees. With the larger capacity, Come And Take It Live on Riverside being Austin’s other metal hub, The Lost Well provides a more intimate, community-minded experience. Everyone comes with a conversation to be had, all with encyclopedic music knowledge. It’s a place to lord out with fellow heavy music fans. That’s getting too rare in 2025. The Murphys fought tooth and nail for a new space to call their own. To find a location as worn-in and meant for their mission, feels like nothing short of a metal miracle.
Through a slew of openers that drifted between modern doom metal and rockabilly mayhem, Weedeater took the stage for their signature, cannabis-clouded ethos right around 10 p.m. The Lost Well set marked their fourth Austin appearance since an onrush at Mohawk with High on Fire, an opening slot for Melvins at Emo’s, and a headlining excursion at Ripplefest at the Far Out Lounge & Stage. While Weedeater’s approach hasn’t changed all that much over the years, fans still look forward to a joint-toking good time from vocalist and bassist Dave “Dixie” Collins and his band of potent warriors, who take on the task handily. The PA inside Lost Well is crisp and clear. This isn’t some DIY punk spot; these are pros running this house of hardcore awesome.
Weedeater’s sound is slow, fuzzy, and abrasive in all the right ways. With newest member and drummer Ramzi Ateyeh in the fold, the North Carolina band has seen a resurgence in new fans, all donning merch the likes of High on Fire, Sleep, and Uncle Acid & The Deadbeats. Austin was Weedeater’s only Texas date for this run of shows, and they were doing it right for a city that relentlessly shows up for them in droves.
Collins could be seen smoking a fan’s offering from the audience as the set reached a cataclysmic close, a practice familiar with the frontman who, without fail, presents a bottle of cheap whiskey to their fanatical crowds with a promise of a kickass gig. Through puffs and liquor chugs, the music hits at 100mg edible strength. It’s some garden variety stuff. It’s Weedeater, so light up and crack open your cheap booze. It’s a hotboxing, bottom-shelf liquor-soaked party — every time.
Weedeater continues down the road in December before wrapping up their late 2025 tour in Raleigh. Tickets and other information can be found via the band’s website.
All photos by Justin Clark
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