Live music preview: Seven more bands to see at Levitation 2026

Levitation 2026 is coming up fast, and with programming scattered across Austin, a tight plan is a necessity if you want to catch everything worth catching. The festival will take place over a four day stretch on September 10 – 13, bringing a wide variety of bands to build a packed fest experience. The festival traces back to The Black Angels and founder Rob Fitzpatrick, who’s kept the lineups deep and eclectic year after year. Here’s another round of seven bands curated by The Cosmic Clash team worth building your schedule around. Set times and tickets are on the Levitation website.

We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again. The heat for this weekend is going to be record high temperatures for these dates since 2011. (See the AccuWeather forecast) Stay hydrated, eat good meals before heading out for the day, and pace yourself. This late-Summer Texas heat does not let up. 

Thursday

Radium Dolls – 29th Street Ballroom – 11:50 p.m.

Brisbane’s Radium Dolls already made a mark on Austin this year with multiple sets at SXSW 2026. Formed in 2019 and named for the Radium Girls, the factory workers poisoned by radium dial-paint in the early 20th century, the band’s energy has been the talk of the town since that spring stopover. Their latest record, Wound Up, is as unapologetic as ever: abrasive power chords, shouted vocals, and the same swagger that’s drawn Amyl and the Sniffers comparisons. From dive bars to festival stages, Radium Dolls feel like Australia’s next real breakout act.

Friday

Powerplant – The Far Out Lounge & Stage – 5:40 p.m.

Theo Zhykharyev, Ukraine-born and London-based, is the sole mind behind Powerplant. His latest LP, Bridge of Sacrifice, takes a hard left into black metal while keeping the project’s synth-punk bones intact. Zhykharyev writes and records everything solo, then tours the material with a full live band that pushes the songs to redlining levels onstage. He started the project in 2017 in his London bedroom while studying film, and broke through with 2019’s People in the Sun after a YouTube upload of the record by a channel called Harakiri Diat picked up tens of thousands of views in weeks, pushing Powerplant from bedroom project to touring band. Expect the live show to run hotter and weirder than the record itself.

Saturday

Monolord – Mohawk – 9:50 p.m.

Swedish doom trio Monolord plays punishingly slow, Sabbath-descended riffs. Formed in 2013, the Gothenburg trio has built a serious resume both in the studio and on the road. Their new LP, Neverending, came out this year, cementing Monolord’s spot in the 2010s doom revival alongside Pallbearer, YOB, and Windhand. Bring earplugs; ringing ears for days afterward is a known side effect of seeing them live. 

Each Mohawk showcase will also feature an activation from Marshall amplifiers showcasing a new product line for legendary guitarist Jimi Hendrix’s 60th anniversary of using the coveted brand. To celebrate and showcase these limited-edition products, ticket holders are invited to an immersive Marshall x Hendrix 60th Anniversary Collection listening room experience, along with screen printing by Feels So Good (FSG), a record store pop-up with Waterloo Records, limited-edition Marshall x Hendrix merch giveaways, Hendrix-themed cocktails, and more.

I Speak Machine – The Far Out Lounge & Stage – 4:50 p.m.

I Speak Machine began as a 2013 collaboration between musician Tara Busch and filmmaker Maf Lewis, who met years earlier at the Winter Music Conference in Miami. The project pairs Busch’s moody, noir-inflected synth work with Lewis’s short horror and sci-fi films, built to be scored live rather than played as a conventional set. An early inspiration was rescoring Albert Lamorisse’s 1956 short The Red Balloon, whose original score the pair found too on-the-nose; reworking it with more drama pointed them toward what I Speak Machine became. More than a decade in, the pace hasn’t slowed.

Sunday

Earth Tongue – The Far Out Lounge & Stage – 4:30 p.m.

Hailing from New Zealand and now based in Berlin, heavy psych duo Earth Tongue has been hellbent on worldwide genre domination. A decade in, the duo has three full-lengths to their name, including this year’s critically acclaimed Dungeon Vision on In The Red Records. When playing live, guitarist and vocalist Gussie Larkin splits her signal to fake a bass line, giving the two-piece the low end of a much bigger band. They sound bigger than two people have any right to, and that’s before factoring in how relentlessly they tour.

The Well – The Far Out Lounge & Stage – 6:10 p.m.

Austin’s own doom powerhouse The Well has been at it since 2012 and remains one of the city’s biggest local draws. Composed of guitarist and vocalist Ian Graham, bassist and vocalist Lisa Alley, and drummer Jason Sullivan, the trio has three full-lengths behind them, with a long-awaited fourth, …And Flames Ran Like Living Animals, arriving September 14 on popular Austin label Spaceflight Records. They’ve built their reputation on the road, sharing stages with High on Fire, Ty Segall, and Chelsea Wolfe. Scene staples and Levitation regulars, The Well is essential viewing for anyone who hasn’t caught their Iommi riffs and the vocal interplay between Graham and Alley in person. 

Iguana Death Cult – The 13th Floor – 1 a.m.

Levitation’s last call belongs to Dutch psych-rock shredders and Greenway Records signees Iguana Death Cult. Formed in 2014 by frontman Jeroen Reek, who brought together a handful of friends, not all of whom knew each other yet, for a raw take on neo-psychedelia. The band has since shared stages with Osees, Frankie and the Witch Fingers, and King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard, and even opened for Jack White. With fourth LP Guns Out out this year, the quintet has never sounded tighter, and they’re quickly becoming one of the more exciting bands in the wider underground music scene. The lineup will also feature support from local psych punk hardliners Gus Baldwin & The Sketch. The 13th Floor, the year-round Levitation clubhouse of sorts, is co-owned by Black Angels guitarist Jake Garcia and business partner Nick Yaklin. A fitting way to spend Levitation’s final moments.

Featured photo by Daniel Cavazos courtesy of Levitation

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