Live music review: Ripplefest Six Goes Doom for a Weekend at Far Out Lounge
Ripplefest returned to South Austin’s Far Out Lounge September 17 through 20 for its sixth year of doom metal excess. The crowd came ready for all the sludgey riffs they could handle. Founded by Ryan Garney of Lick of My Spoon Productions, the festival has built a name as a family reunion for the stoner doom metal scene, pulling bands in from across the globe. The Cosmic Clash team was on the ground for all the Ripplefest action. Here’s what stuck with us.
Saturday: Far Out Lounge
The Far Out Lounge & Stage hosted the festival’s main programming, pulling together acts from across the doom metal spectrum, familiar faces next to names we hadn’t caught before. Austin heavy psych duo Gran Moreno took Ripple’s side stage tight and locked in as always. The two piece has built a reputation around town for a fuzzed out, metal adjacent sound that’s landed on nearly every stage in the city. Brothers Ricardo and Christian Rodríguez, raised in Mexico before landing in Austin, know how to make two players sound like a full band, riffs melting into deafening drum work. Now signed to Lick of My Spoon management, Gran Moreno is a bona fide Ripplefest staple.
Denver stoner blues trio Luna Sol took the reins on the main stage next, riding a run that drew praise from Kyuss’ John Garcia and Guns N’ Roses’ Dizzy Reed. Frontman David Angstrom’s guitar work was the highlight, backed by stage banter that made his excitement about the slot obvious.
Long running Asbury Park metal outfit Solace leaned into a sound that owed a lot to Mastodon, tight instrumentation under Justin Goins’ vocal howls that reached back toward power metal and the New Wave of British Heavy Metal. A packed venue filled most of the side stage footprint, and the chops held up for a band that’s been at it since 1996.
Norway’s Kal-El is no stranger to Austin, having played the new Lost Well location last fall. Their cosmic take on the genre fits Austin well, and the psychedelic touches and fuzzy riffs made them one of the night’s highlights.
When Ripplefest 2026 was first announced, the lineup included High Desert Queen, the band fronted by festival founder Ryan Garney, but they had to drop off the bill after a medical issue sidelined drummer Phil Hook. That didn’t keep Garney off the stage for long. A mystery band called Unger also showed up on the bill, and when Unger took the side stage, the secret was out: it was Garney’s new project, playing a set of all new material for what amounted to a live debut.
Saturday night’s headliner came with Denver’s Khemmis, who closed out the evening with a blistering, high volume set. The band started as a two man project between guitarist and singer Ben Hutcherson, who moved to Colorado for a PhD at CU Boulder, and vocalist and guitarist Phil Pendergast. Signed to Nuclear Blast in 2017, the band lived up to that pedigree with a headline worthy set.
Sunday: Sagebrush
The closing party for Ripplefest took place a few miles down South Congress at the eclectic honky tonk venue Sagebrush. Known for booking everything from country to death metal, the space proved a fitting spot to wind down another year of Ripple. Seattle progressive stoner sludge outfit Witch Ripper put on a stellar conceptual performance, pulling from this year’s Through the Hourglass release via Magnetic Eye Records.
Nashville duo Friendship Commanders followed with vocalist and guitarist Buick Audra and drummer Jerry Roe. Roe’s time as an in demand session player around Nashville showed in how tight the set felt.
The night’s highlight came from fellow Nashville act and Magnetic Eye labelmates Howling Giant, one of four bands on the Sunday bill tied to the Albany, New York label. The band’s trademark triple vocal attack, from Tom Polzine, Zach Wheeler, and Sebastian Baltes, anchored one of the strongest sets of the night, with new guitarist Adrian Lee Zambrano rounding out the sound.
Sweden’s Greenleaf closed out the festival with what stood as the band’s U.S. debut, another Magnetic Eye act that crossed the Atlantic for the occasion. Started in 1999 as a side project between Dozer guitarist Tommi Holappa, Demon Cleaner’s Daniel Lidén, and producer Bengt Bäcke, the band built a reputation as one of the genre’s steadiest acts over the next two and a half decades. The slot had been on the books since it was announced at last year’s fest, so the set carried the weight of a long time coming.
Ripplefest will return in 2027, with tickets on sale now via the Lick of My Spoon website.
All photos by Justin Clark
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