Monday, March 16, 2026
The Cosmic Clash

Live Music

Acid Bath Levitation 2025 Drew Doggett
Live MusicReviewRobert Dean

Live music review: Acid Bath, Rickshaw Billie’s Burger Patrol led Levitation 2025 metal day

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Hats off to the folks behind the scenes at Levitation Festival. They pulled off a diverse event at a little-used location to great effect. The Palmer Events Center sounded great and showed a lot of promise for what the festival can be in the future. Keeping parking at $10 a day was a smart move that kept fans happy. The food and drink options were crazy expensive, but I understand that goes with the territory of putting a festival on – but on the real? $19 for a brisket sandwich is banana town. Just walk down the street to Whataburger next year. 

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Case CockrellLive MusicReview

Live music review: The Dandy Warhols assert legacy at Levitation Night Show

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Portland, Oregon indie rock socialites The Dandy Warhols aren’t just surviving the volatile world of music, but thriving for the generations of vinyl collectors that hold them dear as a formative force that sparked a love of music and acting as a harbinger of an industry revolution. With countless tours under their belt, a relentless and boundary-breaking creative output, The Dandy Warhols have gone independent, away from the clutches of major label business and built their own studio for all Dandy endeavors since the turn of the millennium. For Austin’s 2025 Levitation Festival, the Pacific Northwest hardliners went to work to further assert their legacy with a Friday (September 26) late-night performance at Mohawk in the downtown, Red River Cultural District. For fans new and old, what the Dandys made for a career-spanning set of favorites and deep cuts alike. 

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Swans Mohawk Troy Gonzales
Live MusicReviewTroy Gonzales

Live music review: Swans played final big sound performance at Mohawk

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Legendary experimental rock band Swans returned to Austin on September 10 to play Mohawk for what is being touted as the group’s final full band tour.  in support of Birthing, their 17th studio album. Bandleader, Michael Gira has stated that the record would be the last “big sound” Swans album, with future releases from the band being “significantly pared down” and that it would mark his last album as the main producer of Swans. For music fans who made it to Mohawk earlier this month, it was a bittersweet moment from artists who have deeply influenced various experimental music genres since their inception in 1981. 

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LEV18 Roger Ho
Case CockrellLive MusicPreview

Live music preview: Seven more must see bands at Levitation 2025

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The 2025 edition of Levitation is coming up fast. Each year, Austin’s The Black Angels and trusted booking powerhouse Rob Fitzpatrick cast star-studded lineups that never disappoint the local and out-of-town music fans traveling to Austin for the annual multi-venue programming. The Cosmic Clash team is here to provide another list of bands you need to see during the festival takeover at Palmer Events Center and venues throughout the Austin area. Set times and tickets can be found at the Levitation website for fans to plan their schedule to see all the music they can throughout the weekend. 

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Levitation The Black Angels Roger Ho
Case CockrellLive MusicPreview

Live music preview: Seven must see bands at Levitation Festival 2025

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Levitation Festival 2025 kicks off next week (September 25-28), with a new and improved location in tow and an array of artists to make this year’s installment one of the best yet. Festival organizers The Black Angels and famed booker and promoter Rob Fitzpatrick have chosen none other than Palmer Event Center to showcase the main festival programming, complete with two stages for the weekend of all-star cast performances. The festival will also feature late-night shows throughout the Austin area, including all the Red River Cultural District venues that have been part of the festival since transitioning to a multivenue format in 2018. The Cosmic Clash will be attending for the long weekend and has curated a list of must-sees for the weekend’s multi-genre music happenings. Night shows are sold separately, so move fast to avoid getting shut out of the post-Palmer programming. Set times can be found via the Levitation website. Hit the link at the top of the story to grab tickets. VIP passes are sold-out. There are still some GA tickets available.

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Ranking Joe
Brian HillsmanLive MusicPreview

Live music preview: upstart Remo Fest to feature reggae acts from Texas and beyond

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Upstart reggae music event, Remo Fest ‘25 will take place at Hill Country Caribbean Vybez on Saturday, September 20, in Blanco, Texas.  Doors at the second-year reggae festival open at noon, with music kicking off at 2 p.m. The Caribbean music vibes continue until 11 p.m. 

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Acid Bath PR photo
Live MusicPreviewRobert Dean

Live music preview: Levitation Can’t Miss with Acid Bath

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One of the biggest draws to this year’s Levitation Festival in Austin this month is New Orleans’ swamp weirdos, Acid Bath. If you’re reading this and underground metal with a Louisiana flair ain’t in your wheelhouse, lemme get you right: this is the band everyone at the festival can’t miss.

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DAWA 6 PNG landscape poster
Brian HillsmanLive MusicPreview

Live music preview: DAWA benefit to feature Killer Mike of Run the Jewels at Radio/East

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There is some big news for Austin music fans this weekend. This Friday, September 12, Atlanta-based MC, Killer Mike (Run the Jewels), will headline Radio/East as part of the first DAWA fest. DAWA (Diversity Awareness and Wellness in Action) is celebrating their sixth anniversary is an Austin-based non-profit dedicated to providing opportunity to historically marginalized, underserved creative communities. Riders Against the Storm bandleader and former city Music Commission Chair Jonathan “Chaka” Mahone conceived the organization to directly fund BIPOC community frontliners via direct giving and thoughtful projects like DAWA Studios which provides a place for creatives to film and record with equipment provided by the upstart NPO which was founded in 2019.

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Spoon-landscape- 4 Moody Amp Angela Betancourt
Case CockrellLive MusicReview

Live music review: Indie rock legends Pixies and Spoon played Moody Amphitheater

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Indie rock legends come in many forms. Whether you’re discussing the likes of Modest Mouse, Built To Spill, or Guided By Voices, someone in the room is going to eventually bring up The Pixies. Hailing from Boston and now entering their 40th year, the prolific songwriting of singer and guitarist Black Francis remains influential. For their 2025 North American tour, the Northeastern outfit enlisted the help of hometown heroes Spoon, making a sensible pairing of two leading musical entities in their respective birthplaces. For the Austin stop on the run, the double-headline bill made its way to Moody Amphitheater on Saturday, September 6, a sweaty occasion that made it all about the music. 

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King Yosef 29th St Ballroom Justin Clark
Live MusicReviewRobert Dean

Live music review: King Yosef with Street Sects or How TikTok kids found real Industrial music

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The kids are all right. For a while there, it seemed like the industrial scene was dead as disco, but after catching Austin’s Street Sects open for King Yosef and Youth Brigade at the 29th Street Ballroom Wednesday night, it’s a fair take to conclude that something’s bubbling up in the industrial scene like it did with hardcore and punk, with waves of new, young fans finding the music, in part to being chronically online. The underground is finding its way, even if it’s via TikToks and Instagram blowing bands up – whatever, it’s better than Sabrina Carpenter

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Pigs x7 29th St Ballroom Troy Gonzales
Case CockrellLive MusicReview

Live music review: Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs delivered bone crushing riffs

Case Cockrell 3562 Views ,  ,  ,  ,  ,  ,  ,  ,  ,  ,  , 

Newcastle’s Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs (or Pigs x7 to make things easier) has been on a steady barrage of bone-crushing riffs, a consistent stream of records, and travels throughout the world to deliver their flammable methodology of sludge metal to the masses. Fresh off the release of their 2025 full-length Death Hilarious, the Pigs quintet covers all their bases with down-tuned guitar strikes and relentless, raw vocal aggression. With Nashville alternative metal act Waxed in tow on this run of shows, the double bill wrapped their tour in Austin at the under-new-management 29th St. Ballroom, sending things off with a deafening display of power on Wednesday, August 27.

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