A Place to Bury Strangers – The Cosmic Clash

Live music review: A Funky Levitation Full of Surprises or How April Spent the Fest

October 3, 2025 April Dawne 1964 Views A Place to Bury Strangers, APTBS, Boy Harsher, Destroyer, Diles Que No Me Maten, Frankie and the Witch Fingers, fusion, indie rock, jam rock, La Femme, Mdou Moctar, music festival, Olliver Ackermann, Palmer Events Center, Population II, psych-rock, punk rock, rock n roll, Rose City Band, Secret Chiefs 3, Swervedriver, synth wave, The Brian Jonestown Massacre, The Raveonettes, TV on the Radio, TVOTR, Unknown Mortal Orchestra

Adulting is mostly a bummer, and Levitation weekend (September 26-28) coincided with a very important work event happening all day Saturday. Thankfully, the big boss sent an email to the team instructing us to do what we needed to do for self-care, leading up to Saturday. Perfect! I consider live music to be something that can soothe the beast, and from Tuesday through Sunday, I got my fill. It was a funky Levitation that was full of surprises.

Case Cockrell Live Music Review

Live music review: Levitation 2025 ramble with Pavement, Mastodon, The Black Angels and more

October 2, 2025 Case Cockrell 1500 Views A Place to Bury Strangers, Blood Incantation, Built To Spill, Castle Rat, DAIISTAR, death metal, Frankie and the Witch Fingers, Fuzz Club, Hooveriii, Levitation, live music, Mastodon, metal, Model/Actriz, noisegaze, Pavement, prog rock, punk rock, Review, rock n roll, shoegaze, Skloss, space rock, stoner metal, The Armed, The Black Angels, The Brian Jonestown Massacre, Unknown Mortal Orchestra, Wednesday

Levitation Festival 2025 took place September 26 – 28 and marked another successful installment in a new location, with more than 30 acts making their way to Austin for yet another Black Angels-sponsored party featuring talent from all over the world. With a new HQ at Palmer Events Center on Barton Springs Road, the convention center turned into Levitation’s psychedelic playground for three days over the last weekend. Each day of the event brought unique vibes that spanned the festival’s usual suspects, first-timers, and legacy acts, all of which helped bring the star-studded booked talent to life for the three-day, two-stage rager. The Cosmic Clash team made their way to the convention center for the weekend to capture the action and highlight every moment that stood out to us at Palmer.

Case Cockrell Live Music Preview

Live music preview: Levitation drops 2025 genre spanning lineup today with new location

May 29, 2025 Case Cockrell 4373 Views A Place to Bury Strangers, Built To Spill, Frankie and the Witch Fingers, Levitation, lineup, live music, music festival, Palmer Events Center, Pavement, preview, psych-rock, Resound Presents, The Black Angels, The Brian Jonestown Massacre, The Dandy Warhols, Unknown Mortal Orchestra

evitation Festival returns on September 25-28 this Fall, bringing another masterfully curated lineup by famed booker Rob Fitzpatrick and co-producers Resound Presents. This year’s setup will change from its regular format, featuring a new central home of the Palmer Events Center in downtown Austin while retaining late-night programming in the Red River Cultural District. The 2025 festival lineup is an eclectic, genre-spanning showcase of psych rock, metal, punk, electronica, indie rock, and everything in between – a celebration of independent music in the live music capital.

Case Cockrell Live Music Review

Live music review: Day one and two of Levitation brought world’s best independent acts to Austin

November 3, 2024 Case Cockrell 2668 Views A Place to Bury Strangers, Boris, Empire Garage, Far Out Lounge, hard rock, Leviation, live music, Mdou Moctar, Meatbodies, neo-psych, Pissed Jeans, post-punk, psych-rock, punk rock, Review, rock n roll, Slift, Stubb's, The Black Angels, The Jesus Lizard

The first two days of Levitation Festival 2024 featured multiple stacked bills for a plethora of packed venues in the downtown Austin area and beyond. The Cosmic Clash team was in attendance to capture the action and highlighted some of our favorite acts that made their way to Austin for the action-packed Halloween weekend. From the Red River Cultural District to South Austin, the carefully curated talent brought their best for the masses that flock to the local music joints to watch the coveted Black Angels produced weekend with some of the independent music world’s best acts.

Case Cockrell Live Music Review

Live music preview: Six bands to see at LEVITATION 2024

October 14, 2024 Case Cockrell 2479 Views A Place to Bury Strangers, Austin Psych Fest, Boris, doom rock, Levitation, live music, Mdou Moctar, music festival, Pissed Jeans, progressive rock, psych-rock, Review, stoner rock, Swift, The Black Angels

World-renowned psychedelic Austin musician Roky Erickson once said, “At one time, I had it notarised that I was from another planet. By a lawyer.” Regardless of whether that makes sense or not, Erickson’s legacy still holds true in the city of Austin, Texas. We’re decades removed from the 60s, but folks like Austin’s The Black Angels and their proxies have kept his legacy alive by delivering endless programming of neo-psych rock utopia. Festival founders Rob Fitzpatrick and The Black Angels’ Levitation is back this Halloween weekend for yet another multi-venue installment, and the booked talent continues to deliver a factor of “Wow.” The Cosmic Clash team will join the festivities yet again and is here to prescribe another list of bands you need to see for the end-of-October festivities. All set times can be found on the Levitation website.

Case Cockrell Live Music Preview

Live music preview: LEVITATION 2024 music festival lineup and schedule is out

July 3, 2024 Case Cockrell 3031 Views 13th Floor, A Place to Bury Strangers, Boogarins, Death Valley Girls, Hotel Vegas, Kingdom, Levitation, live music, Mdou Moctar, Meatbodies, mohawk, music festival, Osees, Phantogram, preview, psych-rock, Slift, Stubb's, The Black Angels, The Jesus Lizard, The Sword, Wine Lips

Austin-based psychedelia collective Levitation has announced the 2024 edition lineup and schedule of their multi-venue festival to take place in downtown Austin over Halloween weekend. The festival will retain its four-day format, featuring venues in the Red River Cultural District and other parts of Austin. The event runs from October 31 – November 3. Each day of programming will contain multiple shows at various locations throughout its duration, including; Stubb’s Waller Creek Amphitheatre, Mohawk, Empire Garage & Control Room, Elysium, The 13th Floor, and the new addition of downtown EDM favorite, Kingdom.

Greg Ackerman Preview

Video Premiere: Swallow the Rat drops Other Rooms featuring Yuko Miyoshi clip today

November 10, 2022 Greg Ackerman 1394 Views A Place to Bury Strangers, Oliver Ackermann, post-punk, premiere, Swallow the Rat, Video, Yuko Miyoshi

New Zealand post-punks Swallow the Rat are premiering their video of the track “Other Rooms” featuring Yuko Miyosi (of Memory Foam) today at The Cosmic Clash.

Michael Maly Review

Live music review: Oblivion Access Festival slayed Austin last weekend

May 20, 2022 Greg Ackerman 1966 Views A Place to Bury Strangers, Blonde Redhead, Danny Brown, live music, Metz, music festival, Ovlivion Access, Review

Just when you think that there isn’t any room for another music festival in Austin that has the strength and originality to be taken seriously, enter Oblivion Access Festival. Formerly known as Austin Terror Fest, Oblivion Access Festival took over six venues in the downtown area over the course of four days last weekend and provided a diverse lineup that showcased some of the best artists of metal, hardcore, shoegaze, rap, electronica, experimental and DJ.

Greg Ackerman Preview

Live music preview: Oblivion Access Festival begins Thursday

May 11, 2022 Greg Ackerman 1419 Views A Place to Bury Strangers, Andy Stott, Blonde Redhead, Kool Keith, live music review, Metz, Oblivion Access Fest, Oblivion Access Festival, XIU XIU

Now that shows and festivals are back in full force, Austin is benefiting from the return of specialty mid-tier festivals like the psych rock themed, LEVITATION and this weekend’s sublimely booked, Oblivion Access Festival. The four-day metal, punk and experimental music fest begins Thursday at seven downtown venues, presenting a pleasing variety of acts for music fans to see

Greg Ackerman Music News

LEVITATION announced 2021 lineup today and it is dope

June 29, 2021 Greg Ackerman 1766 Views A Place to Bury Strangers, Austin Psych Fest, Blushing, Japanese Breakfast, Levitation, lineup announcement, music festival, music news, Ringo Deathstarr, The Black Angels, The Octopus Project, Thundercat

LEVITATION Festival announced the psychdelic rock music event’s 2021 lineup today and it is dope. Besides the assumed performance by festival founders, The Black Angels, a ton of great acts have been invited to perform including: Thundercat, Japanese Breakfast, Fuzz, A Place to Bury Strangers, The Hives and Kikagaku Moyo among others.

Greg Ackerman SXSW 2021

SXSW: 2021 Digital version prompts more questions than it answers

March 19, 2021 Greg Ackerman 979 Views A Place to Bury Strangers, Alexis Ohanian, APTBS, Dedstrange, LL Cool J, Queen Latifah, South by Southwest, SXSW, SXSW online, The Mysterines, Willie Nelson, X-Ray Specs

When we realized we would be covering South By Southwest (SXSW) this year from the comfort of our living room, it became clear our coverage of the festival was going to change significantly in 2021.