Friday, March 6, 2026
The Cosmic Clash

psych-rock

Clown Core Halloween Freakend Troy Gonzales
April DawneLive MusicReview

Live music review: Everyday Isn’t Halloween, But it Was Levitation’s Freakend

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I love The Far Out Lounge (FOL), I love the people who book the shows, bartend, run the door, and clean up after all of us. This spot opened up safely, from a distance, during the lockdown to give live-music hungry people a safe place to see a show. We were like Footloose and unable to dance, and we had to remain socially distant, but we could feel a sense of normalcy that was sorely missed. All this to say, I love that The Far Out Lounge gets to host Levitation events like Halloween Freakend. Two, easy-to-get-to stages, with zero band overlap, in a large gravel yard in far South Austin with food trucks, bars, merch area, poster museum, and more to keep you entertained between sets.

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Boris Mohawk Drew Doggett
Case CockrellLive MusicReview

Live music review: Boris brought metal shapeshifting to Mohawk

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Heavy metal in 2025 is in a healthy, hell-charged state. Bands are experimenting with the genre like Deafheaven, Full of Hell, Sunn O))), and even Austin acts like Portrayal of Guilt. For Tokyo, Japan’s Boris, a wave of extreme metal shapeshifting has paved the way for an everlasting gauntlet that’s redefining heavy music for 2025. With releases that dabble in drone metal, doom metal, and noise/experimental rock, Boris arrived for a Tuesday night gig in downtown Austin that came as a stop on their US tour to celebrate the 20th anniversary of their landmark tenth studio album Pink. For their third local appearance in two years, the Japanese berserkers stormed the stage at Mohawk in the Red River Cultural District yet again to astronomical results. 

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Osees 2 Hotel Vegas Troy Gonzales
Case CockrellLive MusicReview

Live music review: garage rock behemoths Osees played Hotel Vegas residency

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Los Angeles garage rock behemoths Osees returned to Austin for their annual, (sometimes bi-annual) residency at Eastside live music stronghold Hotel Vegas over the last weekend. Continuing their regular Austin tour stop tradition with a discography that gets bigger with every calendar rotation. With a solidified lineup defining the current iteration of esteemed bandleader John Dwyer’s everlasting rein, the Osees delivered another weekend of the eclectic paradigm that set the standard for the dozens of psych punk groups that make the Dwyer-led company a source of everlasting influence. Despite being on the road to promote their latest release Abomination Revealed At Last, the West Coast berserkers only performed one song from the new release and ventured into a rare, deep cuts, setlist territory. 

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Halloween Freakend 2025 Levitation banner image
Case CockrellLive MusicPreview

Live music preview: Halloween Freakend by Levitation is coming to Far Out Lounge

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Levitation and Resound Presents have teamed up again for a Halloween weekend two-day festival in South Austin. The mini-fest will take place at The Far Out Lounge & Stage on October 31 and November 1, the current site of the Spring edition of Austin Psych Fest. The Freakend lineup kicks off on Halloween night with Bitchin Bajas, J’Cuuzi, Stereolab, Black Lips, and Viagra Boys arriving for their first Austin headlining excursion.

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TV on the Radio Daniel Cavazos
April DawneLive MusicReview

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

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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.

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ACL Festival skyline
Case CockrellLive MusicPreview

Live music preview: Six must see bands at Austin City Limits Music Festival 2025

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Austin City Limits Music Festival is an annual music extravaganza that takes place in the heart of Austin every Fall, and the curated talent ranges from worthy up-and-coming artists and legacy acts to round out its eclectic, genre-spanning array of music. For this year’s installment, The Cosmic Clash has put together a list of six must-sees you need to put on your list for the first weekend at Zilker Park which begins October 3. Tickets and set times can be found via the ACL website or through recommended resellers.

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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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dandy_warhols_daniel_cavazos-13
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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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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Pigs x7 29th St Ballroom Troy Gonzales
Case CockrellLive MusicReview

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

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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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