RippleFest Texas 2024 was held over the weekend 19-22 September 2024 at The Far Out Lounge and Sagebrush in Austin, Texas. MetalTalk’s Sunil Singh experienced this exceptional weekend and reports with photographs from MetalTalk’s Melanie Webster. You can read the first two days coverage here. You can read the earlier part of Day Three here.
RippleFest Day Three: The Darkening Skies
Trotting over to the large stage, the darkening skies provided the perfect mood for France’s psychedelic blasters, Mars Red Sky. The jazzy, laid-back grooves paired so well with the sun setting in the background. Their sound just hit the sweet spot of slower, more purposeful head nodding.
In fact, I even closed my eyes a few times just for my ears to get spoiled with attention. Beautiful and serene, even through the moments of bluesy distortion. Merci beaucoup.
The stage, the Yellow one, was set. It was time for High Desert Queen, led by Ryan Garney, organizer of RippleFest Texas. I had seen them earlier in the week in Toronto, but honestly, you can never get enough of the high-dose energy of this band.
Almost every song feels like a closer, intimating that the band runs on some cosmic energy–perhaps a fusion of music, the fans, and the swirling love that seems to be some kind of universal constant with the band.
Head Honcho is a song that needs to be experienced live. My favourite song by Soundgarden is a deep track on Down On The Upside called Overfloater. There are times in Head Honcho when Garney is channelling Cornell’s fading screams. I got goosebumps just writing that. Imagine what it must have felt to hear and see that.
Moments like that have defined my life through the lens of music. RippleFest Texas is simply just one ‘WTF’ moment after another. It is the aural equivalent of tantric sex.
You think I am exaggerating? I wrote about it in my book, and it grabbed the attention of Jeff Woods, my foreword writer:
“If one sentence vibrated right off the page in technicolour frenzy, for me, it’s this:
Rock and roll is not an accompaniment to sex. It is sex on its own. Equally wild and only limited by its own creativity and curiosity.”
Jeff Woods, Legends of Classic Rock/Records and Rockstars
It was time for all of RippleFest to get fucked by Sweden’s Truckfighters. This was my first time seeing them, and they played such a blistering and sweaty set of balls out rock ‘n’ roll that I had to tap out even before they finished.
The band has been around for more than 20 years, and they still bounce around like young kids at a trampoline park. That would be founding members Ozo and Dango. It’s like they have told the concept of ageing, “damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead.” Translation. Fuck age, let’s rock our asses off.
Absolutely bonkers how much they shredded. By the time they hit their last song, Desert Cruiser, I was already off in the distance, watching them take it up another notch when there shouldn’t have been any more heights to climb. I sipped my beer, gazing around at the whole layout of The Far Out Lounge and letting their last song pierce my being in the physical centre of it all. It was transcending, to say the least.
There are very few bands on the planet that could follow that set. Luckily, some of them happened to be here in Austin, ready to take the challenge.
I had seen Gozu earlier in the week in Toronto. It was my first time. If you haven’t experienced this Boston-area band, I suggest you start making plans. It’s a quartet which is heavily armed with guitar and vocal talents. Doug Sherman shares vocal duties with Joe Grotto and guitar ones with Marc Gaffney. Seth Botos anchors the assault on drums.
You know that saying don’t bring a knife to a gunfight? In this case, it should be don’t bring a knife to a bazooka fight. That’s because Gozu are just going to put the foot on the pedal right from the start and run over everything in their path.
Sherman’s vocals have such a fuckin’ enviable range–some of his favourite singers are Joni Mitchell, Sly Stone, and Stephen Stills. And when he gets into that high range, it just sets up the band to launch their next wave of thundering riffs with enviable contrast, amplifying any freshly delivered heaviness. Each band member is so dialled in. I especially enjoyed Gaffney noodling away with his eyes closed.
I can confidently report there were no prisoners taken after Gozu left the stage.
Dozer. There’s an old saying, ‘Those that know, no explanation is necessary. For those that don’t, no explanation is possible.’ This is pretty much going to be how I reflect on my second time seeing these Swedish pioneers of the scene. They started, not unironically, in 1995, the same year Kyuss disbanded.
Comparisons to them died early this century. Dozer has carved out a legacy all their own. Few will argue that they are simply one of the greatest bands of our generation. That their recording output and live performances have only gotten better is something even fewer bands can say.
Dozer are at the top of the mountain. After you have seen them, your life’s Bucket List has one less item to cross off. Mine had two horizontal lines crossed through ‘See Dozer’ in less than a week.
There is no exaggeration of how life-changing it is to finally see the band live. Their own merch reflects this understanding.
And even though my mind was blown seeing them for the first time under a week ago–in a small club at that–this set that closed the main stage of RippleFest was one for the ages. Every video I shot with my camera I have watched numerous times, reliving the surplus of magical moments. One of them has already become one of my favourite concert memories of all time.
It’s when they dug way back to the beginning of their recorded music, and unearthed Calamari Sidetrip for the RippleFest audience. Remember those tears I shed when Domkraft cracked out Slowburner the evening before? It was even worse, as this took me back when I fell down the rabbit hole of this stoner/doom with Man’s Ruin. To experience this song 25 years later, with the band still here and bigger, and this whole scene spreading like wildfire all over the planet, you would have been disappointed if I didn’t cry. It was a moment of personal validation of where I am today.
The liquid light show that Mad Alchemy creates at RippleFest just complements the vibe of the music so well. With Dozer, it just seemed to go into a spiritual realm. Every song they played just punched harder. All in attendance were having communion with Dozer. Not enough can be said about how well-oiled this desert machine is.
The military-precision drumming of Olsson and the enthusiastically tight bass of Rockner ensure that the rhythm section is, simply put, always on fire. Nordin and Holappa are entrusted with all the signature Dozer guitar tones.
But, for me, the real magic of Dozer lies in Nordin’s absolutely versatile voice–which now has become synonymous with the wide landscape of emotions that they have uniquely carved out.
Big Sky Theory was the last song. To have it played with the clear Austin night sky was too fitting. It soared. We soared. It grabbed our hearts and squeezed all the available emotions that were left.
Will never forget where I was late in the evening on Sept 21, 2024. If reading this is your first introduction to Dozer, you need to spend the next few months listening to everything they have ever created.
Dozer are better than every band you have listened to in the last 30 years.
As most of the people headed back to the Yellow stage to see the final act, Fatso Jetson, I headed towards the sea of picnic tables in the opposite direction. I needed to–and wanted to–watch the final night at The Far Out Lounge from a distance, letting me soak in everything as the night was winding down.
The zooming-out lens was appropriate to watch Fatso Jetson weave their magic. If you cannot get to the high desert of Southern California, then Fatso Jetson will bring it to you.
Sitting on the picnic table, I was more than content with sitting in the cheap seats, randomly closing my eyes, and soaking in the maestro Mario Lalli and his band of merry men churning out tasty morsels of desert jamming one after another.
To feel these moments of transcendence from my vantage point amplified and galvanized my fresh emotions–that tonight was far more special than the words I have written and the photos that have been wonderfully taken by Melanie Webster.
Goodnight, RippleFest. Goodnight. You left us all breathless.
You can read all our Ripplefest coverage at MetalTalk.net/ripplefest.
