Bands travelled from as far afield as Greece and Portland, Oregon, for this curated Heavy Psych/Stoner/Doom festival, which is dedicated to a passion for music and supporting smaller bands. It drew a very friendly and up-for-it crowd who clearly loved this music in its various forms, and each band got plenty of appreciation from them. We were treated to some truly great vocals and lyrics, stellar music and musicianship, big characters, and hugely entertaining performances. The deep blues roots were evident everywhere in the music, and there was a laid-back, irreverent feel with loads of on-stage banter and antics – and an added spiciness the day after the General Election.
Jukebox Monkey – Longheads – Kings of Frog Island
Words: Marisa Adams
Photography: Artur Tarczymil
The set-up for the two days worked really well, with no noticeable overrunning and only one minor change when a band hit some travel delays. Orange Amps sponsorship and a solid crew meant a quick turnaround of 15 minutes per band, so they packed them in with an hour break on Saturday, the longer second day. The first bands were given a decent 30 minutes, and the final sets were an hour or so each.
The sound was good, the lights were spectacular (although personally, I would have preferred the mid-ceiling ones to be attenuated or not crowd surf, as they were pretty glaring – but that was literally the only complaint), and there was a good sized to near capacity crowd throughout.
This was simply a great show over two days, and it finished off each evening with absolute belters of performances. I couldn’t make it to the Sunday after-party, but I have found new bands in that lineup to investigate and catch another time, so it’s all good, really.
Jukebox Monkey
There were a good few people in at the 6 pm start to enjoy this heavy, at times folk-tinged trio of alt/stoner rockers from somewhere in England, who opened the festival in emphatic style and had the honour of delivering the first of several salty political analyses of the previous day’s General Election result to the raucous approval of the entire venue.
With an engaging, varied and pummelling rhythm section, some galloping bass and some hulking, meaty riffage, they treated us to upbeat, defiant melodies edged with melancholy, strong vocal harmonies and bags of amiable on-stage energy and showmanship.
Their last song, Dead Wait, is from their Vs. Time EP was a real corker – steady, catchy and weighty with great vocals, finished in style with an all-out flourish and a kiss plonked on the guitarist by the bassist after a minor technical issue. This was a great way to start, easing us into the festival in solid, upbeat style with some laid-back irreverence – and gliding in smooth as Ace Rimmer with 59 seconds to go of their set time.
Longheads
Second up, this fabulously-haired five-piece plays brain-warping heavy psych space rock like a time machine back to a forest party in the 1970s, with a wormhole to Mars behind a tree. Opening, they ventured gamely forth into exotically flecked doomy psychedelic terrain. Gradually gathering trance-inducing mass, their sound opened out with airy bounding freedom and frisky jazz/prog passages, earning the drummer a salute from his bandmates and the crowd.
They laid down deep richly layered bases like launch pads in the trees upon which the ignition of some oddity of an interstellar craft erupted in kaleidoscopic revelry, their synth man spinning giant reverberating tentacles of coloured sound which grooved around disembodied vocals and guitar harmonies and multiplied under the frenzied drumming.
After loudly restating the earlier political sentiment to more noisy agreement of the audience, a languid, dreamy passage launched into deftly controlled abandon, which sent us racing through wormhole interiors before emerging into outer realms.
For their final offering, all three guitarists/bass turned in towards the drummer as the synth gradually approached a state of transported intensity, the sound slowly building with roll after heavier roll from the excellent rhythm section until what can only be described as a national security alert-level explosion of tentacles took place. Cracking stuff from these follicly-blessed lads.
The Kings of Frog Island
Due to travel delays, this laid-back quartet swapped set times with the next band – really the only noticeable glitch for the whole two days and hardly noticeable at all, with credit to these guys and the organisers.
With songs which spanned the stoner rock end of their catalogue, they opened with some steady vibes. Their decades of experience showed in the unrushed skill of the guitar and bass, the vocals giving the enterprise an unusual and engaging gothy feel and the new drummer, who was warmly introduced, did a grand job.
With a solid, condensed but spacey sound, they inhabited a deep, wide groove, any unnecessary embellishments now honed away to smoothness, which the growing crowd happily slid into like a comfortable sofa. I Am The Hurricane was particularly impressive here with its cascading riff, as was the following song Five O Grind.
With some easy banter in between songs and bags of character and skill, the pacier final section of their set rocketed along as if they had unleashed a giant luge.
