An anthropomorphic dancer serenades the audience on big screens left right and center. Hundreds of magenta, yellow, and teal dots circulate through the figure sending dopamine to the limbic system of the far-out audience.
The soundtrack to the graceful movements, the 2022 indie dream collaboration between Panda Bear and Sonic Boom. Reset is the brainchild, a combination of Animal Collective co-founder Noah Lennox’s devotion to electronic alternative indie-pop collides with Peter Kember's psychedelic music mind.
Photos by Trevor Keig
The band brought an assortment of silly to the stage. Güiro’s guided the psychedelic ideas to new heights peering over the edge of the common instruments and sounds associated with the genre. The “bomb ba bom bom” of a men's barbershop quartet was performed by one half of the duo and sleigh bells brought Christmas to Halloween weekend.
The group ran through their entire collaboration over their set giving Levitation a taste of what psyche can sound like and how the future of the sound can persist into a new age of music.
A packed Far Out Lounge shifted its focus to the secondary stage of the venue. Crowded under a canopy of still hanging on leaves, a string of multi-colored string lights connects the branches to the psychedelic-designed stage close to the venue's entrance.
A plethora of eyes follow overseeing the amazement of an audience directing their gaze to the three members of California-based shoe-gaze stars, Tanukichan.
Photos by Trevor Keig
Tanukichan is the brainchild of classically trained Hannah van Loon. The singer dawned a dark grey shirt a shade lighter than the one on her debut album, Sundays. Her Friday performance saw her play the bass and serenade the audience with a set list of 2018 hits and songs from the band's latest album, GIZMO.
Photos by Trevor Keig
The band’s ambient sound drove the crowd to pack around the stage enjoying the delish droning guitar and stellar drum work.
The band went old and new with their set list playing a cover of Lovesong by the Cure and their newest release, NPC.
Before departing from the stage after a 40-minute set, the singer directed the fans to say hello after the show.
“We’ve got this sad little merch tent over here if you haven’t seen it.”
To close off the Far Out Lounge’s Friday Levitation showcase, New Zealand-originated and now Portland-based, Unknown Mortal Orchestra dazzled in their return to Austin.
The low-fi voice of Ruban Nielson was strong enough to belt the understated abstract lyrics of the band's discography and the five-piece crew's instrumental expertise filled every second with musical harmony.
The group symphony of serenity highlighted the calm in a psychedelic show giving a sound to the return to earth comedown feeling – personifying the dialed pupil's feeling of a trip.
Photos by Trevor Keig
The crowd swayed and the burdens of the week washed away as a weightless feeling stuck in the heart of Levitation fans.
“I’ve missed you Austin,” Nielsen said.
We did too.
All photos from Trevor Keig