Sludge-metal juggernaut Weedeater closes out Heavy Psych Sounds Fest
SAN FRANCISCO -- Stoner-metal favorites Weedeater headlines the second day of the mammoth Heavy Psych Sounds Festival being held at Thee Parkside Sunday, topping an epic eight-band bill.
Organized by noted Italian psychedelic rock imprint Heavy Psych Sounds, the festival first came to the Bay Area in 2018 in partnership with local show promoter and design company Subliminal SF/RWS Presents. The epic weekend of heavy music marked the only two-day stop for the inaugural year of the U.S. edition of the festival featuring headliners Red Fang and Nebula along with a host of other acts taking over the Bottom of the Hill for a full weekend of loudness. This year's festival includes headliners Windhand and Weedeater, Mexican psych pioneers Los Dug Dugs, celebrated HPS Records artists Geezer, Witchpit, Duel and Love Gang along with returning groups Nebula, the Atomic Bitchwax, Hippie Death Cult, Kadabra and Warlung as well as local acts High Tone Son of a Bitch and Psychic Hit.
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While concerns over rain have moved this year's edition indoors at Thee Parkside, the venue will still have vendors, full bar and food available and the full line-up of eight bands per day will still be taking the stage at the intimate venue. In addition to the main event on the weekend, the festival is hosting affiliated pre-parties at the Rickshaw Stop Wednesday night with the first SF visit for acclaimed British psych juggernaut Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs along with locals Nobody's Baby and Thank You Come Again as well as a Friday night show at the Bottom of the Hill with heavyweight favorites Hot Lunch, SF Celtic metal band Slough Feg, bluesy stoner-rock group Older Sun and noisy punk band Disastroid. On Saturday night, Bender's hosts an after party with SoCal psychedelic rockers Spirit Mother and Oakland punk/metal power trio Glowing Brain.
Though they came together as a side project for Wilmington, North Carolina bassist "Dixie Dave" Collins in 1998, Weedeater soon became the musician's main outlet when his main band, pioneering sludge-metal outfit Buzzov*en, called it quits within months. Collins teamed with guitarist Dave "Shep" Shepherd and drummer Keith "Keko" Kirkum to craft the new trio's lumbering style of southern-tinged stoner metal heavily indebted to the sound of Buzzov*en, the Melvins and Sleep.
The band's early albums ...And Justice For Y'all and Sixteen Tons, would lead to a deal with noted metal imprint Southern Lord Records. The trio's two albums for the label -- God Luck and Good Speed and Jason...the Dragon earned Collins and company solid reviews on both sides of the Atlantic. While they have not been the most prolific of bands, Weedeater has grown its fanbase with dogged touring, a reputation for punishingly loud shows and Dixie Dave's kinetic, near cartoonish onstage performance that never fails to entertain. The band's most recent album, Goliathan for new label Season of Mist, marked the recording debut of drummer Travis Owen when it came out in 2015.
Weedeater was slated to play last year's edition of the Heavy Psych Sounds Festival, but were forced to cancel along with several other bands they were touring due to multiple cases of COVID. The current line-up of the band with onetime Buzzo*ven drummer Ramzi Ateya will close the proceedings for this year's fest after sets from New Jersey heavyweight trio the Atomic Bitchwax (which features former and current members of pioneering stoner rock band Monster Magnet), SoCal veterans Nebula -- who released their first new album in a decade on Heavy Psych Sounds with Holy S--t in 2019 -- Austin, TX-based proto-metal revivalists Duel, Spokane, WA-based Sabbath worshippers Kadabra, LA band Deathchant who mix elements of the tuneful, twin-guitar '70s hard rock of Thin Lizzy with early SoCal punk and sludgy doom, and two high-octane Bay Area bands: longtime sludge merchants and current Weedeater tourmates High Tone Son of a Bitch (who released their latest album Live at The Hallowed Halls through Bay Area metal imprint Ripple Music last year), and East Bay hard-rock ragers Psychic Hit, who will debut the band's latest line-up. More information and tickets are available at the RWS Presents website.
Heavy Psych Sounds Festival with Weedeater and more
Sunday, March 26, 12 p.m. $80 ($150 for 2-day festival pass)
Thee Parkside
