Huge Heavy Psych Fest Wraps In San Francisco
By Dave Pehling
SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) -- One of San Francisco's most venerable rock clubs hosts a two-day blowout of heavy psychedelia and hard rock this weekend when the Heavy Psych Sounds takes over the Bottom of the Hill with headliners Red Fang and Nebula and much more.
Organized by noted Italian psychedelic rock imprint Heavy Psych Sounds and brought to the Bay Area in partnership with local show promoter and design company Subliminal SF and sponsor Iron Man Moving, the epic weekend of heavy music marks the only two-day stop for the inaugural year of the U.S. festival.
The label held it's first edition of the HPS festival in its Italian headquarters of Rome before branching out to host events in the UK, Belgium and the Netherlands, but this round of dates will be the first time Heavy Psych Sounds brings the festival to the States.
Offering up a mix of metal, heavy psych and stoner/desert rock bands, the closing day of the two-day celebration gets an early 2 p.m. start and will offer free barbecue to go with the stellar five band line-up of psychedelic and hard rock acts topped by SoCal stoner rock greats Nebula.
Guitarist Eddie Glass and drummer Ruben Romano made up half of the seminal line-up of SoCal stoner quartet Fu Manchu on the band's first three albums, including the landmark third record In Search Of... before Glass and Romano split from the group in 1997 to form Nebula. Joined by bassist Mark Abshire (who had played with Fu Manchu and guitarist Scott Hill's early hardcore punk band, Virulence), the power trio mined a similar but more expansive style of heavy psychedelia on its early EPs for Relapse Records and Man's Ruin.
Those recordings and a growing popularity from regular touring led Seattle-based label Sub Pop to sign Nebula. The band's muscular, mind-expanding debut for the imprint -- To the Center -- was produced by noted Northwestern studio guru Jack Endino (Nirvana, Soundgarden, Zeke; more recently High on Fire and Windhand) and featured Mudhoney's Mark Arm singing on a cover of the Iggy and the Stooges song "I Need Somebody." The trio continued to refine it's howling take on the Blue Cheer/Stooges template the Sub Pop follow-up Charged and 2003's Atomic Ritual recorded with Masters of Reality guitarist Chris Goss.
Glass would cycle through a number of bandmates as time went on with Abshire departing after the recording of Charged and main songwriting collaborator Romano leaving in 2007 prior to the trio signing a deal with Tee Pee Records, who released Nebula's last album in 2009. The following year, the threesome decided to take an extended hiatus with Glass citing the wear and tear of regular touring as the impetus for a long break.
It wouldn't be until 2017 that Glass would contact latter era bassist Tom Davies about possibly reconvening the band to write new music. Bringing Blaak Heat drummer Michael Amster onboard, the group began playing around Southern California and elsewhere, including an appearance at last year's Stoned and Dusted Festival in Joshua Tree. Heavy Psych Sounds is releasing the band's first new album in a decade when it issues Holy S--t next month.
The rest of the Sunday rundown of acts features several local heavyweights. San Francisco favorites Hot Lunch have been making their unique style of proto-punk tinged with prog and psychedelia since singer Eric Shea split of his potent retro-rock outfit Parchman Farm.
On the band's 2013 self-titled debut, echoes of the MC5 and other more obscure '70s riff rockers like Sir Lord Baltimore and Dust can be heard in the headlong drive of "Handy Denny," "She Wants More," and the wah-wah fueled "Killer Smile," but the more straightforward salvos are balanced by a number of equally potent curve balls like a cover of Emerson, Lake and Palmer's "Knife Edge" that transformed the song from a virtuoso keyboard workout to a doom-laden dose of guitar mayhem..
The group would issue several singles and EPs over the next few years to satisfy fans, but it wasn't until a couple of months ago that they finally released their appropriately titled sophomore effort for Tee Pee Records, Seconds. The line-up also features an appearance by Palm Desert guitarist Mario Lalli's celebrated underground band Fatso Jetson, the Thin Lizzy-inspired dueling six-string heroics of SF hard rockers Banquet and openers Turn Me On Dead Man, a long-running local act that delivers epic, Bowie/Bolan-esque space rock played at paint-peeling volume. Tickets for the Heavy Psych Sounds Festival -- $30 for each day or $50 for a two-day pass -- are available at the Bottom of the Hill website.
UPDATE: Due to unforeseen circumstances, both Yawning Man and Fatso Jetson have been forced to cancel their appearance at the Heavy Psych Sounds Festival
Heavy Psych Sounds Festival Day 2 with Nebula
Sunday, May 5, 2 p.m. $30-$50
Bottom of the Hill
