Halloween weekend is about to get weird at the Far Out Lounge with Levitation’s latest festival installment, the Halloween Freakend. And there’s honestly no better way to let your freak flag fly than with a genre-blending, horror-infusing, internet coded DJ set from the one and only Machine Girl.
Let’s talk about Levitation
Since 2008, the Levitation brand has been cultivating the latest music festival circuit to come out of Austin. First came Austin Psych Fest, and later with Leviation. As longstanding festivals like Austin City Limits (ACL) and South By Southwest (SXSW) have far outgrown just local interests, Levitation has been keeping Austin weird. It features an insane lineup of local bands mixed in with some of the best indie, metal and psychedelic rock bands in the country.
Last year, Levitation was voted Austin’s best music festival by The Austin Chronicle, so you know where the locals’ hearts lie. This year, the Levitation brand decided to give the people what they wanted. They addied a third festival to the mix with the Halloween Freakend, a two-day mini-festival taking place at the Farout Lounge in South Austin.
In the spirit of keeping things weird, Levitation decided to book one of the biggest artists in the underground rave scene, Machine Girl, to close out the end of the second night. Part punk, part metalcore, part grindcore, part jungle, part industrial and all around chaotic, high-energy fun, Machine Girl has been slowly building a following of insanely loyal fans over the past decade since first breaking out into the scene with the debut WLFGRL in 2014.
Introducing Machine Girl
With an incredibly distinct and experimental sound that has evolved immensely over the years and yet has remained indistinguishable and irreproducible, MG has really found a way to scratch that itch for discord using gamers, anime heads, terminally online niche internet fanatics, and just some people looking for weird music.
Starting off as a solo project in his room of his mom’s house and on the train ride to college in Brooklyn, NY, then-video editor Matt Stephenson didn’t intentionally make music to be played live. He just wanted to create an outlet for his internet-coded, anime fascinated brain to vent out to. But eventually, the music started to catch a crazy following online in the midst of the breakcore revival of the early 2010s. Soon, Stephenson did eventually find himself playing shows in the underground rave scene.
With upbeat, fast-paced dance music sounding like something sampled out of Mario Kart, an overwhelming air of acceptance for all and support of personal expression (fully embracing the meaning of PLUR), and one of the most intensely chaotic live sets of the scene packed with mosh pits, bloody noses and broken glass, Stephenson carved out a lane of his own not only with his music but with his performances as well.
A few new things
Adding on to the MG brand, Stephenson created his own distinctive imagery with his album artwork and titles, drawing inspiration from his favorite movies and shows. He took his project’s name from the Japanese horror-action flick of the same name, and the signature wolf head on his first LP from the horror film Ginger Snaps. The horror-themed imagery, coupled with weird anime artwork, would become recurring themes in the Machine Girl universe. This then became insanely influential throughout the hardcore rave scene as well.
At the beginning, Machine Girl remained mostly instrumental electronic music. However, towards the release of his 3rd LP Because I’m Young Arrogant And Hate Everything You Stand For, MG started experimenting more. The band played with screaming vocals and incorporated live instrumentation into their show. In time, this became a part of the signature MG sound.
Eventually, Stephenson hired drummer Sean Kelly to put more of a full band experience into the MG shows and albums. While still remaining an underground act MG’s popularity has continued to steadily rise. They even had a second wave of fans discovering their music in 2020. This happened when Stephenson decided to release the project’s music on Spotify for the first time.
Things today
Since then, the venues have only gotten bigger. The duo was even allowed to perform at the Las Vegas festival Sick New World. In 2024, the group had started playing their largest venues to date upon the release of MG Ultra. This was an insanely heavy album, chock full of themes of conspiracies and brain deterioration among the population.
The band is gearing up to release their latest album PsychoWarrior: MG Ultra X. This is set to drop just one week before headlining the Feakend. It just may be the kick-off to one of their biggest years to date. Additionally, Machine Girl will be incorporating a guitarist into their band. With a new guitarist in the group, new music on the way and their first healing festival show, this is the perfect time to catch Machine Girl in all their glory during Halloween weekend on Nov.1.
Levitation’s Halloween Freakend will be taking place from Oct. 31 through Nov. 1. You can check out the full lineup and get your tickets at their website.
I’m a photographer currently based in Austin after recently relocating from Denver, CO. I graduated from the University of Colorado, Denver in 2019 with a degree in Business Management. I love music of all genres and have been going to live shows since I was 5 years old. Some of my favorite artist currently include Freddie Gibbs, Lola Young, Ivy Lab and Knocked Loose, but that is always subject to change.
