Levitation Festival began Friday, September 26th at Palmer Events Center. The festival was spread over three days and two stages with the Austin skyline looking painted in the background.
The festival made its debut at Palmer Events Center, featuring an indoor and outdoor stage. The weekend included acts across a spectrum of sound as fans fluttered from stage to stage.
The festival archives performances in the “Live At Levitation” series. The collection includes a limited set of marbled vinyl that look as melted as the crowd feels. Levitation blends artists and crowds at peak enthusiasm, like a taxidermic animal mid-pounce.
The Sword
Legendary Austin band, The Sword is celebrating the 15 year anniversary of their album, Warp Riders and played it in its entirety. The beloved record received critical and fan success and is a landmark in the band’s nearly 25 year run. The world they create through their sound puts a weapon in your hand and tells you to run forward.
Acid Bath
After a 28 year hiatus, Acid Bath is embarking on a massive tour, in part, to honor their late bassist, Audie Pitre. The Louisiana lads were stopped in their tracks in 1997, when Pitre was killed by a drunk driver. Now, after almost thirty years, the band was warmly welcomed to an electrified audience ready to mosh, the energy was undeniable. It was such an honor to be standing in front of such sludge metal legends. Their tour is picking up steam as they add new US dates to the to do list, but the band says they have no intention of recording new tracks and have been sticking to a setlist of the classics.
The Armed
The Armed took over the outdoor stage and controlled everyone’s attention with their variety and interaction. The hardcore group prefers to remain anonymous, constantly cycling through new collaborators. Each vocalist took turns stage diving into the crowd, never letting anyone have more than a second of clarity before turning up the volume on their intensity. It was kind of like if being water boarded was enjoyable.
Mastodon
Mastodon closed out day one of Levitation with an intense reverence. The band recently lost their brother, lead guitarist and bandmate, Brent Hinds to a fatal motorcycle accident and the weight of his absence reverberated off the walls. The spirit of siblings was seen all throughout the indoor stage, pairs of friends crowd-surfing and other friends enjoying the chaos away from the concentrate. The headliners set the tone for the rest of the festival: seriously fun.
I am a student at Texas State studying Digital Media and Psychology. I am always carrying my camera with me, it feels like my true voice. Some of my favorite artists are Courtney Barnett, Tainy, Frank Ocean, Art Lown, Fleshwater, Turnover, SZA and Wynton Kelly. Central Texas always has talented people passing through and I try to catch as many shows I can. I really love fashion, part of the fun of going to a concert is seeing what the artists wear on stage and everyone's outfits in the crowd. I tend to use musical elements in my fashion photography, the two are so intertwined to me. I also love to read and run, but not always at the same time.
