With Autumn days shortening and a chill hitting as the sun goes down, our summer music festivals have come to an end. No more long, hot days outdoors spent watching a live mixtape of all the new bands on the horizon, along with our already established favorites. Not to mention that the modern day music festival seems to be on its way to the morgue with the loss of more than a few staple music festivals in recent times.
With that, what holds the future for music festivals? The founder of San Francisco’s Psyched! Radio, Guillermo Goyri, may have the answer. Psyched! Fest spreads over six days throughout San Francisco and the East Bay from Oct. 30-Nov. 4, hosting a total of 64 bands at indoor venues, clubs and bars. Ticket prices start at $15, making Psyched! Fest an inexpensive festival with incomparable variety.
“Our lineup is diverse,” Goyri says. “We feature local and international acts across genres like punk, garage- and psyche-rock, and Latin indie. We’re all about making things accessible. Since we’re a not-for-profit music festival, everything we do is about giving back to the music community.”
Blackwater Holylight, an all-female band from Portland, are newcomers to Psyched! Fest. Bassist and lead-singer Allison “Sunny” Farris describes her band’s style as “heavy” with “psyche” aspects—generally speaking, “psyche” is rock music inspired by psychedelic culture. Farris is busy working on new material coming out next year but excited to play in the Bay Area. “[It’s] one of our favorite stops on our West Coast tours,” she says.
“Having the festival at established indoor venues has its perks,” Goyri says. “It helps with logistics, and their professional sound and lighting setups make sure every show sounds great. We also don’t have to worry about the weather messing things up—each venue has its own vibe which makes every show feel unique.”
Nikki Pickle is bassist of Los Angeles-based Frankie and the Witch Fingers, which headlined last year’s Psyched! Fest. “It’s [an] easier festival format to pull off rather than having to build a venue from nothing in the middle of a natural setting,” Pickle says. Drummer Nick Aguilar and guitarist Josh Menashe both say they’ve had “extremely memorable shows” here.
“The Bay Area is freaky in all the best ways,” says lead vocalist and guitarist Dylan Sizemore. He should know since the band recently recorded an album at Tiny Telephone studios in Oakland, where Sleater-Kinney and Death Cab for Cutie have also recorded albums.
Tropa Magica, based in East Los Angeles, describe their sound as “psychedelic cumbia punk with psych garage and Latinidad sprinkled in.” They’re back for their second year of Psyched! Fest, ready to debut some new songs. “Last year was great!” says singer and guitarist David Pacheco. He has many fond memories of the Bay Area and looks forward to the visuals that Zachary Rodell puts into the festival. A world-renowned concert backdrop lighting artist based in San Francisco, Rodell has worked for Berkeley’s UC Theatre, festivals including Coachella, Desert Daze and Mosswood Meltdown, and artists including jjuujjuu, Alison’s Halo and Suzanne Ciani.
While Psyched! Fest relies heavily on genres with psyche overtones—or undertones, depending on how one looks at it—and sets a “Freak Out” vibe with a similar aesthetic to an LSD episode of a Dragnet re-run adorned in light shows, it does not skimp on variety. There’s nothing Psyched! Fest won’t try or take a chance on, drawing from the pool of over 100 different DJs with varying tastes and knowledge from Psyched! Radio, all of whom contribute referrals of music artists to the festival.
Psyched! Fest is a unique experience and it could possibly hold the key to the future of music festivals, resurrecting them from a potential flatline.
Psyched! Fest, Oct. 30-Nov. 4, at various venues. $15 to $42.50+ with some free shows. More info at: psychedradiosf.com/psychedfest.
