The Church, yeule, Codeine, and More Highlights From Levitation’s Thursday and Friday

yeule at the Concourse Project (Photo by David Brendan Hall)

Call it a curse or just seasonality, the almost-annual presence of storms during Levitation luckily narrowly avoided the main block of evening shows on both Thursday and Friday. Kickoff to the multi-venue, multi-genre music festival spread from downtown venues to the farther-flung Far Out Lounge and Concourse Project, where the Chronicle team caught stacked lineups including standouts like Sasami and Uncle Acid & the Deadbeats.

Find our highlights below, and stay tuned for the rest of our Levitation weekend coverage, which is sure to include more onstage Halloween attire.

yeule’s Cyberfeminist Shredding Smashes Expectations

Riding the high of her acclaimed September release softscars, glitch connoisseur yeule lived up to the critical hype with a feedback-infused Thursday set at the Concourse Project. Equally inspired by cyberfeminist theory and Nintendo DS nostalgia, the 25-year-old Singapore native toed the line between sweetness and derangement, pairing eerily pitched vocals with dense layers of angelic reverb. Swirling synths complemented acoustic chords on solo opener “Don’t Be So Hard on Your Own Beauty,” while ambient offering “Bloodbunny” saw tourmate/fellow guitar-slinger Sasami join. Sharing a palpable onstage chemistry, the pair flip-flopped between lead and rhythm guitar duties, including yeule’s repurposing of a violin bow for a shredding solo on “Sulky Baby.” Trading her usually ephemeral vocals for a full-blown screamo wail, pop punk scorcher “X W X” saw the singer’s previously pensive crowd descend into a thrashing mosh pit. By the set’s end, the mood-shifting artist had shattered preconceptions, as evidenced by my sweat-covered friend’s closing commentary: “I thought I would’ve been swaying the whole time!” – Genevieve Wood

Codeine’s Claustrophobic, Genre-Setting Slowcore

As far as anybody knows, the genre name slowcore didn’t originate from a portmanteau of “slow hardcore.” But watching Chris Brokaw of Codeine throw his entire body into each heaving, deliberate drum hit at the Far Out Lounge, you wondered if it just might have. In the early Nineties, when a clutch of like-minded bands began playing elegiac, sotto voce indie rock with the intensity and emotion of Black Flag or Minor Threat, that intensity and emotion probably peaked with Codeine. The New York trio, whose depressive vocals, guttural guitars, and Soviet-battle-tank rhythms formed the genre’s foundation 30 years ago, remained in fine narcotizing form for their set Thursday night at the Numero Group 20th anniversary showcase. What didn’t peak with Codeine – and this is no knock on the band’s dirge-like acuity of focus – was songwriting variety. Codeine’s brilliantly claustrophobic performance ended in hilariously self-deprecating fashion when bassist Stephen Immerwahr offered: “As everyone is excited to see Unwound [crowd cheers] this will be our last song.” The music waiting in the wings, thankfully, was the jazz- and beat-poetry-inflected eclecticism of their slowcore-trio-successors Karate. Still, before launching into their own “Gasoline,” bandleader Geoff Farina made sure the lineage was clear. “This is a song I wrote after listening to Frigid Stars.” – Julian Towers

Sasami (Photo by David Brendan Hall)

Sasami Shapeshifts to Industrial Pop in Unreleased Setlist

Swaggering onto the Concourse Project’s spacious indoor stage to a hard-rock rendition of Rihanna’s “Bitch Better Have My Money,” solo act Sasami delivered a hair-raising Thursday night with little more than a jet-black six-string and a trusty Macbook. One part melancholic alt rock songwriter, one part nü metal headbanger, the L.A. native’s Austin stop arrived at the tail end of a monthlong tour with bill-sharer yeule. The former Cherry Glazerr band member clearly understands her target audience of well-dressed twentysomethings: “You like rock music? You like electronic music? Clinical depression? Sexual deviance?” Gracefully deflecting audience shouts to perform wistful ballad “Call Me Home” from 2022 release Squeeze, the musical chameleon instead devoted her set to seven high-energy, pop-forward unreleased tracks, which oscillated between industrial experimentation and club-ready ear catchers. The EDM-focused venue’s dizzying multicolor strobe lighting and cavernous dance floor proved an excellent testing ground for the shapeshifter to put her latest evolution on full display. – Genevieve Wood

The Church (Photo by Isabella Martinez)

The Church’s Space Rock Streams Into 2054

By the time Aussie dream-pop legacy the Church strummed into biggest hit “Under the Milky Way,” two-thirds through a 95-minute set outside at the Mohawk, Austin skies clouded over into a London gray. At the start of Thursday night’s headlining top-off, opening with “Ascendence” off last month’s double-album knockout The Hypnogogue, an opal moon sliced between fleeting clouds. Matched by the Eighties-born Sydney crew, now down to founder/bassist/front droll Steve Kilbey and a supporting foursome, said celestial witness cast a winking cosign on 40-year-old melancholia. Packing three guitars, they laid into the airy psych of the new LP with a Floydian gusto after an early monitor buzz required one of Kilbey’s stringers to fill in with iconic space rock strums. “No Other You,” “Flickering Lights,” and the new title track bobbed and progged at the heart of the performance, their composer explaining The Hypnogogue’s 2054 pop star and the tunes pulled from his mind into 5 billion streams per millisecond. “And he makes 9 cents,” cracked the bandleader, 69. If men get thicker past middle age, so does guitar rock, ringing Rickenbackers and buzzing Fender basses solidifying the band’s trademark sway. Past and present met in “Destination” from 1988 breakout Starfish segueing into newbie “C’est La Vie,” as if the Church carbon dated as timeless as the stars themselves. – Raoul Hernandez

Babehoven Beats Their Own Records

Babehoven’s run of EPs date back to 2018 across shifting membership, all under the lead of singer-songwriter Maya Bon. Thursday’s live presentation cast the Hudson, New York, project’s work in a more consistent, clear-eyed light than the assorted Bandcamp catalog ever could. Bon’s main collaborator Ryan Albert stood surrounded by a comical amount of electric guitar options to accommodate following act Slow Pulp. The latter’s September ANTI- LP Yard certified the two-band Parish bill as the only sold-out Levitation show that day. But those who arrived early (or, before 11pm) for their tourmates caught a full evolution, beginning with the sturdy country influence and eternal message of Babehoven’s “I’m On Your Team.” Bon’s phrasing landed even more confidently than on the recording, where she’s credited Courtney Marie Andrews as inspiration. Letting her start, the quartet entered with one of many big vocal lines, all building towards a bigger Babehoven. Likewise, a block of new tracks swiped away any bedroom folk origins to push warmly between slowcore and shoegaze elements. Contrast between Bon and Albert’s guitars lent a Nineties edge, while the singer steadied between Karen O’s rock expanse and Angel Olsen’s vintage lilt. Closer “Often,” off the band’s 2022 Double Double Whammy album Light Moving Time, managed to work the biggest pop-diva runs into the quietest, saddest, spaciest song in the set. Hopefully such live enlightenments make it on the next Babehoven record. – Rachel Rascoe

Tanukichan (Photo by Isabella Martinez)

Tanukichan’s Bass-Led, Bubble-Bath Shoegaze

If you’ve ever found yourself reflecting on the presence of the bass in a shoegaze song, it’s probably to consider the sharp, smothering guitar layers rendering it inaudible. Not so in the music of Tanukichan. As heard on her Chaz Bear-produced March record GIZMO, Californian Hannah van Loon redirects the genre’s swirling, abstract heft to its frequently neglected low end. Her Friday night set was all about the thumpy, dumpy tone interplay between her bass and the drummer’s snare. Still, the guitars chimed out clearly and confidently, very much the Smashing Pumpkins ideal. They made a warm and friendly rhyme with van Loon’s dream pop vocals, reaching a bubble-bath peak on the group’s cover of the Cure’s “Lovesong.” By the end of the swaying, hypnotic set, I’d seen no other band make such a wonderful sound pairing with the many drowsy, psychedelic eyes that decorate the small stage at the Far Out Lounge. – Julian Towers

High on Fire (Photo by David Brendan Hall)

High on Fire Prove Industrial Strength, and Gaining

High on Fire’s burnt up Red River since man invented fire. Millennial flare-ups down the street in the front room of still-vacant old Emo’s razed raw and hot. More than two rock-hard decades down the line, the Left Coast Grammy-winners stepped up and into Stubb’s like the Earth opened up and they emerged. Machine-gun kickdrums fed Matt Pike’s riff avalanche and his ever-flaying intonations from the floor of eternity. Subsonic, a plasma of bass and beat, HOF’s onslaught proved industrial strength and gaining. Departed founding drummer Des Kensel rang loud and proud in replacement Coady Willis of Big Business and Melvins, a terminating stick pulverizer who hammered home this 95-minute set with steely glee. Heavy on 2007 essential Death Is This Communion – opener “Turk,” “Rumors of War,” “DII,” the title cut, and bedrock crusher “Fury Whip” – High on Fire charbroiled comfort metal à la Kilmister, Taylor, and Clarke as an upcoming LP awaits roll out. Merch line looked like Franklin Barbecue, but I exited with swamp green cloudy DITC vinyl as the triad pounded higher than Mount Doom. Pike turned to bass trunk Jeff Matz as Willis decimated between them and Stubb’s resonated sludge. Live long and prosper, fire lizards. – Raoul Hernandez

Uncle Acid & the Deadbeats (Photo by David Brendan Hall)

Uncle Acid & the Deadbeats’ Crypt-Kicking Psychedelic Doom

In 2016, when inclement weather put an end to Levitation as a psychedelic campout at Carson Creek Ranch, Uncle Acid & the Deadbeats’ relocated headlining set at Empire Garage reduced everyone to absolute puddles. “A great show, really, really hot,” recalled captain Kevin Starrs two years later. “That's all I can remember, that was one of the hottest shows we've ever done. We were all just fucked, really.” Even money the bandleader rated Stubb’s 90-minute show Friday another scorcher. Moon filling and temperatures in the low Seventies, the swampiness outdoors drenched all manner of musicians onstage, same as the downpour warming up but thankfully missing Levitation Friday. Heavy psychedelic doom, the UK quartet lashed classic post-folk and blues forebears to a wall of Tony Iommi chops, witchy unison vox from Starrs and loyal guitar lieutenant Vaughan Stokes, bandstand-shaking thunder from drummer Jon Rice, and a lo-fi wallop of Velvet Underground sonic subversion. “Alright, Austin, how the fucking hell are you?” wondered Starrs early and pretty much only. “It’s great to be back.” Birmingham tempos, flying hair and flailing Rice, and occasional horror/conspiracy video backdrops, UA&TD rattled one crypt kicker after another – thick, dense, intense. Ninety minutes in a pressure cooker and sounding like a WWII fighter squadron, done! – Raoul Hernandez