There were a ton of positives in my venture to the Lone Star State for 2014 Austin Psych Fest, pill but here are just a few for all those looking for new fests and new travels.

AUSTIN

When you think of the middle of Texas you don’t really think of hippies and musicians but if you are breathing and have ears, you are probably aware of Austin’s growing music and hipster scene. Seeing it for your-self is a whole other story. There really is something for everyone like Texas being branded on everything (Lonestar Latrines anyone?), odes to Matthew McConaughey (yeah, who knew that saying ‘Austin…Alright, Alright, Alright’ was worthy of a whole wall in the Austin Souvenir store), ‘Dirty Sixth Street’ full of bars for binge drinking and frat bros, and Rainey Street, home of the hipsters where one can find bouncers showing off their thigh tattoos in short jorts, and a bar made of refurbished industrial boxcar containers. Like Boxcar boxcars. Someone might have read too many of those Boxcar children books.

Dude if you haven’t been to Austin or lack the motivation, all you need to know is that Austin has two of the best things known to man: BBQ (GO TO STUBBS, JUST DO IT) and In and Out Burger (Mecca for us Californians). Done and done.

The RANCH

As anyone who goes to a festival knows, venue is key. Finding that a ton of venues are either too spread out, full of weird hiking paths, bad phone reception, bad logistics, far from everything or really fucking confusing (see Bonnaroo’s Which stage, What Stage snafu), Austin Psych Fest has the perfect venue. Perfect. After bouncing locations for five years, the fest has found a home at Carson Creek Ranch. APF 2014 was the second year being held at this location, and the festival couldn’t have found a better fit. The Ranch manages to be sprawling and airy, giving room for camping, three stages, is located on a peaceful river, yet if one were standing in the middle of the venue, you can hear and basically see all three stages. There are giant trees with swings attached, hammocks galore and the best stage being one located on the edge of the river with amphitheater seating.

I can’t give all credit to the venue though. While the ranch sets the laidback tone to fit the music, scheduling was a key ingredient to making this a great festival. There is nothing worse than having a scheduling conflict at festival because lets face it; it’s our generations Sophie’s Choice. Psych fest eliminates the angst and stress of picking which band to see and having to run from one stage to the next by having only three stages and no set completely conflicting with any other music. Seeing half sets was the easiest thing because of the close proximity of the stages to each other and set times that don’t overlap.

There is nothing better than listening to great music, being completely relaxed in the sun, being full of healthy sounding juice, but really not healthy due to the massive amounts of sugar in them, and napping in nature. But then again I am a crunchy, meditation-loving hippie. Basically, haters of nature should really never try to attend this fest.

The HAIR

The lineup page shows it all: The Black Angels, Moon Duo (check that warlock beard), Sleepy Sun, The Brian Jonestown Massacre, Graveyard, Gapdream, Quilt, TEMPLES. The hair of all hair on Temples. Besides the bands, the fest goers showed their best flow as well. Man-buns galore, locks, retro bangs, crazy Christian hair that goes down to the waist. If you can imagine it, it was there and probably in every color of the rainbow.

The MUSIC

Texas. A place I never thought I would venture, but fighting every instinct in my body that says I should never step foot in Texas, I couldn’t pass up a lineup like this years Austin Psych Fest. Artists ranging from old pros like The Dandy Warhols, and the Brian Jonestown Massacre and The Black Angels to new bands such as Temples, Mark McGuire and everyone in between. A really great part of psych fest was the cohesion of all the acts. Usually at festivals there are so many different genres that a lot of mess can slip into the lineup. Psych fest on the other hand, was enjoyable in that everyone was there because they like psych music and music that has psych influences. All of the bands definitely don’t sound alike, but at many different points during the weekend I sat at random stages and I either was listening to one of my favorite bands or found myself with a new one. Some of the groups if not all of them, that I set out to see did a great job of proving that their live shows are just as good as their albums while infusing their sets with plenty of improvisation and the psychedelic trademark reverb and feedback.

The Dandy Warhols and the Black Angels both blew the crowd out of the water with their sets. The Black Angels filled theirs with plenty of tunes from more recent albums such as “Don’t Play with Guns” and “Black isn’t Black”, while the Warhols played to their audience and pulled out gems like “Bohemian Like You,” “Ride,” “Sleep,” and “Not Your Bottle.”

Daytime sets that were dynamite were definitely Shannon and the Clams who had everyone dancing and Jeff Buckley reminiscent act Circuit des Yeux who had everyone mesmerized. But the set that brought out the biggest crowd was definitely british hair gods Temples who didn’t take the opportunity to stray far from their records, but wowed just the same with their nonchalant energy and catchy melodies.

Other awesome sets of the weekend were Quilt, Woods, Octopus Project, Moon Duo, The War on Drugs, Mikal Cronin, Secret Colors and Think No Think. Both Avey Tare’s Slasher Flicks and Panda Bear served up fun, colorful and a bit frightening sets very different from Animal Collective. Weird, but entertaining sets go out to Pink Mountaintops whom looked pretty trashed on the river front stage while looking like actual mountain men with their beards, as well as Sleepy Sun where frontman Bret Constantino showed us that some bands still have singers that really don’t play instuments. It was entertaining to see him run across the stage and flail about wearing all white and one can’t help but make the assumption that his onstage persona is based off of Jeff Bebe from Almost Famous and Marky-Mark’s superfan turned famous frontman in his movie Rockstar. At one point during the set Constantino makes an announcement to the crowd that he has stopped smoking weed (starting that day) followed by passing out candles to the audience that look like they were stolen from a chapel. Non the less, the band played a great and highly entertaining night set with graphics illuminated on the river behind them.

With all the new festivals popping up everywhere (hello Firefly in Delaware?) it can be hard to know what you’re walking into. Is it going to be a mob scene shitshow or a great match? APF met all expectations above and beyond. From the atmosphere to the fest goers, I got Psyched at Psych fest (that was the last one I promise). Any fest where river dipping is encouraged, sitting down is a necessity and napping is highly encouraged is A-Okay with me. APF 2015 GO!!!