Psycho Smokeout Scrapbook

The Catch One venue is an old 1925 Mediterranean Revival monolith taking up half the block and surrounded by a thriving neighborhood of homes, Korean churches, juice shops, and auto parts stores. It boasts a fascinating history. From 1973 to 2015, Jewel Thais-Williams owned and operated a successful black LGBTQ dance club with her wife, Rue Thais-Williams. The space was vital to the community, an organization bringing people together, providing a place to meet, communicate and, of course, dance.

As I walked through all the bars, rooms off of bars with smaller bars, loft areas, spiral staircases, large wooden staircases, stages, secret extra stages with staircases leading to extra secret lofts with small, private bars, I imagined the building full of dancing, drinking figures moving from one room full of music to another.

Since 2016, Catch One has had a new owner. Hours before the show, people are rushing around getting things set up. The place feels DIY, but with a historic grandeur. It is all painted black – the perfect setting for the Psycho Smokeout, taking place on the coveted date of April 20th, 2019.

This year, Psycho Entertainment teamed up with Riding Easy Records, filling the hallways and bars with three stages raging. The hallways are replete with the rumbling of music playing, the next stage creating an intensity and an urge to go see every band. Because I was there to film, I had to make some difficult choices.

Ufomammut

I went to the Psycho Pre-Party on Friday to catch Ufomammut on their tour from Italy. Here is their full, glorious set. Watch as it builds from a dream-like hum pulsing through recurring themes until just about the 44-minute mark, when guitarist Poia breaks it up and reforms into “God” from their 2004 Snailking album. You’re going to want to spend the next 57:37 fully engaged, so cancel your appointments.

For the Saturday event, I covered the Disco stage – dead-set to film the seven eminent acts lined-up. I missed a few chances to film Elder and Monolord when they came through Portland, so I was hopped-up…and I was about six hours early. As I am a fan of the activity in preparation for the show, I took some pictures of the behind the scenes action: audio engineers, lighting techs, video techs, sound checks.

Veteran filmographer Arturo Gallegos set his cameras to capture all the action, too, and you can see his footage on the Psycho Entertainment channel or his sexthrash69 channel, showcasing nearly twenty years of documenting bands in the Los Angeles area.

Dreadnought

Dreadnought showed up from Denver, seemingly to steer us through many stages of the storm – from calm moments to lashing out with a force – bringing you to a conclusion that you have really been through something powerful.

UADA

Mysterious as ever, shrouded in hood and smoke. These Portland natives have never been easy for me to film, but that is for good reason. My focus is shifted from the visual to the relentless, visceral nature of their sound.

BelzebonG

This was a treat! Flown in from Poland, Alky Dude, Cheesy Dude, Sheepy Dude, and Hexy Dude brought heavy, fuzzed-out, consistent tempos interspersed with surprisingly melodic guitar episodes. As fitting, there was more smoke coming from the audience than from the stage. Watch and trance out.

It was right around this time the weight and the breadth of this full day of music hit me. The first three bands had already ripped it up and there were four titans left to go!

Amenra

Amenra’s set was as lush visually, as was their sound, with moments of quiet contemplation leading into severity. Their reputation preceded them and they did not disappoint.

Elder

Here’s Elder getting set up. Once they got rolling, we were treated to “Compendium,” then to “Thousand Hands,” winding their way through a gorgeously melodic set.

Monolord

The mighty Monolord started out their set with “Where Death Meets The Sea,” going into “Lord of Suffering.” I usually favor watching live shows and Monolord’s live set provided a great example for why. It really changed the way I heard their music. There is something extra there with their presence, an energy adding to the interstellar doom sound.

Yob

This was the last show on Yob’s tour and they ended it with a real burner. You get a guest cameo by Amernra’s Levy Seynaeve sandwiched between “Prepare the Ground” and that crunchy cog that is “Atma.” This performance commanded attention, finalizing in the singularity of Mike Scheidt’s voice at the last 1:08:31. A fitting end to the stacked line-up and buzz-filled weekend that was Psycho Smokeout.