DesertFest NYC 2023
We sure as hell wished we had been there. DesertFest NYC… Seeing all
those amazing bands. Catching up with my Doom Charts brothers, Scott Spiers
from CleanAndSoberStoner, Remi VL - the Tallymaster and our very own Kyle SB /
Shastabeast. We would have befriended a load of others there as well, cause we
are all Heavy Underground loving brothers, and we would surely have become best
friends with Josh Burke. Friend of Remi and Kyle, he has graced us with a review
of the festival. Our very first guest writer, and yes, we would surely let him
write about DesertFest NYC again… Or anything else for that matter… Great to
meet you Josh!
DesertFest NYC 2023
by Josh Burke
After some encouragement from a member of the Doom Charts, as well as Stoner HiVe contributor Kyle SB / Shasta Beast, I decided to attempt an actual write-up of the festival we all attended last weekend. Although I write a ton for my job, I don’t think of myself as a writer. As someone who tends to sum up experiences as “that was awesome”, “that was okay” or “that sucked” I have a lot of respect for people who can write a coherent and well-written review. So, anyhow, Desertfest NY 2023 was okay.
Colour Haze won the weekend. Despite their 30-year history, they had
apparently only played once in the States previously. What a special treat to
have their unique brand of jazzy, psychedelic rock. Both nights were great; the
band made both the intimacy of the St. Vitus bar and the grander setting of the main
stage work for them. Either set would have topped my list, but I give the edge
to Friday night on the main stage. It is really easy for largely instrumental
and generally mellow music to be boring and self-indulgent. Colour Haze dodged
both of those traps. Building up and then backing down, occasionally going all
out, everything worked. Every solo mattered and added to the performance. I
went into the weekend as a casual fan of this band, only owning a couple of
records, and came away just stunned by how great they were, particularly
drummer Manfred Merwald. I only wish they’d had merch!
A hugely surprising second place to me goes
to Ecstatic Vision from Philadelphia. Interestingly, another band that traffics
heavily in long, drawn-out jams with extensive soloing. In this case, all that
excess is done in the service of having the funnest party you can have. The
clear exuberance and joy on the faces of lead singer/guitarist Doug Sabolik and
saxophonist/guitarist/flautist Kevin Nickles was infectious. Particularly, the
latter had a smile on his face for every nanosecond of their set. Meanwhile,
the bass player and the drummer were there to do their job, and they toiled
non-stop with a constant groove that was impossible to resist. Add in forays
into the crowd and into the ceiling and a guest appearance by an equally driven
Nick Oliveri and it was pretty much perfection. While they had not really
grabbed me on first listen, this is a band I will always go see live if I have
the chance.
Djunah were equally amazing in a very
different way. Donna Dianne is a force of nature. The title of their most
recent (and amazing) album, Femina Furens, is Latin for “furious woman,” and
Dianne has fury for days. Flailing wildly at her guitar while pouring her soul
into the mic and tapdancing on a raft of pedals, most notably playing complex
bass lines on her Roland PK5 synth. Yes. With her feet. Crazy. Djunah’s music
defies any easy categorization. Songs alternate between angular guitar lines
and heavy riffs, all accompanied by Dianne’s biting lyrics and powerful vocals
that range from whispers to yells to howls of anguish. At times Dianne seemed almost overwhelmed and
the overall mood was one of increasing tension and discomfort. A missed note
here and there is easy to forgive and almost an afterthought with all the
emotion Dianne puts into her performance and the anthemic Seven Winds of
Sekhmet was the perfect release to close their set.
Other standouts:
Lo Pan – one of the most melodic voices in
all of stoner rock, plus pummeling bass grooves.
Upper Wilds – this year’s surprise for me.
Perhaps the least “desert” of the bunch, but melodic, upbeat space pop more in
the vein of Dinosaur Jr. “Space” being apt here, as singer/guitarist Dan Friel
told us after their set that each album draws inspiration from a particular
planet (Jupiter being the latest).
Dorthia Cottrell – her acoustic set mixed
some of the songs off her new album, the aptly named “Death Folk Country,” with
reinterpretations of Windhand songs, highlighting her soulful vocals
throughout. Second guitar and violin filled out the sound nicely.
Godflesh – I wanted to like this set more
than I did. I love this band and it was a solid performance with a good mix of
material from across their catalog. Justin Broadrick and B.C. Green were
somehow low key while still being considerably more animated than the last time
I saw them, but the mix was physically punishing and had the clarity of a
passing car with the subwoofer cranked to a thousand. This seemed to be a plus
for much of the crowd, but I dipped out early to get a spot up front for
Djunah.
Melvins – I am largely indifferent to the Melvins but I’ll be damned if King Buzzo, Steven McDonald and Coady Willis
(filling in for the ailing Dale Crover) didn’t win me over. Buzz alone on
stage, menacingly picking his way through the end of Boris, was a perfect end
to Desertfest NYC 2023.
There were many, many strong sets beyond
these, and I definitely had a great time at the fest. I am slightly bummed at having only two days
(plus the pre-party) versus last year’s three, as well as an overall line-up that
lacked some heft compared to last year (or to the other Desertfests this year).
I can’t imagine how hard it is to put on an event like this, but the curse of
putting on a great festival is that people expect it to continue to be great.
That’s especially true when so many attendees are paying for a plane ticket and
a hotel. There is every reason to think this is just a blip and that next year
will once again be impossible to skip. And we’ll see if Stoner HiVe lets me
write about it again.
Josh, Kyle & Remi
DESERTFEST NYC 2023
