Electric Citizen, Fragments of God and More Get Psyched at Far Out Fest

“Has anyone ever heard the sound ‘om’,” asked Nashville bassist and yogi Jo-Jo Jackson. She was addressing the crowd that had collected Friday night at The High Watt to kick off the second annual Far Out Fest, a gathering of visual artists, filmmakers, video innovators and musicians that honors the ineffable nature of revelation. “We’re going to invoke this sound together,” Jackson said, and proceeded to unlock the secrets of that utterance, the most basic of all psychedelic incantations. Along with its sister venue Mercy Lounge, The High Watt hosted a collection of bands that brought a 21st-century vibe to the psych music that emerged from rock ’n’ roll in the ’60s and early ’70s, accompanied by an array of mood-altering light shows. As Jackson chanted “om” and picked out simple patterns on her bass, feedback merged with the sounds of reverberant cymbals, bird song and running water, creating the perfect introduction to two nights of music designed to concentrate minds on the sound representing the creation of the universe.

The Spin is a fan of what is sometimes called “psychedelia,” a term that connotes rock music that either dispenses with unnecessary chord changes or creates new ones. As rock ’n’ roll became rock in the ’60s, musicians like Jimi Hendrix, Hawkwind and Black Sabbath abstracted blues and pop into compositions that explored droning, one-chord (and no-chord) patterns, along with basic riffs that often had a sinister quality that was distantly derived from the Baroque music of the 17th and early 18th centuries. Classic psychedelia was a music of exalted joy and manic desperation, which are timeless states of being.

Making that timeless mode modern was what Nashville’s Diatom Deli was about during a compelling half-hour set at The High Watt. The creation of singer and guitarist Deli Neblett, Diatom Deli draws upon the work of such psych-folk pioneers as ’70s singer-songwriter Linda Perhacs and Brazilian singer Caetano Veloso. During one segment Neblett sampled the voice of poet and novelist Maya Angelou, which she manipulated to stunning effect. Neblett would play an acoustic guitar lick that she sampled and mutated, sing an artless melody, and let the resulting combination of sounds evolve into quasi-folk of intriguing subtlety. 

Meanwhile, we got off on Asheville, N.C., trio Nest Egg, who took the post-rock concept and slammed it against the wall, just to see if anything would stick. A new song guitarist Harvey Leisure told us was titled “Gore ’92“ combined the velocity of krautrock with a no-chord structure that still managed to hint at a rock ’n’ roll boogie Chuck Berry would have recognized. Nest Egg’s music was both kinetic and contemplative, and one more way of expressing the elusive “om” of psychedlia. 

Over at the Mercy Lounge, up-and-coming Cincinnati quartet Electric Citizen channeled the spirit of Black Sabbath and The MC5 during their taut set. Lead singer Laura Dolan proved herself a charismatic exponent of sinister rock, and the band invested their riff-heavy tunes with deadpan attitude. They’re a disciplined group who deserve a larger audience for their well-crafted songs.   

“What do we got in here, 17 people?” remarked San Francisco DJ and producer Al Lover (né Alex Gundlach) prior to closing out the fest late Saturday. “Or is that an overestimate?” The low turnout for night two of the Nashville psych summit might be partially explained by the pair of competing rock shows in town — Philadelphia rockers Hop Along at Exit/In, and the Fort Houston birthday bash featuring local legends JEFF the Brotherhood, Diarrhea Planet and friends. But it also might just show that this is still a pretty niche genre — or that Mercy and The High Watt (combined capacity: 750) might have been too ambitious a choice of venue for a bill without an in-demand headliner. No disrespect to Lover, whose earthy, ambient soundscapes — a veritable tone massage — read what was left of the crowd well.

For us though, going in with little to no knowledge of most of the bands playing Saturday meant coming away with some names both from Tennessee and beyond to keep an eye on. And isn't the discovery aspect one of the most fun parts about any fest?

We missed out on Wu Fei kicking things off earlier in the day, but we did roll in early enough to catch The Chewers at The High Watt. This was the first time we’d seen the denizens of Nashville house venue The Mouthhole in a regular club. Their big achievement to our mind is making harsh mechanical sounds that also swing. 

Down the flora-adorned hallway at Mercy, we saw the tightest set we’ve caught yet from Black Moon Mother, the dreamy and doomy outfit led by Far Out co-founder Brianne O’Neill, who burned sage and performed some other rituals with artifacts loaned by the audience during the performance. Then we got a taste of The Spiderberries, who seemed to us to strike a balance between Weezer-y power pop and some of the more gnarly tendencies of The Butterfield Blues Band.

We'd been tipped off about Fragments of God, a local heavy-psych foursome who dropped a killer self-titled EP in 2014 before disappearing. Calling to mind the claustrophobic, confrontational sounds of The Telescopes, the noisiest entrant in the early-’90s U.K. shoegaze sweepstakes, Fragments' bone-rattling sonic onslaught was both the loudest performance of the night and also the most cohesive with the richly hued, kaleidoscopic visuals each band got to enjoy as a backdrop. “It's so great to be a band again,” said singer and synth player Devin Lamp as the set wound down. Let's hope it's not another five years before the next one.

The logo for Far Out doesn't incorporate a 12-string guitar, but with so many of the bands on the poppier end of the bill rocking them, maybe it should. Washington, D.C.'s unapologetically retro The Beginner's Mynd was one, serving up groovy, bass-driven tunes wrapped in organ whirr and 12-string jangle. Following some solid if slightly garden-variety kraut-y psych (a little Verve, a lot of Neu!) from Atlanta trio A Drug Called Tradition at Mercy, we saw The Holifields out of Knoxville, who had a 12-string in tow as well. (They also had a Flying V, not an ax we were expecting to see onstage at this fest, but here we are.)

The group’s energetic, charismatic High Watt set gave us the second wind we needed to finish out the night. Rhythmically tight and amphetamine-fast (think King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard), the young foursome doesn't shy away from getting technical — lots of Rush-like synth interludes and odd time signatures here — but it's not at the expense of having fun. The synchronized headbanging was also a nice touch. It's a bit busy, but there’s nothing wrong with aiming high.

When all was said and done, the weekend gave us a cool opportunity to check out a range of psychedelic expressions under one roof. In these types of situations, the journey counts for as much as or more than the destination, and we couldn't have asked for much better of a trip.

See our slideshow for more photos.

In The Spin — the Scene's live review column — staffers and freelance contributors review concerts under a collective byline.