Warm Drag – 7th Level Music

Top 25 live shows of 2022: #’s 20 – 16

Who were among the top 20 bands I saw last year? Read on to learn!

#20: Gustaf – Levitation France – June 04^th

Wild, weird, and wonderful, Gustaf put on a fun late afternoon set under the Angers sun. You could tell they were having a great time. I spoke with Lydia Gammill after the set and she told me they still couldn’t quite believe they’d just played a set in France.

#19: Death Valley Girls – Empty Bottle – August 04^th

This was the second time I’d seen Death Valley Girls in the same year, with the first being at Levitation France just two months prior. This set was more up close and personal (which is every show at Chicago’s Empty Bottle) and a bit more dangerous to boot. Lead singer Bonnie Bloomgarden delighted in walking out into the crowd to sing and mingle with fans.

#18: Warm Drag – Levitation Austin / Hotel Vegas – October 28^th

Speaking of dangerous shows, Warm Drag‘s set at Levitation Austin was sexy and deadly, not unlike a panther. Blending dark electro with sultry vocals, the set had a lot of people grooving and trembling at the same time.

#17: Automatic – Levitation Austin / Stubb’s – October 27^th

This was the second time I saw Automatic last year. Yes, the first time was in France in June. The trio had only improved in that short time, and they wowed the Austin crowd. The number of Automatic band shirts and tote bags we saw after their set was extensive.

#16: The Joy Formidable – Piere’s / Ft. Wayne – September 20^th

This short set from Welsh power trio The Joy Formidable packed more wallop than most sets I saw from other bands that were twice as long. They were so fierce that lead singer / guitarist Ritzy Bryan headbutted bassist Rhydian Daffyd in the chest twice during the set.

Who’s in the top 15? Well, you’ll have to come back tomorrow to find out!

Keep your mind open.

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Levitation Austin 2022 recap: Day Two

The second night of Levitation Austin 2022 started at Hotel Vegas. I hadn’t been to a show there since 2013 and was delighted to see the place hadn’t changed much. If anything, the outdoor stage area seemed a bit bigger.

Warm Drag were the first act we saw that night, putting on the sexiest show of the weekend with their blend of electro, fuzz, and spooky rock. Lead singer Vashti Windish owned the stage in her biker leather while percussionist / beat master Paul Quattrone got to work in his tank top. The crowd was hypnotized by them both by their set’s end.

Quattrone took a water break and then was back on stage with the rest of his Osees bandmates for the second night of their four-night residency at Hotel Vegas. They came out swinging, blasting through a lot of tracks in just an hour. Their raging punk set of material from their new album, A Foul Form, left the audience breathless multiple times.

We left Hotel Vegas for Elysium to catch the rare performance by The UFO Club – a sort of supergroup consisting of members of Night Beats and The Black Angels, who performed their (so far) only album from beginning to end. I wasn’t sure I’d ever get to hear those songs live, so this set was one of the highlights of the festival for me.

The night ended with Mexican psych-rock legends Los Dug Dug’s. They played a fun blend of psych, surf, and border rock.

Up next would be a trio of Australian bands and doom metal in a blues bar.

Keep your mind open.

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Rewind Review: Warm Drag – self-titled (2018)

I couldn’t tell you where I first heard Warm Drag (Paul Quattrone and Vashti Windish), but I can tell you that I was immediately hooked by them when I did hear them. Two people making so much powerful psychedelic stuff couldn’t be ignored, and their self-titled debut is a top-notch record.

Opening track “The Wander” (not a cover of the 1950s classic) gets the album off a thudding beat you feel in your jugular veins and enough distortion to probably cause your houseplants to shrink back from the speakers for fear an earthquake is rumbling through your living room. “Cave Crawl” was the first track I heard from Warm Drag and the song that stopped me in my tracks. Windish’s vocals bounce off the wall behind you and creep up on you like a vampire while Quattrone’s beats sound like a spaghetti western soundtrack record that’s been left in the sun a bit too long.

Windish is looking for love on “Cruisin’ the Night,” which blends girl-group rock with David Lynch film beats. “End Times” pours out of your speakers like some kind of venom that saps your willpower and entices you to lie down and let it carry you away with its filtered reverb effects, industrial drumming, and psychological thriller film synths. “No Body” ripples with krautrock beats and Windish’s vocals are pure shoegaze beauty.

“Sleepover” could fit in a horror film, a romance film, a compelling drama, or a spaghetti western. Windish’s lullaby vocals are a perfect match for Quattrone’s haunted saloon synths. “Lost Time” continues the sensation of being in a dusty ghost town street while the long-dead residents of that town shamble out of the shanties to stare at you with hollow eyes.

Quattrone’s synths and beats on “Hurricane Eyes” buzz like a beehive and Windish is the queen commanding all of us drones with her breathy delivery. “Someplace” is like honey dripping from a spoon into yerba mate spiked with peyote. Quattrone takes his time with the beats on it, not rushing anything so as to let the guitar and Windish’s sorceress-style vocals stretch out like a pair of leopards on a hot rock. The album ends with nearly eight minutes of “Parasite Wreckage Dub.” I love a good dub track, and this one doesn’t disappoint. It mixes dub with krautrock, industrial, and synthwave. That’s not an easy task, but Warm Drag makes it sound like they can do it in their sleep – and it’s a great soundtrack for dreams.

The entire album is, really. These are songs from dreams, hallucinations, illusions, hauntings, and seductions. It’s an album you’ll never tire of hearing because you’ll find something new in it every time, and the feel of the album will change as you listen to it in different locations. I hope it’s not the one and only Warm Drag record.

Keep your mind open.

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