On day three of the festival celebrating their 7th anniversary, bands including Secret Colors, Cosmonauts, Toy, Mikal Cronin and Sleepy Sun packed the APF 2014 schedule. Day One and Day Two consisted of other amazing psychedelic bands including Black Lips, Zombie Zombie, Bombino, Bardo Pond, The Octopus Project and so many more. On the third day, around mid afternoon, the excessive heat caused many to take it easy rather than expose themselves to the and blazing sun over the field.
Many took shelter under the Levitation tent for shade, where they could still enjoy a good show. Secret Colours performed their songs “It Can’t Be Simple,” “Blackhole,” “City Slicker” and “Redemption,” off of their album Positive Distractions. Lead vocalist Tommy Evans stated that Austin Psych Fest was one of the best festivals in the world. He proceed to jump around in circles for their entire performance. While introducing their newest single “Into You,” Evans announced that the song was locally recorded in Dripping Springs, and that Austin feels like one the band’s second homes. They continued on to play “I Know What You Want.” While the band rocked out on stage, people in the crowd played air drums and danced around to Secret Colours ‘60s psych-pop/brit-pop tunes.
Over at the Reverberation state, Cosmonauts took the stage. The crowd didn’t seem wildly excited to be watching the performance, but then again the stage is in the middle of a dusty field with no shade. They received cheers and whistles from the crowd after playing “Shaker” off of their album Persona Non Grata. The moderately sized crowd mostly stood around and gently enjoyed the rest of their set.
As the evening continued, Toy took the stage at the Levitation tent around 7:45. The tent drew a large crowd and people even huddled around outside to watch the show. Lights danced on the ceiling of the tent, along with the silhouettes of the band members. Many of their songs were non-lyrical, so the crowed nodded their head and stomped their feet to the beat while they played “As We Turn.” They keyboardist Alejandra Diez clearly had the most fun out of all the band members, and she puts on quite a show.
At dusk, Mikal Cronin began his performance on the Reverberation stage. A few fans ran from either the swing tree, hammocks, or other shows to catch the hardworking Los Angelian. Smoke clouds appeared on stage and on the screen backdrop. Once the band got started, the members went all out and thrashed their long hair around. Cronin requested that the sound system “blast the drums and guitar.” Blue lights cast upon the stage and audience as he performed “Apathy” off of 2011’s self-titled album. Throughout the set there was crowd surfing, dancing, clapping plenty of hollering. At one point, Cronin brought one of his friends on stage and serenaded her “Happy Birthday.” She threw cupcakes into the audience and shoved one in the guitarist’s face. The fans loved it.
Lastly, once darkness had engulfed the festival completely, Sleepy Sun took the stage at the Elevation Amphitheater. The stage was set up alongside a lake, and across from the water a screen projected onto the trees. An array of colors played with the branches and leaves across from the audience. The hillside was filled with people sitting on picnic blankets; the top of the hill was surrounded by standing observers and the stage was accompanied by a packed group of fans. Sleepy Sun played a few songs off of their latest album Maui Tears, along with multiple other singles.The performance was overall very mellow, but the fans loved the vibe and enjoyed the light show cast upon the forest.
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