Psychedelicious FEST review

words about Psychedelicious FEST

The first edition of Psychedelicious Fest was held in Quantic Club on 27 and 28 July. The short  testimonial show us that Psychedelicious Fest is a different experience than the traditional music festival. It is a small, intimate event, put together by people who love the bands, and thrive on creating a unique vibe where both the artist and the audience can enjoy a feel-good weekend. Psychedelicious is an event platform for psychedelic and stoner rock gigs, based in Bucharest, Romania.

The first evening was opened by romanian act Purple Caravan. Founded in 2017, Purple Caravan is a stoner hard rock band, with psychedelic and heavy influences, from Craiova. The sound is a combination of 70’s rock, grunge, southern rock and hard rock, wrapped up in a heavy and fuzzy package.They warmed up the atmosphere pretty fast and the vibe was good.

After a short break, on stage were Cardinal from Constanta. My curiosity was great because I only heard good opinions about them and still managed to impress me.They are approaching a mix of stoner/garage/heavy psych and they are young and fun to watch live. ‘This are groovy tunes’ I said to myself as the guitars eventually came in front with power and increased clarity. I really enjoyed what I heard in the live arena as the increased tones really helped to support some subtle melodic sensibilities and a surprising sense of the epic. I hope it’s not too long before I get to see again one of their live show. In the meantime, I have been convinced to return to their debut album, “Disappearer”, to have another listen.

The highlight band of the first evening was Fry Days from Italy who manages to mix stoner metal with punk and blues rock. I’ll admit that I did not have knowledge about Fry Days as perhaps I should have been prior to tonight’s show. The steadily-increasing crowd swayed and headbanged in unison as the grooves and the walls of guitar-driven sound were delivered with an incredible tightness and technicality. They went down very well with the crowd as they rocked out some headbanging tunes to jump around to.

Last day of fest began peacefully with Sex Blender, a stoner rock band from Lviv, Ukraine. They describe themselves like an ultimate music mix of different styles including stoner, sludge, psycho and drone as well as classic old school stuff. At this point, the crowd was calm, deep into the music and better than the type of crowd that is usually at big metal gigs.

The second band, RoadkillSoda, is a very active Romanian rock’n’roll group. Among the songs played were: “Made of Stone”, “Prometheus” and a new one “Stretch of Dirt” which made some great impact. However, if you’re a fan of the band, you know what these songs sound like. So instead, I want to focus on something that I found to be far more important about this performance: the band’s stage presence, energy and their presentation of their already excellent material. From the beginning, the sheer exuberance of the four musicians was completely infectious. I have literally never seen so many smiles radiating off the stage before at a metal gig. These guys love what they do and it shows. This band should not be missed.

The gathered are clearly up for an evening of stoner rock music, but it is evident who’s crowd they belong to.

Next on stage was Dope Smoker who describes themselves best: Dope Smoker are a 3 piece rock group from South West Wales where everyone smokes dope & surfs. “Dope Smoker give you riffs so distorted that they’re in danger of breaking up entirely, mantra type vocals that repeat over and over and bass and drums that beat out a rhythm more akin to a dance floor than a moshpit.”

They really were a passionate, loud and energetic band that was dancing around, on and off stage, taking seriously the classic stoner rock  they played. They played songs from the newest album, called “Legalize It”, album which was considered the psychedelic rock album of the year.

This was a lesson in how it’s done. Dope Smoker not only knows how to do it, the band gets on with it and delivers a splendid evening of world-class stoner rock. I had high expectations of this fine band, but the band’s show in Bucharest exceeds them.

Over all, the first edition of Psychedelicious Fest was a success even the public was not in a great number. I hope the fest will happen next year in a bigger manner. Those were two enjoyable evenings in the name of rock.

Thank you Psychedelicious for making it possible and Quantic Club for hosting the show in such a nice atmosphere!

All pics featured in this review were taken by our  fellow member Gheorghe Paraschiv. You can find more pics HERE

Next time folks, eh?

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