Levitation 2019 was incomparable. Underground metal, electronic and rock genres, hypnotic visuals and enough secondhand smoke to hotbox multiple outdoor venues; that’s just a snapshot of the festival.

As a first-time attendee, I swiftly came to understand how Levitation found its name —  each performance was an idiosyncratic, transcendent experience. I might think the entire night had been a dream, had my ears not rang with surreal echoes for hours after I made my way home. 

Story By Taylor Sprinkle

Vagabon

Live Performance Rating: 8/10 

My night started when I arrived at Stubb’s outdoor venue just in time to catch the lead singer of Vagabon, Laetitia Tamko, warm the venue with her indie vocals. The New Yorker basked under slow, blinking lights. Emotional bass sounds during tracks from her recent self-titled album built drama on the overarching mellow themes present in her discography. Her raw, vulnerable tone set the stage for following performers Devendra Banhart and Angel Olsen. 

Devendra Banhart

Live Performance Rating: 9/10 

Devendra Banhart’s sparkling persona charmed the crowd from start to finish. Joking about a shortage of the Friends theme song remixes and covering Helado Negro’s “Young, Latin, and Proud”  were just a few of many instances where he flaunted a colorful light-heartedness. As the flamboyant American-Venezuelan singer grooved around the stage, he switched between English and Spanish lyrics in a dazzling, cross-cultural performance. His magical aura brought back fond memories of seeing Andrew Bird on the same stage three years before. He bounced from “My Boyfriend’s in the Band,” to “Fancy Man” in a quirky, yet enchanting manner. 

The evening was just getting into swing. I headed over to Empire to catch a lineup of edgier indie artists.

Automatic

Live Performance Rating: 9/10

Automatic wasn’t in my original plan for the night. In fact, before Thursday, I’d never heard of them before. But when I arrived at the venue early, the grunge post-punk band quickly won me over with red leather pants and heavy black eyeliner. They were effortlessly cool, and being badass Australian women certainly didn’t hurt. 

I felt my once-forgotten teenage angst coming back to me — this encounter could not have captured the epitome of 90’s DIY garage-rock more. If a revolution was going to start anywhere that night, it was going to be under the smoke and flashing red lights of their show.  

Black Marble

Live Performance Rating: 7/10 

Shortly after reliving my rebellious teen stage, a kind woman bequeathed her front stage position to me. I was front and center just in time for two of my favorite artists to perform. 

The synths of Black Marble transported me to a dream-like world. I felt as though I was underwater, or maybe floating through space. Memory-like visuals complimented Chris Stewart’s hazy, echoing vocals.  

While the sounds radiating from the speakers may have been a bit guitar-heavy at the start, the nostalgic rifts were entrancing nonetheless. By “Great Design,” the synths dominated the soundscape, capturing what felt like fleeting moments in an unreal and spiritual happening. 

The show reached its apex during “Woods,” when the space vibrated with emotion. The audience closed their eyes and drifted. Black Marble had taken the crowd on a reflective journey through decades: some in the past, some in the future. 

TR/ST

Live Performance Rating: 10/10 

TR/ST seized the stage in a performance I hope I never forget. The space vibrated with a dark, industrial energy as strobing lights illuminated backlit band-members. Dense fog, cigarette and marijuana smoke made the scene all the more hazy and atmospheric. 

Songs quickly began to blur together and I was soon lost in what felt like an out of body experience. The crowd moshed during songs like “Gone”  and colorful synths captured the audience during “Unbleached.” Everyone was screaming. It was one of the most powerful, immersive concert experiences of my life.  

Glassing

Live Performance Rating: 7/10 

My night closed out at Mohawk indoors in the company of ambient metal band Glassing. It was well after 12 a.m. when they filled the dark, intimate space with chaotic screams in the most stripped-down performance of the night. The guitarist’s fingers ran across strings faster than I’d ever seen human hands move. Glassing emanated the feelings of a raging fire.  But the crowd’s response was juxtaposed with the sounds of static surrounding them; an audience of mostly bearded men nodded along in a subdued manner. 

Which songs were performed remains a mystery to me, in part because it was so late, in part because their music was nearly indecipherable. Regardless, witnessing their ability to transform screeching guitar noises into art was a more-than-worthwhile experience.