Concert Review: Far Out Lounge Hosts Shoegaze Band Brigade for Levitation Fest

Far Out Lounge hosts the most bands during Levitation Fest, and Nov. 3’s stunning shoegaze lineup was no exception. With Glare, Airiel, Drop Nineteens, Ringo Deathstarr, and Slowdive performing, it was one of the most iconic arrays yet.

Written by Rachel Joy Thomas

Photos by Elina Carrasco

Every year, Levitation Festival hosts dozens of performers to stages across Austin, grabbing onto the biggest alternative rock acts in Texas and beyond for four days of unbound, otherworldly sets. In true fluid fashion, many concertgoers try to mix-and-match sets by running across Red River to see different acts, popping up to Empire Control Room or Stubb’s to catch just a few minutes of an interesting band on the bill.

But for Far Out Lounge, the Fest’s most distant venue — a whopping 20 minutes away from the other concert halls — audiences don’t have to skip across different locations to see a variety of groups. Instead, they can easily stroll between two stages to enjoy a diverse lineup of bands.

The Far Out Lounge hosts the largest number of acts each year, typically developing a roster of six or more performers per night. On Nov. 3, 2024, Far Out Lounge drew an astounding audience of shoegaze fanatics with its whopping band brigade. Featuring newcomer Glare, classic acts Airiel and Drop Nineteens, Texas legend Ringo Deathstarr, and perpetually evanescent headliner Slowdive, hundreds came to see one of Levitation Fest’s best lineups in years.

glare

At 5:08 p.m., Rio Grande-based Glare started its set on Far Out Lounge’s larger stage. The band introduced itself with Tejano music blasting into the venue before jumping into its newest single, “Mourning Haze.”. The ethereal track echoed, supported by Jes Morales’ rhythmic drum beats and ever-increasing strums from a Fender Jaguar.

The band’s 2018 single “Do Not Enter” slowly burned into the venue, trickling until it finally erupted from Morales’ patter on the backline. Toni Ordaz added a transcendent, blending guitar backed by Homero Solis’ Fender bass.

Throughout the set, Christian Resendez and Ordaz alternated between playing lead guitar riffs or leaping into vocal action, changing some of the tracks’ vibrations with different refrains. For “Void in Blue,” both guitarists virtuosically played ethereal riffs augmented by heavy effects that made the performance unforgettable. Despite Resendez joking, “it’s really sick to be the shitty band on the bill,” Glare proved otherwise.

Airiel

As dusk settled over the venue, core ’90s shoegaze band Airiel started its performance with “This is Permanent,” delving straight into a syncopated rudiment on a boiling hi-hat. Andrew Marrah and Jeremy Wrenn, the primary duo at the heart of Airiel’s modern iteration, performed extended versions of many of their tracks for an enveloping, extended set that nearly overlapped with Drop Nineteens on the backend.

“Red Rose,” known for its Audiotree Live rendition, blared into the venue with a murky, psychedelic pang. Creating a wall of sound, listeners stopped to listen to the surreal track’s emphatic vocals. Wrenn’s refrain, somewhat overwhelmed by the sound of guitar chirping and chucking, still warbled, “Red red rose, you never know,” with an enigmatic echo.

The set took a softer turn with the bonafide love song, “Your Lips, My Mouth,” a cut from the band’s revitalized 2017 album, Molten Young Lovers. The airy, opalescent track breathed into the venue as Wrenn’s vocals softly spilled, “It’s been weeks and weeks since I kissed you / Don’t tell me / Don’t tell me / Weeks and weeks it's been and I still miss you.”

Airiel dug over time, with Wrenn asking front-of-house if they could perform one last song before Drop Nineteens would take the stage. “Are we good, or no?” he asked, finally launching into the overdue, kaleidoscopic end of the group’s set with “The Painkillers.”

drop nineteens

By the time Drop Nineteens took to the larger Far Out Lounge stage, the crowd crushed so tightly together that people could smell the alcohol on others' breath. Cigarette smoke wafted in the air as the band opened with “Delaware,” a nostalgic song with breezy, textured vocals and clashing drum beats that echoed into the venue with a thunderous cry.

Lead vocalist Greg Ackwell spoke to the crowd extensively, telling fun stories between tracks and cheerfully placing a cowboy hat on his head because “It’s still Halloween.” Hilariously, Ackwell only wore the Texas headwear for one meager song, “Winona,” before announcing it too uncomfortable to keep on for the rest of the set. 

For its last track, “Kick the Tragedy,” Drop Nineteens had special footage to show the crowd. The band had gone through fan-made video submissions to create a visual accompaniment for the track, opting to premiere it on Far Out Lounge’s somewhat transparent screens.

“We invited people who love our songs to submit footage for the [music] video, and then we painstakingly went through… I think it was 7,000 submissions. We couldn’t get through nearly everything,” Ackwell explained. “With that in mind, thank you Austin.”

Strumming an acoustic guitar, Ackwell and other group members performed the homegrown track, playing the largely instrumental beginning and letting the supercut play out in its entirety before leaving the stage. Throughout its set, Drop Nineteens remained utterly friendly and casual while playing incredible, glistening shoegaze.

RINGO DEATHSTARR 

After months of touring in the U.K., Ringo Deathstarr returned to its home state to fanfare and a saturated, vaporous performance at Levitation Fest, starting at 7:41 p.m.

Opening with “Frisbee” from the group’s self-titled album, Elliot Frazier kicked off the set with a grinding, fuzzy guitar riff to match Alex Gehring’s trippy bassline. Frazier’s vocals, matching the frazzled energy of Daniel Coborn’s drumming, echoed: “You still cling to my own skin / It’s a feeling you can’t shed,” in a boyish phrasing. Breaking into a fanatical solo, the guitarist bent strings with careful fingers before replaying the song’s beginning notes.

In contrast, “Stare at the Sun,” a track from the group’s 2015 release Pure Mood, featured more of Gehring’s emphatic vocal delivery and a vibrant, beachy energy. The track’s jangly sound exploded into dynamism at the chorus, with dual vocals from Frazier and Gehring creating a sublime sonic texture.

“Heavy Metal Suicide,” a track from the same album, continued Frazier and Gehring’s dual vocal delivery, adding warped and hardcore-influenced riffs with heavy effects. Sparkling notes where Coborn hit his ride cymbal’s bell added an articulate, bright tone to contrast the heavier sound of the guitar and bassline.

Ringo Deathstarr’s performance played to multiple strengths. Namely, Gehring’s higher refrained vocals in contrast to Frazier’s nasally delivery, and the varying sound in the group’s discography that ranged from the sweet, paralyzing sound of shoegaze to heavy hardcore moments. For alternative rock fans, the group proved a perfect addition to an already stacked lineup.

SLOWDIVE 

The exodus from Ringo Deathstarr made many clambering, tired tequila-drinking audience members desperately vie for a good spot to see Slowdive in action. A long day of heavy shoegaze needed some level of reprieve, and the ’90s experimental group happily offered it at 8:40 p.m.

Balancing the set with classics from the group’s 1994 album, Souvlaki, later releases from its 2017 self-titled record, and cuts from the group’s recent 2023 addition to its discography, Slowdive performed with occasional words to the audience, letting the music speak for itself.

Starting its set with the electric “shanty,” a sudden meditative energy transfixed the audience. The crowd owed its stunning silence to Slowdive’s magnetic, gentle influence, with buzzing synths bouncing into the crowd and pulsing into bodies all across the packed venue. The track’s slow and eventual development led to the crashing, layered sound of rhythm guitar and overdrive. Lead vocalists Rachel Goswell and Neil Halstead conjoined in sonic harmony, coalescing in the slumbering ending vocals: “Another ghost is born / I feel like change will come / When the night rolls in.”

The pristine, dreamy sound of “Souvlaki Space Station” padded against newer tracks from the band’s discography, with brushing guitar and beautiful harmonic swells. Hushed drum beats added ethereal brushing notes that cohesively joined with subtle electronic textures and pleasant guitar modes. The ensemble, adding more or less to the sound’s depth, continued to explore the track’s intriguing sonic space.

The electronic-laden “chained to a cloud” further augmented audiences deeper into Slowdive’s 2023 experimental album, everything is alive. Playful, hypnotic sonic textures enveloped the venue, relaxing festival-goers. Like a sedative, it melted away everything around it.

Toward the latter half of the set, Slowdive members trickled in a few more popular songs. “Kisses” rang out, followed by “Alison,” where Halstead’s vocals reigned: “Your cigarette still burns / Your messed-up world will thrill me.” Like a hurried memory, the song floated into the venue with a slightly faster tempo than its studio counterpart.

Stepping off the stage for a few moments after performing a cover of Syd Barrett’s “Golden Hair,” the troupe eventually returned for a two-song encore.

Goswell hit angelic highs during “Machine Gun,” singing, “Guess I'll think of the water, it's my friend, oh yeah / It's just the way that the water makes me feel again.” Her refrain, contemplative and fragile, vibrated across Far Out Lounge’s stage, which buzzed from the clamber of the rhythm guitar.

Halstead’s distant warble, breathy and echoic, dominated “40 Days,” the last song of the night. Haunting lyrics like  “If I saw something good / I guess I wouldn't worry / If I saw something good / I guess I wouldn't care,” resounded quiet nervousness that felt timeless, even 20 years after the track’s creation.

Slowdive, performing alongside Glare, Airiel, Drop Nineteens, and Ringo Deathstarr, re-cemented shoegaze’s popularity in the 2020s. Enormous crowds encircled Far Out Lounge for each group’s performance, lying in wait just to hear the deafening chuck of a guitar or the darkened blast of a snare drum. From heavy to beachy, each group brought unique soundscapes to the Far Out Lounge, adding something special to Levitation’s pre-existing roster of psychedelic and shoegaze greats.