Preview: Portland Happening & Psych Fest 8.9

Big news for all you paisley-wearing, ‘60s-loving, long-locked garage-psych fanatics: now you don’t have to travel all the way to Austin, Texas for the psych festival of your dreams. Introducing, A Beautiful Thing: Portland Happening and Psych Fest, including The Sellwoods, The Verner Pantons, The Mirrors, The Dandelyons, and The Pynnacles–the best plural noun pop acts this grand city has to offer. All right, so the Portland rendition of Psych Fest is technically not curated by The Black Angels and doesn’t feature an international spectrum of psychedelic rock bands, but the the festival that we know and drool over each year started from the same humble beginnings.

The magic is happening August 9, 9pm at The Analog Cafe & DRD Records Theater (720 SE Hawthorne). Starting the night off will be The Sellwoods, the distinctly more punk-inclined band of the lineup, who will drop fuzz bombs into your ear canals with their snotty garage rippers. Later on, The Dandelyons will melt away your woes with their beachy flower-pop. Each tune begs for your feet to do the Twist and your hands to clap to the beat. At the end of the night, The Pynnacles will induce a 13th Floor Elevators-laced trip with psychedelic keyboard textures, reverb-smothered guitar, and frontman Sean Croghan’s hoarse soulful vocals.

Come be a part of this Beautiful Thing and it may end up Happening again.

Bryce Woodcock

Photo of The Pynnacles by John Keel