Later that night, King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard took an enraptured crowd into the deepest recesses of their minds with a raucous set, culminating in frontman Stu McKenzie crowd surfing and taking a dip in Lake Perris before returning to finish the closing number, "The Dripping Tap." While King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard's set opener, Gaia, set the tone for their high-energy show, the lyrics also exemplify the festival in general
True to its nature, psychedelia abounded at Desert Daze, but this isn't your stereotypical hippie-style psych fest. It's a festival of duality, psychedelia with an edge, evident in performance after performance over the weekend. After a heavy stoner doom set by Melbourne's Divide and Dissolve, Takiaya Reed gave a deeply heartfelt thank you to the crowd that had come to support the band. Before playing her song, "Beauty in the Fire," Lady Wray explained how she came to write the piece during protests in Atlanta in the summer of 2022, finding beauty in what seemed to be a world on fire. One of the most innovative sets performed by Charlotte Adigéry & Bolis Pupul closed with "Thank You," a tongue-in-cheek song about performing for exposure. Charlotte genuinely thanked the crowd before sarcastically thanking club owners who want to skip out on paying performers. Babe Rainbow did add a bit of traditional psychedelia to the weekend. Kicking off a 6-week tour that ends in LA at the Zebulon on November 11th, Babe Rainbow brought a set reminiscent of 1970s Laurel Canyon. But even they couldn't resist a bit of contrast, opening and closing their set with two new songs from their album set for release on October 14th. These new tracks add a contemporary electronica element to an already heavily layered psych sound, combining the old with the new. Attendees also appeared to convey the festival's duality through their attire, almost that of metalheads or punks heading to a rave. And that very well could have been the case as The Sanctuary stage showcased diverse DJ sets throughout the weekend.
As Elliot O'Reilly said, the mind is indeed a deep place, and sometimes you've "got to stack the odds in your favor." And sometimes, the best way to do that is to take a desert trip and let the music guide you through its crevices.
Kissy And Kevin Martin With Lady Wray
Lady Wray
Sloppy Jane Violens
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