13th Floor Elevators Reuniting at Austin's Levitation In May (60s psychedelic groovin')

[TexasTowelie]

Here's a Friday the 13th surprise we can only hope turns out to be true: Levitation, the trippy three-day weekend formerly known as Austin Psych Fest, has already landed some big names this year, like Spiritualized, the Jesus & Mary Chain, Primal Scream and Tame Impala. But Friday morning the festival announced arguably the grandaddy of them all, Houston's 13th Floor Elevators, will close the event on May 10 in what is billed as a "50th anniversary performance."

Surviving Elevators Roky Erickson, Tommy Hall, John Ike Walton and Ronnie Leatherman will share the stage for the first time since 1967 and be joined by numerous "special guests," Levitation announced today. The festival is scheduled for May 8-10 at Carson Creek Ranch outside of Austin; single-day tickets are now on sale at austinpsychfest.com.

"Each year a few bands on our wish list get checked off, many that we've had on the list for many years," Rob Fitzpatrick, Levitation co-founder and booker, said in a statement. "Having the 13th Floor Elevators on the festival lineup is just something we hadn't even dared to dream about.

"The band is massively influential and important to psychedelic rock and music in general, and we're so proud to host this performance in May," he added. "Surreal."

Read more: http://blogs.houstonpress.com/rocks/2015/02/13th_floor_elevators_reuniting.php

[NBachers]

1. And here's the 13th Floor Elevators with their big smash hit, "You're Gonna Miss Me!"

commercial free

[Manifestor_of_Light]

2. I've got the album with the psychedelic eye cover.

Guess that makes me officially old.

[hobbit709]

3. Should be interesting. I've known Roky for almost 40 years.

Elevators doing Dylan

[Blue_In_AK]

7. I just found this post.

I have to ask, how is Roky doing these days? I used to love the Elevators when I lived in Houston. They'd play over at the University sometimes. They were amazing live in 1967 or so.

[TexasTowelie]

9. I read a review a few weeks ago and it said that they rocked out.

There were some other famous guests that performed with them on a few songs. I'll see if I can locate it and make another post. From what I have gathered Roky is doing well. I'm kind of surprised by the number of people on DU that saw them perform--I thought that the thread could have died easily when I posted it. I'll let you know when I find that article.

[Blue_In_AK]

10. Thank you.

I had some correspondence with Danny Gallindo several years ago after an article appeared in Anchorage's newspaper about the band and Roky's mental health issues. It was about the time that a bunch of artists made a tribute album to the band to help with his expenses. I had lost my Psychedelic Sounds and Easter Everywhere albums decades ago, and no CDs were available at that time. He ended up making me a mix tape from his old albums (with scratches and all) plus a couple of live performances. The sound quality was pretty bad, but it gave me my fix until I was able to get my hands on the CDs a few years later. I read somewhere not too long ago that Danny had passed away, which saddened me. He had been very kind to this old fan.

[TexasProgresive]

4. i think we saw them at Love Street, Allen's Landing

In Houston,but its all a bit fuzzy. We thought they were from Dallas, wiki has them from Austin and the Press from Houston. Well all I can say is the Elevators were "far out, man! Can ya dig it?"

[freshwest]

5. That's where I saw them!

[They_Live]

6. I saw Roky play in Austin at the Ritz in the 80's

with quite a few other music legends backing him up. During one song he got stuck and kept going in a loop for about 20 minutes. I realize that his condition is quite different now and this sounds like an interesting concert, but I don't know if I have the fortitude to endure this kind of event anymore. I do love his music, but my tolerance for "music festivals" is tenuous at best.

[ananda]

8. I met Roky and Sumner a few years ago...

... at the ice cream social my brother put together
to fundraise for survivors of electroshock.

That was very cool!