Local psych favorites the Spiral Electric play Oakland show
Local psychedelic-rock outfit the Spiral Electric top the bill Sunday night at the Golden Bull in Oakland, sharing the stage with Boulder, CO-based prog band Source and San Jose heavy psych outfit Sönus.
The roots of the band date back over a decade to when singer/guitarist/keyboard player Clay Andrews and lead guitarist Nicolas Percey first met while attending a concert at the Fillmore featuring Primal Scream and the Brian Jonestown Massacre in 2009.
The new friends struck up a creative partnership, writing songs that mixed modern and classic psychedelia with Britpop hooks, shoegaze drone and propulsive surf guitars. The pair teamed with a rhythm section and traveled to Los Angeles to record their first EPs -- 2015's Upon Your Shore -- that showcased the band's expansive sound.
The group would follow up with a second EP late in 2016 entitled Ask the Sky that further refined the Spiral Electric's approach to creating neo-psych anthems in the studio. The band built on it's local following, touring and sharing Bay Area stages with like-minded artists from here and abroad including Dead Meadow, Spindrift, the Kills, Swervedriver, Black Mountain, Lumerians, the Dandy Warhols, Cat Power, Jjuu-Jjuu and Turn Me On Dead Man.
Starting in 2018, the band (now filled out by bassist Michael Summers and drummer Matias Dragos) worked on compiling and recording the material that would make up its first proper full-length album. Released in the spring of 2019, the sprawling, hour-plus eponymous effort spotlights a heavier guitar attack without sacrificing the band's knack for crafting swirling, psychedelic ear candy. Recorded with Dead Meadow bassist Steve Kile and mastered by noted engineer Howie Weinberg (Nirvana, the Mars Volta, ), the album marked a significant leap forward in the Spiral Electric's sound.
Later that year, the band appeared at several California music festivals including Desert Stars (Joshua Tree), SubZero Festival (San Jose) and Oakland's Holiday on the Moon that Andrews helped organize. Since the addition of current bassist Ryan McKnight in 2021, the band has been hard at work recording music for their forthcoming next album during multiple visits to Southern California. The crew released the moody first single from the effort "Shadow in the Dark" last summer.
Last April, the band drew a sizeable crowd for a free outdoor show at the Golden Gate Park Bandshell. The Spiral Electric plays this show at the Golden Bull on Sunday in the middle slot after sets from opening San Jose stoner/psych outfit Sönus -- who play songs from their 2022 opus Usurper of the Universe -- and touring Boulder, CO headliner Source, a veteran prog-metal act that has echoes of Tool and Pink Floyd on their latest album, Emergence.
Source with the Spiral Electric and Sönus
Sunday, Nov. 17, 7 p.m. $12
Bottom of the Hill
