Planet Desert Rock weekend: Samavayo

Planet Desert Rock Weekend started great. I had a totally chill ride with my Uber driver, who put on King Buffalo after asking me why I was there. Explaining Stoner Rock to a black dude my age, listening to Parliament/funkadelic, was fun. He asked for a recommendation, and BOOM! Morning Song…

I’m not going to mention the name of the hotel. They’re great people, it’s a friendly atmosphere, but I am in the fucking wrong part of town. I went for a walk around 4 PM, damn grateful I don’t walk around in chinos and Hawaiian shirts anymore. All you need is a black band shirt, some old worn cargo pants, and a solid black King Buffalo hoodie to blend in. In my mind I kept hearing Adrian Belew from King Crimson saying,
This is a dangerous place…

Indeed.

Now this next part might freak some people out, but honesty tends to keep one from acting out in ways that are… Not in their best interest. I fully intended to go to a legal dispensary and grab some bud. I haven’t smoked weed in 32 1/2 years, and for whatever reason I thought this was the perfect weekend to give it a go. I’m not gonna lie, seeing the lowest THC content at 17% gave me some pause. I also had a great conversation with a new friend I met on Instagram, all hail Anna, who deftly pointed out that Clean and Sober Stoner doesn’t get stoned.

Fuck me, she’s right!

Now, before something you start freaking out and calling me out for hypocrisy, let me set something straight for you. If I didn’t on occasion think about going back to my favorite drug of choice, something would be seriously wrong. I’m just like anybody else in recovery, sometimes I just need to say what I’m thinking out loud so I can hear how fucked up it is.

I let one other dude know what I was thinking, the infamous S. Patrick Brooks. I might be having some really screwed-up thoughts in my head lately, but I am choosing my friends well. The look of relief on his face when I told him I decided against it was classic. The moogerfooger was behind me either way, with unconditional support and all that. But it was a great moment to share with him.

Being in the hotel brings to mind the old military saying, “Embrace the suck.” Again, great people, I’m going to give them a good review. I just didn’t make a great choice. I slept like shit, and by the time I woke up the next morning jet lag grabbed me by the balls and let me know they’d be around for a few days.

Shit started hitting the fan in a few key areas of my life. The biggest one being someone I’m working with who used their 90 day supply of benzos in about three weeks. I don’t know if you know anything about benzodiazepine withdrawal, but it’s a motherfucker. Here I am, a few thousand miles away, and unable to assist ethically. It messed with my head a bit, they are an awesome patient.

I have one or two other personal things in my life that are far from being resolved. Nothing to do with home, but people I care about. One in particular. But I’m not writing about that. How’s that for a passive-aggressive shout-out?

And to that my stupidity preparing for the night. I did not plan my meals very well, and by the time I got to the Count’s Vamp’d, I was starving and in dire need of caffeine. Knowing that JJ Koczan was in the same state of mind helped a lot. One thing about JJ, no matter what the fuck is going on I always feel better after talking or seeing him.

Finally meeting Todd Severin from Ripple Music was beyond awesome. It’s one thing being close friends with people online (which happens a lot in this gig) but meeting them in person puts things on a whole different level. He even brought up getting onto the channel for an interview soon… I’m holding him to that!

Still, as awesome as seeing everybody was and is, it was not enough to get me out of my headspace. I was whining about how old I was, how hungry I was, and anything else I could think of. Until…

Samavayo

I didn’t think anything could get me out of the headspace I was in. But Samavayo did it in about 5 seconds.

Some of the best bands I’ve ever seen were opening bands. Kyuss and Eleven are two of them. Samvayo is in the same league of awesomeness. I mean, damn these Germans lay down some mighty fine Stoner/Doom live that their albums barely hint at. They’ve been around forever, but they are totally new to me.

THIS is the power of Stoner/Doom. I was transfixed watching them play, even though I couldn’t record them with the fancy equipment I bought (more on that in the next post. I’m not giving you everything right away…) If you ever have a chance to see Samavayo live, do it! They remind me just a bit of a very heavy Colour Haze, with bass playing that is more aggressive and vocals that have a slightly more rock edge to them.

I think anybody who loves new Stoner Doom or old Stoner Rock Will discover a new favorite band if they give these guys a shot. One more thing, I absolutely would not want to be the band that follows Samavayo. That duty fell on the Sons of Arrakis, and I’ll tell you about them next time, along with Mr. Bison and Unida.