Rrreviews

Show Review: Green Lung, Truckfighters, High Desert Queen, Acid King, and Tower at Desertfest NYC 2024.
September 14th, 2024.

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The Heavy Power of Desert Rock Plows Through New York City

By Remy Fromage

September 15th, 2024

Where’ve we been? Where have you been? Last night we crawled to the Knockdown Center in Queens for night three of New York's Desertfest. Billed as a premier festival of stoner rock/doom/psych, this weekend’s sounds had the heavy gravity of a black hole. We weren’t present to cover all twenty nine acts throwing down over the three day event. Our coverage is only a slice of the pizza, not the whole pie. That being said, here’s our ear-ringing account of Green Lung, Truckfighters, High Desert Queen, Acid King, and Tower:

We first witnessed Green Lung claim dominion over the main stage. The crowd pounded their fists in the air to the deep chugging riffs, prog keys, acrobatic shredding, and dramatic vocals. Solos were of guitar hero level virtuosity, with lead guitar and keyboard occasionally going toe to toe with solo duels. The whole act felt like a battle rallying cry before a fight to slay some kind of medieval space dragon. Right after we had that thought, the frontman previewed the next song by shouting “This is a song called MOUNTAIN THRONE”.

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We wandered outside and stumbled upon the outdoor Ruins stage where Truckfighters were soundchecking. We planted ourselves and waited another twenty minutes in order to secure a front row view. How worth it it was. Their set was throbbing and convulsing with incessant low end power. Imagine speeding straight down a lonely highway at 120 miles an hour... in a monster truck, slowly bouncing from the springy suspension as the world raced by your view in a blur. Through a dense stage haze of fog, Truckfighters delivered thunder-sludge.

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We rushed back inside to the Texas stage to catch Austin heavy rockers High Desert Queen unleash some Texas sized thrashing. It was so heavy. Like something was grabbing us by the ankles, trying to pull us down through the cement floor. Their frontman's belting shouts echoed and bounced around the concrete and brick of the room. Their bassist wore an Alice In Chains Dirt tee. It was headbanging as if you were inside the middle of a tornado. They finished their set with Solar Rain from their recently released album Palm Reader.

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Back at the main stage was Acid King. Fronted by an acid queen, she took advantage of the reflective space to send her soaring voice ricocheting around the wide open hall. It flew above the growling instrumentation like a slow motion comet scorching through the sky. Because these guitar tones are so deep, they’re not as harsh as distortion would normally be. The ear is more sensitive and susceptible to pain in the upper frequencies, but since there weren’t a whole lot of upper frequencies, this shit was LOUD. Usually the beat of the drum physically kicks you in the chest. It did, but Acid Kings bass and guitar also rumbled with so much power that it shook our tendons, rattled our bones.

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Tower’s frontwoman was a double barreled shotgun behind the microphone, wielding the power of a siren. At one point she braced herself against the steel I-beam shooting through the middle of the stage, struggling to contain the power of her own voice. At another point she got down on her knees, holding the mic up above her head as an offering. This quintet with two guitarists had the firepower to assign one to riffage and another to soloing. All five members of the band had, at the very least, shoulder length hair. It was flying all over the place, a follicle typhoon.

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There was an entire section of the venue in between stages setup as a vendor bazaar. Merch, records, clothes, jewelry, and other rocking wares were available. Outside were food trucks and plenty of counters throughout the indoor and outdoor spaces to grab a drink. The event had its own beer that we tried, the Desertfest Hazy IPA, expertly crafted by Kings County Brewers Collective. Sound systems and lighting was great at every stage and there was plenty of space to both get in on the action and take a breather.

Desertfest 2025 will definitely be on our radar, and we’ll be spending the next few days digging into these bands and all the others on the lineup we didn’t get to see. Connect with Green Lung, Truckfighters, High Desert Queen, Acid King, and Tower if you like what you hear. See you in some other sewer, Rrrat Pack.