The two-day Freakout Weekender returned to Belltown on March 2-3, 2024. The Weekender is a short-and-sweet version of Freakout‘s four-day fall festival, which includes a diverse selection of legacy artists, emerging and established Seattle groups, and bands from Latin America. It offers an ideal opportunity to explore new music.
Held across four stages within the Crocodile building and the nearby Belltown Yacht Club, the festival featured about 30 musical acts. Saturday leaned punk-heavy, and Sunday included more psych-rock and electronic options. As always, the the Mad Alchemy Analog Liquid Light Show visually enhanced the mainstage shows with trippy visuals.
The crowd showed up ready for some rowdy fun, and artists were happy to oblige—resulting in moshing, crowdsurfing, and flying drinks. It was a great party as much as it was a live-music event. A few shows were stuffed to capacity, but most were comfortably well-attended and energetic. The only quibble was a cascading delay that scrambled schedules and pushed back Sunday set times by an hour. Freakout events celebrate the physicality and community of live music, and the Weekender successfully gathered many subcultures under its psychedelic umbrella.
See some Weekender highlights below, plus full photo galleries for each day. The annual Freakout Festival will return to Ballard November 7-10, 2024. — Editor’s Note: Click here to view previous Freakout Festival coverage.
Saturday
Saturday headliners FUZZ played hard psych-rock, featuring Ty Segall on drums and vocals (photo: Lisa Hagen Glynn).Frontwoman Mimi SanDoe of Los Angeles hardcore band NIIS (photo: Lisa Hagen Glynn). This set had a raging pit and front-row fans screaming along.Felipe García, one of two brothers of the Mexican punk duo Sgt. Papers (photo: Lisa Hagen Glynn).Derv Gordon of 1960s English interracial rock band The Equals, backed by Oakland garage-rockers So What (photo: Lisa Hagen Glynn). “I’m getting too old for this shit,” the 78-year-old quipped, swigging some water between songs.Brandon Blaine of Los Angeles post-punk group Plague Vendor (photo: Lisa Hagen Glynn). Blaine doused the front row, removed his vest, and shivered his chest in the swirling psychedelic lights.Meriel O’Connell of Los Angeles gothic hardcore group Slaughterhouse (photo: Lisa Hagen Glynn). Their high-energy set worked up the crowd, and brought out all the photographers.Seattle’s fuzzy psychedelic “bootgazers” Valley Suns (photo: Lisa Hagen Glynn). They played the autumn Freakout Festival, as well as the Tremolo Festival. The band had mentioned doing some recording, so fingers are crossed for a new album this year.Seattle darkwave duo Dark Chisme (photo: Lisa Hagen Glynn). They are included in the just-announced lineup of the Capitol Hill Block Party this summer.Quirky Tacoma indie-rockers Meldrop, who took the stage dressed as waiters (photo: Lisa Hagen Glynn).
Gallery: Freakout Weekender Saturday
Sunday
Jason Balla of Chicago indie-rock group DEHD (photo: Lisa Hagen Glynn). Maybe you saw their KEXP performance in 2022.Loungey guitarist–vocalist Nick Waterhouse had the crowd dancing (photo: Lisa Hagen Glynn). His jazz-inspired band included several vocalists and upright bass.Dinho Almeida of Boogarins, who performed a set of fun Brazilian psychedelia in Portuguese (photo: Lisa Hagen Glynn). They have played KEXP sessions on previous visits to Seattle.Levitation Room, who packed Madame Lou’s with fans of spacey psych-rock (photo: Lisa Hagen Glynn). They had also played at the fall Freakout Festival.Seattle alt-rock artist Alex Vile (photo: Lisa Hagen Glynn). Their 90s-inspired set alternated between quiet pretty passages and hair-flipping rocking out. Natasha El-Sergany and Josh Medina of “dreamgaze” group somesurprises, one of Seattle’s best current bands (photo: Lisa Hagen Glynn). Catch their Perseids album release on April 20, while you can still see them in a relatively small venue.Seattle guitarist–vocalist Caspian Coberly performed with his band (photo: Lisa Hagen Glynn). (You might remember Coberly as the shredding young musician who performed with Matt Cameron’s jazz trio at the Royal Room.) They will also be playing the Capitol Hill Block Party this year.Chilean experimental group Sistemas Inestables, absolutely killing an early set of electronics, guitars, and drums (photo: Lisa Hagen Glynn). Sistemas played another moody, all-in show at Conor Byrne this week, and they will be at Treefort later this month. Watch for more from these folks.
