Perhaps inevitably, the headliner of this year's Levitation festival (formerly Austin Psych Fest) is the original Texas psychedelic band, the 13th Floor Elevators. The performance, taking place May 10, will feature four original members of the group, Roky Erickson, Tommy Hall, John Ike Walton, and Ronnie Leatherman, reunited for the first time since 1968. An auspicious occasion—though anyone who's followed Erickson's famously erratic career through the years will know better than to have unrealistically high expectations. It could be great. Or it could be depressing. MAYBE BOTH!?
If you want to understand why people are so devoted to the 13th Floor Elevators despite their shambling history, dig into some of the band's earliest live documents, recorded at the New Orleans Old World Night Club in Austin, and broadcast on KAZZ-FM in 1966.
"These are the driving sounds of the 13th Floor Elevators!" the hilariously square-sounding DJ announces. What follows is some of the most unhinged and dangerous garage rock ever played.
February 1966
The Elevators had only been together for a few short months when these recordings were made. But their signature sound is already firmly in place: Erickson's demonic, slapback-echo fortified vocals, a rhythm section driving 90 miles an hour down a dead end street, Stacy Sutherland's brutal guitar work, and of course, the madcap electric jug stylings of Tommy Hall.
The February set may have been broadcast during a blizzard, as our DJ notes, but the band is on fire, leading off with a possessed cover of the Nuggets generation’s foundational text, Them's "Gloria". The song’s primal three-chord stomp fits the Elevators like a glove. And the group gives it the all-important concluding rave-up it deserves, with Sutherland’s proto-skronk squalls competing with Erickson’s deranged ranting. They follow it up with their own worthy entry into the Ultimate Garage Rock Anthem sweepstakes, "You’re Gonna Miss Me", which had just been released as a single.
The set concludes with another raver, the Kinks' "You Really Got Me", with the Elevators thrashing out Dave Davies' classic riff with relish, Sutherland searching for a sound that hasn't quite been invented yet. There's just 25 minutes of music here, but you wonder how any band could keep going after this display of pure, relentless energy.
March 1966
"You're listening to the 13th Floor Elevators tonight, with about 600 happy people being entertained tonight," our smooth-voiced host tells us at the outset of the next recording, made a few weeks later at the same Austin venue. "Happy" is one way of putting it. The Elevators were early and enthusiastic converts to LSD and reportedly handed out doses freely to fans—and hey, in early '66, the drug was still legal for the time being. Accordingly, as the group lurches through "Roller Coaster", the music takes on a wobbly, funhouse mirror quality that is genuinely terrifying. A bad trip, man.
The opening cover of the Beatles’ "The Word" (then a brand new song) is a little bit less scary, though in Roky’s hands, it starts to sound a bit like an open invitation to join a Manson Family-esque cult. Another stab at "Gloria" is somehow even more off the rails than the previous version, hurtling along at breakneck speed, the band howling in response to Erickson on the chorus. It may not have been merely acid the Elevators were ingesting on this particular night. Ever-unflappable, the DJ chuckles after its extended conclusion: "It just keeps going … and going … and going!"
"You’re Gonna Miss Me" — "Where The Action Is!", 1966
For a final taste of the 13th Floor Elevators in all their raw, early glory, check out this clip of the band on Dick Clark’s "Where The Action Is" TV show, taped a bit later in 1966. Erickson may be lip-syncing here, but the intensity level in his performance remains unbelievably high. With hindsight, it’s easy to see that he wouldn’t be able to maintain this kind of chemical-fueled lifestyle for long. But for a little while there, the 13th Floor Elevators blazed brighter than almost any other band, before or since. We’re still basking in the afterglow.