As music festivals jockey to stay afloat among rising production costs, one party in the desert simply won’t dry up. Planet Desert Rock Weekend, a riff-heavy fest born out of a love for stoner rock, doom and heavy psych, returns with 20 bands performing non-overlapping sets across four nights at two Las Vegas venues.
“This music really holds onto the organic side … of rock ’n’ roll,” says creator and curator John Gist, who has brought stoner rock pioneers Brant Bjork and John Garcia of Kyuss and spinoff bands like Los Angeles’ Nebula to the PDRW stage.“There is a lot of uniqueness to what this is about, and I think we cover in these 20 bands a pretty good range within the heavy rock, heavy-psych scene that really exemplifies a nice sampling.”
This year’s bill will be topped by legacy desert rock band Unida, followed by the fuzz-saturated sounds of Sons of Arrakis, a Montreal-based sci-fi rock band inspired by Frank Herbert’s Dune, Los Angeles stoner metalheads Fireball Ministry (performing for the first time since 2019), Italy’s heavy-psych rockers Mr. Bison, Swedish psych-prog outfit JIRM and countless more. For Last Call night on February 2, Vegas-based guitarist Jason Walker, a PDRW regular who has toured with Gene Simmons’ band, will riff through Soundgarden’s 1991 album Badmotorfinger and older tunes from its catalog. Gist’s addition of eight international bands also means that for some—Belgium’s Fire Down Below, United Kingdom’s Sergeant Thunderhoof and Germany’s Samavayo, JIRM and Sons of Arrakis—PDRW will mark their United States debut.
He’s allotted longer set times to make those trips feel worthwhile. Events also take place at night to give people time to relax and explore.
This year’s PDRW will welcome festival goers from more than 32 states and five countries, who will descend upon the Usual Place and Count’s Vamp’d for rare sets they likely won’t see anywhere else in the States.
“We’ve really made it difficult for bands to come over here and even make sense of things financially. Our market has shifted out of these genres so much that when they do these things, it’s just an honor,” Gist says. “This whole thing is risky for every person involved in the creation of this, that includes the bands, and that’s why I have to make it special.”
John Gist’s Three Must-See Acts
JIRM
“They’ve been around for a dozen years, and are out of Sweden, which, in the heavy rock underground scene, Sweden is like a mecca. It’s so amazing how they can range from sounding like [Swedish progressive metal band] Opeth to something like this. JIRM is a psychedelic adventure that has such an epic, majestic sound to them.”
Godzillionaire
“Godzillionaire features the frontman from the ’90s band Paw. They had a big song called ‘Jessie.’ Mark Hennessy is the frontman, and they’ve put together a great sound that really is genre-bending. … He brings soul into it, a driving force with full-throated vocals.”
Sergeant Thunderhoof
Sergeant Thunderhoof
“I would say they might be the band that most people are coming directly for. They just put out an album that was on so many people’s end-of-the-year list for 2024. Dan [Flitcroft] is an amazing singer and his lyricism really revolves around folklore and storytelling of the British nature.”
PLANET DESERT ROCK WEEKEND V January 30-February 1, 6 p.m., $40-$129, the Usual Place & Count’s Vamp’d; February 2, 6 p.m., $25-$45, Count’s Vamp’d, eventbrite.com.
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