RippleFest Texas 2024 was held over the weekend 19-22 September 2024 at The Far Out Lounge and Sagebrush in Austin, Texas. MetalTalk’s Sunil Singh experienced this exceptional weekend and reports with photographs from MetalTalk’s Melanie Webster. You can read all our RippleFest coverage here.
RippleFest Day Four: Sagebrush (AfterParty)
Less than a day is not enough to process the day before. Too many heavy moments and memories inextricably knotted with magic. It is like trying to catch celebratory confetti falling down from the ceiling, with each piece representing seconds of musical bliss, conversations of deep connection, warm embraces, smiles that should be illegal, and hundreds of photos that your brain, with full processing with an unknown timeline.
What often gets lost in between band performances are the conversations that occur between the fans, the fans and bands, and the bands themselves. Not only do you get to hang out with your favourite artists–it’s expected and desired. Artists who are making some of the best music ever made, and you get to discuss anything and everything with them.
There is no VIP fee. There is no cueing up to get a photo and a five-second conversation with millionaires who only see their fans as commerce and commodities. This is the bullshit narrative that legacy music critics peddle to the masses as rock ‘n’ roll culture so that their terminal incuriosity for any advancement of rock music is concealed by their own ego.
The final night was bittersweet. More phenomenal music, but the long goodbye was already settling in. All the bands that played the final night were there to tear up the place. There were no cruising speeds tonight. We came in just as Blackwulf was finishing up. It is not a surprise they sold out of all their merch.
Luckily, my book had the same fate. All of them were sold. I spent most of the night socializing–with one blistering set of music right after another. At the end, all of Sagebrush just gravitated towards the stage to see the spectacle that can only be experienced.
Words are irrelevant. Photos do the wild, carnival ride of Mario Lalli and The Rubber Snakes far more justice. As many photos as there are, there are many, many more missing that tell the true tale of the spiritual experience that we all nodded, smiled, and, in the end, danced to.
It was Pagan rock ‘n’ roll at its absolute fiercest.
The final words at this point must yield to photos. Photos that capture the spirit, magic, and love of RippleFest Texas. Photos that uniquely tell you that you are nowhere else.
Photos that tell a story of artists and fans who make the pilgrimage to Austin at the end of every summer to share their warmth, smiles and glowing faces. All the unique result of being immersed in some of the most heavy as fuck music on the planet.
A not so gentle reminder to all of us that seeing live music as a community makes us feel deeply connected to each other and everything around us.
And that the memories of these intricately connected moments of musical bliss are timeless and priceless.
Thank you, RippleFest Texas, for giving me a lifetime’s supply of them…
See you–and my new Ripple family–next year!
You can read all our Ripplefest coverage at MetalTalk.net/ripplefest.
