Bongzilla. All photos by Abigail Cassner.If only we could rage in the Cozy Motel at Psycho CA forever. Kidding. Timing is a funny thing. When we put our crew together for this weekend's debauchery, we covered all the bases, taking everything except nature and bullshit into consideration. The day before our 7 hour drive down the coast, Abigail's car window got smashed in. Our camera assistant's cat started peeing blood, so she left early yesterday. And one of us may have gotten a serious UTI. Guess we can't drink like we used to.But we didn't let that screw up day 3 (check out our day 1 coverage here and our day 2 coverage here). I was determined to burn one with Bongzilla and share bourbon with Dixie. That turned into me asking every weed-themed band how the devil's lettuce influences their music, which turned into me chatting with certified bad ass Scott Carlson for a half hour. He wasn't even playing the fest, but the bassist of Cathedral, Death Breath, and Repulsion had something to say about bud, the accessibility of music today, and the impact bands like Pentagram had when they came out."I think weed has influenced the entire universe. It lowers your inhibitions, making the world turn, and things that need to happen, happen. When your inhibitions are lowered the possibilities are endless. It's the elixir that made white girls dance with black boys back when rock n' roll first came about. But the industry of rock n roll has changed significantly--its modest now. It's no longer a huge industry, we're not making a million dollars the way bands did in the 80s and 90s--it's not really an industry anymore but it's still a lifestyle.""It's the internet; you don't have to buy a record or tape to discover a band anymore. There was a time when if you wanted to hear an underground band, you'd have to put some serious effort into it. When I was growing up in the 70s and 80s, if you wanted to hear any NWOBHM bands that weren't Saxon, Iron Maiden, or Def Leppard, you'd have to find a catalogue and order imports. Now a days, you go online and that whole world is at your fingertips. I remember when I was on tour with Cathedral, we were in House of Records in Rochester, NY looking through the dollar bin when Lee Dorrian and Gaz started finding copies of that Pentagram record from '84 that was issued on Pentagram records. They were pulling out piles of this record, and Gaz just handed one to me, told me to revisit it, and buy it for 50 cents. We also found a Sir Lord Baltimore's Kingdom Come for a couple of bucks. When I took those two records home my life changed."We may have been three hours late for hotel checkout, leading to serial phone calls from the front desk as we shoved frozen beers in our pillow cases, but we made it to the observatory in time for Canadian stoners, Tumbleweed Dealer. They sound-checked, rolled four fat blunts on stage and passed them out for the crowd to spark. Kidding. I'm bitter we didn't actually catch their set, but that would've been tight. We did see Bongzilla though, who played songs off Amerijuanican and Gateway. Earthless humbly followed, weaving an appropriately psychedelic landscape for OM to breach. Al Cisneros carved through smoke with dense bass riffs among ominous chants. And then there was Pentagram, the final band of the weekend. They performed "Lazylady" and "Starlady," their legendary singles from the '70s, for the first time in years. It was brilliant. Suddenly, all the crap we were dealt didn't matter, and even that asshole who took the last complimentary Thief merch tote bag couldn't piss Abigail off.Psycho CA Fest ended with the the godfather of American doom shaking his ass, letting us know these sure as hell aren't his last days here.Atlas MothBanquetBongzillaEarthlessElderTombsThe Fans of PCF
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