Desertfest London 2025 – Friday
Ah, Deserfest London 2025… being the wily veteran of one whole previous visit, this year felt like the time to learn from past mistakes. Sadly, the plan of sharing a luxurious Premier Inn room with my own bed was dashed when my best friend, having secured staff discounts for us, found himself the father of twins two short months ago and was unable to attend. Sticking with what I knew, I ran it back and booked the same hostel as last time.
2024, apart from popping my Desertfest cherry, featured a stacked lineup of dream bands that I had yet to see. Aside from a few notable exceptions, this year was a very different feel, with a more experimental and educational slant that would hopefully see me avoid a sophomore slump. Plus, I also had the company of fellow Shaman scribe Matthew Williams, there on official business for another publication.
Miraculously, my trip to the capital featured no train delays and with an intimate knowledge of the area, I had no issues navigating to the location (a big shout out to the continuing building work decimating the surroundings that appears to have made zero progress in a calendar year).
Having utterly failed to meet up with former scribe Pete Green last year, despite being stood feet from each other in multiple venues, it was with some amusement that literally the first person I clocked walking away from the wristband collection was the man himself (who then couldn’t shake me all weekend and was always polite enough to make time), followed immediately by current alumni Matthew who proved to be a useful beacon for the day, sporting a rather fetching unicorn vomit coloured Napalm Death t-shirt.
One small change from last year was that the media pass wristbands did not permit us to jump the queue. Now, whilst I didn’t abuse this privilege much last time, there appeared to be some queuing issues gaining entry to the Electric Ballroom, which meant that I missed the first few numbers of London’s own psychedelic doom rockers Elephant Tree.
In full flow as the room gradually filled up, the band brought their unique heavy, but mellow noodling sounds that span the genres of blues, doom and stoner with dense pedal effects and overlapping three-way harmonies. At some point, bassist Peter Holland broke one of his fancy green bass strings and there was a protracted hiatus whilst they struggled to replace it.
Throughout this downtime, guitarist Jack Townley kept the crowd amused with banter and culinary advice on not eating ‘the tuna baguette’ when you wake from a coma, referring back to the multi-week medically induced sleep he was placed in following a bike accident in 2023. Thankfully, Lowrider came to the rescue with a loan and the band were able to finish the set in style with a headbanging finish, which felt like they had triumphed against the odds somewhat but left me wanting more.
And the more I got was Norway’s The Devil And The Almighty Blues. Having fallen in love with the gloomy, not-quite-metal-but-nearly sounds of their 2019 Tre album, this was a must-see appointment in a day that would see me stay in the Electric Ballroom from start to finish. After a chanting intro, the tall people began to appear, reminding me that I clearly keep the company of hobbits, as the band rumbled into the sumptuous riffing of Salt The Earth.
Following a thunderous jam section, the broke into the more southern rock flavouring of Tired Old Dog, ramping up the power, peeling off licks in another glorious middle section before Never Darken My Door, complete with its exuberant ‘Woo-oo-oo’ call and response chorus raised the performance to greater levels which, sad to say for Elephant Tree, made it feel like the festival had truly started.
Being the professional I am, I’ll skip the minor crowd incident in front of me that prompted the words ‘knob sorcery’ to appear in my notes and focus on the excellent, extended version of Time Ruins Everything with scorching twin solos and the towering finale of The Ghosts Of Charlie Barracuda. The age of ‘70s rock, Marshall stacks and delta blues was well served, and the band did not disappoint.
Having reclaimed their property, Sweden’s Lowrider took to the stage following lingering feedback. As the heavy bass rumble and drums gave way to their trademark churning fuzz and psychedelic instrumentalisation, the lights danced back and forth with the grinding groove. Pausing to address the crowd, bassist Peder Bergstrand reminded the congregation that they reformed to play Desertfest 2013 after one album and a ten-year hiatus, the success of that reunion inspired them to continue to this day.
After that powerful reminder of how special the music they make can be, they launched in a set that balanced poppy, almost QOTSA type hooks, pumping tribal drumming and hammering rhythms that gave nods to Black Sabbath, featured serious wah pedal abuse and got the crowd bouncing with numbers like Pipe Rider and Ode To Ganymede.
The band had the crowd hanging on every note with great banter and a real sense of fun in between the seriously spaced-out moments, Ray Manzarek like keyboard flourishes, and effortless musicianship that turned up the heat and the bar for performance up a level before bowing out with a final ‘See you at the bar and the merch booth’. Simply stunning.
A drawn-out hypnotic pulsing intro heralded the start of Ukrainian stoner maestros Stoned Jesus. As they lumbered into the muscular hard rock of Porcelain off 2023’s top-notch Father Light album, they got the fists pumping and the energy of the crowd began to crackle. Celebrating 15 years of their existence, they vowed to play old and new material, mixing up the likes of Thessalia, Here Come The Robots and Black Woods.
Each interaction from frontman Igor Sydorenko, like asking the crowd if they like the new guys, was greeted with ecstatic, baying responses and the room positively exploded at the mention of support for his homeland and the defiance in the ongoing conflict. Musically, they delivered the faster, grittier tracks with a punk-like speed rush to be met with clapping hands on I’m The Mountain as Sydorenko threw himself into the waiting arms in front of the stage.
Ending with the monstrous riffing and rousing singing of Electric Mistress which featured funky falsetto, with crowd participation singing the riffs and chorus, the band gave out the good time vibes in bucketfuls and received it back in kind at the climatic big rock finish.
Headlining the Electric Ballroom, genre-pushing Massachusetts crew Elder came to play the 10th anniversary of their watershed Lore album. Wreathed in smoke along with blue and purple lights, the pounding opening of Compendium set the tone for a set that ran the gamut of mellow, simmering vibes, heavyweight atmospherics and progressive vibes. Nick DiSalvo’s voice pierced the soupy fog with soulful soaring on Legend and the band swung from introspective quiet to dirty rock outs.
As the set flowed with heavy jams, Elder showed why they have become so revered. Featuring little interaction, they simply smashed through chunks of molten blues influenced metal. Watching the set next to ex-Indica Blues guitarist John Slaymaker, the six stringer declared them the best in the genre at what they do as they finished Spirit At Aphelion and treated us to a one-two encore of Halcyon and Dead Roots Stirring to bring down the curtain on the action in the Electric Ballroom for the day.
However, Friday was not done and I wanted to catch Portland’s Hippie Death Cult at The Black Heart, so literally hot footing it at the dying notes of Elder, I made it into a packed room during French post-punk electro rockers Servo. Walking in literally knowing nothing of the band, I was greeted by pumping tempos, synth pop and catchy, driving ‘80s beats with razor sharp fuzzing. I probably only caught three tracks, one of which I know was Who Else Likes Surprises? off their 2024 Monsters album, but it was a captivating performance, even from the back of the room with the band throwing themselves around the tight space and up in the faces of the front row on the barrier.
After ceremonial head touches, Laura Philips and crew took to the cramped space. With The Black Heart bursting to capacity, they ripped into Arise with a machine-gunning start. The sound was pushed to punishing overdrive, clearly coming from the Motörhead school of everything louder than everything else. The hot, dense air was so thick, you could feel the bass pushing on you as it strained under the weight.
Even the sound issues couldn’t stop the band from ripping through numbers like Squid, Red Giant and Toxic Annihilator in a set that featured sultry, slow passages, wild fretboard abuse and an absolute animal-like, heroic drum solo from Harry Silvers who must have shed half his body weight in sweat. The Black Heart gave back with slamming mosh pits and screaming applause before they closed out the evening with a joyous rendition of Fairies Wear Boots.
After that, all that was left was to stumble the long walk back to the hostel, where my reward was the creaky top bunk which marked me out as having tenure and seniority, cos that’s how it works in prison right?
Scribed by: Mark Hunt-Bryden
