On a brisk Friday in mid-October, a crowd of hundreds sauntered into the East Atlanta Restaurant and Lounge, or the EARL, in anticipation of the evening’s offering from the innovative and eclectic venue: Frankie and the Witch Fingers. This show was the red-hot psychedelic group’s 10th stop in a dynamic 23-city national tour which already boasted an explosive performance at California’s Desert Daze festival.
The show was ignited by the stirring Kairos Creature Club, a Floridian three-piece ensemble with a kaleidoscopic vibe akin to Frankie, drifting through a vibrant psychedelic reef wrought with energy and life. Karios Creature Club concluded with the high-octane “Kevlar,” electrifying the crowd and flawlessly set the stage for the main act and their famous fingers.
Following a brief lacuna back to the surface for air, the entire building quickly descended back into the world of psychedelia with the guidance of the rambunctious four-member psychedelic powerhouse.
Armed with two guitars, a bass, a drum set, countless microphones, pedals, keyboards, amps and cables, the group unraveled musical tangles and deciphered acoustic codes through their musical performance which featured each member palatially — each taking the reins for impressive musical impacts followed by hasty retreats back into a self-imposed lagoon of noise and energy.
With each new song, fresh elements and themes were utilized to explore the very definition of power and punch in an fearless exploration of the world of psychedelia, with standout “Electricide” delving particularly deep into the group’s modus operandi of energetic and dynamic bedlam.
No stranger to the biggest of stages, the group commanded the attention of every creaky floorboard and dark cranny in the EARL, quickly outgrowing the corner stage into a fire-breathing dragon that scorched every eardrum in the building with a never-ending groove. Their pulsing movements were mirrored and amplified by the hungry crowd, a sweaty cohort of subjects loyal to Frankie and every note his Witch Fingers pulled out of a seemingly bottomless magic hat. The whirling mosh of fans enjoyed every note, holding onto the orchestrated energy summits with their entire bodies and spirits and feeding the beast, which in return gave a mythical performance that left the entire city abuzz with psychedelic fallout that will be impossible to forget.