Psycho Las Vegas 2017 was a wild, fun in the scorching Nevada sun, heavy metal festival for the ages. Three days [four if you attended the Thursday night pre-party by the pool!] three stages, and approx. three million bands, spread out throughout The Hard Rock Hotel & Casino grounds. Metal and rock fans from around the globe made the trip down to Psycho for the loudest, and drunkest, summer vacation imaginable.
Gojira.
Toke.
Click here to view over 200 photos from Psycho Las Vegas
Over the years, Psycho Fest’s lineups have largely catered to the doom and stoner metal crowds, with some extreme and avant-garde bands thrown in for kicks. Psycho 2017’s lineup was as close to expertly curated as we’re probably going to get; and will go down as one of the most entertaining festivals of recent memory. From the Vegas location, where the booze never stops flowing and the 90 degree temp outside insures that the pool party never ends, to the crazy variety on the bill, Psycho Las Vegas 2017 was one hell of a party.
Mastodon. photo – Linda Hirsch.
Legendary acts like Neurosis and King Diamond rocked the main stage inside The Joint, while newer noise mongers like Young And In The Way and Inter Arma destroyed the pool stage and sparked mosh pits in the shallow end all weekend. The second stage inside The Hard Rock’s club Vinyl, featured some of the darkest sets of the entire fest. We mean dark as in evil à la Black Anvil, and dark as in contemplating the cold hard vacuum of outer space via Celeste.
King Diamond.
You’d need to be a T-800 if you planned to catch all the 12+ hours of music lined up each day…or just a raging psycho. Unfortunately, [sane] humans need to eat, hydrate, hit the restroom, try to talk to the various members of Mastodon roaming around the fest in-between bands, and eventually sleep. So we may not have seen every band on the lineup, but pretty much everyone we did catch, was awesome. Speaking of Sleep, Matt Pike was everywhere at Psycho. Like every #psycholasvegas selfie you’ll find online probably has Pike lurking in the background.
Sleep.
That’s another great aspect of Psycho Las Vegas…where else can you chill at the bar with Jeff Walker from Carcass or Abbath himself?
Abbath.
Here are a few of our personal highlights of Psycho Las Vegas 2017:
Day 1:
Chelsea Wolfe casting spells in The Joint.
Khemmis shredding the Vinyl stage to pieces.
Young And In The Way’s insane black metal pool party.
Sumac ripping holes through time and space.
Young And In The Way pool party.
Day 2:
Myrkur’s bi-polar vocal attack starting day 2 off with a bang.
Cult Leader’s exhilarating/terrifying performance inside Vinyl.
Celeste and their science fiction nightmare stage show leaving mouths aghast.
Gojira being Gojira and making the main stage feel like a small club.
Neurosis stealing the show from everyone.
Celeste.
Day 3:
Abbath aka entertainer of the year.
Cult of Luna & Julie Christmas’ ‘holy shit is this real life?’ rendition of Mariner.
Corrosion of Conformity rocking the hell out of the main stage.
Gatecreeper shaking the water by the pool like the goddamn T-Rex in Jurassic Park.
Cult of Luna & Julie Christmas. photo- Linda Hirsch
Psycho Las Vegas 2017 truly was, a phenomenal, totally exhausting but oh so worth it, trip of a lifetime. That is, until they announce whatever crazy lineup they got planned for Psycho 2018. Just don’t forget your earplugs.
Weedeater.
*NOTE*
The 24-hour CVS directly across the street might come in handy if you misplace said earplugs, need aspirin, water, booze etc. Plus there’s different places to eat inside and walking distance from the casino…and The Hard Rock has free parking which is getting rare in Vegas these days. So really, there’s no excuse; just GO.
Click here to view over 200 photos from Psycho Las Vegas
What did you think of Psycho Las Vegas 2017? Who do you want to see next year? Let us know in the comments below!
