Psycho Las Vegas Day 3 Finale with Mastodon & More!!

The final day of Psycho Las Vegas was packed with lots of great bands, an all day live up at the Joint, Vinyl Las Vegas and the Soundstage at the Hard Rock pool, culminating with headliner Mastodon. Scary Monsters covered a line up at the Joint on Sunday that started with Richmond Va's Windhand...

WINDHAND kicked off the day in the joint, doom / stoner metal band from Richmond Virginia, and was closely followed by ZEAL & ARDOR a black metal / experimental band from Switzerland, who were a surprisingly good band whose sound evokes images of enslavment and satanism. Black metal band ABBATH formed in 2015 by former Immortel guitarist and singer Abbath Doom Occulta was next, a hard, dark metal band with black and white face paint which makes them look very imposing onstage. Abbath was a crowd favorite and one to look forward to in future shows.

Abbath photos: Harold Mountain / JustAFan Photos

One of the oldest formed bands of the entire weekend, CIRITH UNGOL, was formed way way back in 1972 in California and are a power metal / doom band with lyrics relating to fantasy and sorcery. This is a solid band with excellent musicians who know how to bring the old school sound. Another heavy metal / progressive band from Sweden CULT of LUNA played their unique songs filled with long, slow and repetitive distorted guitar driven sounds.

Cirith Ungol photos: Harold Mountain / JustAFan Photos

CORROSION of CONFORMITY was next on the lineup, another hardcore, stoner metal band and one of the crowd favs for Day 3. COC was formed back in1982 and had on hand 3 original members and most noted vocalist Pepper Keenan on board, backlast couple years in the Corrosion lineup.

Corrosion of Conformity photos: Harold Mountain / JustAFan Photos

A band that brought the highest energy and a very unique sound to Psycho Las Vegas were the MURDER CITY DEVILS, who stormed the stage and won over the crowd at Psycho. This band had a rockabilly / punk / garage rock sound and a crazy frontman in Spencer Moody. Moody would stick the mic in his mouth and scream as loud as he could which was a site to see, and he even jumped off the stage and went into the crowd during the set which was crazy for security. Murder City Devils was one of the most fun bands of the entire weekend this is a band I would see over and over again.

Murder City Devils photos: Harold Mountain / JustAFan Photos

Now it was time to slow things down and kick back as the band SWANS took to the stage and did the longest set of the weekend, playing 2 long drawn out hours of experimental music, and I thought at first oh no...2 hours?....But they surprised me and kept my attention the entire time. SWANS are another band formed back in 1982, who broke up late 90's but reformed in 2010 with original vocalist Michael Gira and continue to bring their dark apocalyptic sound to the stage.

Swans photos: Harold Mountain / JustAFan Photos

Finally it was time for the return of the mighty MASTODON to Vegas to finish off the weekend as the headliner for Psycho Day 3. Mastodon came out fired up ,as lead guitarist Brent Hinds ran out onstage holding a beer in one hand and guitar flailing wildly in the other, it was obvious that Mastodon were excited to play this show and from their performance it showed. The excitement they generated revived the huge crowd who had been through 4 long days watching the best festival to play Vegas all summer. Vocalist Troy Sanders with his lion mane hair destroyed on bass, drifting back against the amps with his head turned to the side, while drummer Brann Dailor provided the foundation for him and the rest of the band to follow. On rhythm guitar Brann Dailor kept a steady pace while Brent was running and spinning all over the stage. Mastodon’s legacy grows with each show and are one of the most entertaining bands touring today, and a perfect band to close out this incredible Psycho Las Vegas 2017 weekend of nearly 80 bands and 50+hours of music.