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San Francisco’s mighty, shaggy—and a little bit unnerving—stoner powerhouse Acid King haven’t released a new album since 2015’s landmark Middle of Nowhere, Center of Everywhere (Svart Records). A major lineup shakeup at the end of 2016 put front woman Lori S. back onstage with new drummer Bil Bowman and bassist Rafa Martinez, who played with the band from 2005 through 2008 (and is also half of sludgy metal duo Black Cobra). The trio will play a few U.S. dates before lumbering out on a European tour, and their appearance in Chicago—Lori S.’s hometown—is their first since 2015 and their only midwest appearance on this jaunt.
Also on the bill are local four-piece Rezn, who released a deliciously trippy psych-metal debut, Let It Burn, last year. The group lay down shimmery, entrancing grooves that manage to be simultaneously fuzzy, sharp-edged, and perfectly off-balance—they take some influence from how the Nuggets garage anthologies (particularly the acid-rock and heavy-psych material) conceal a portal to the outer dimensions of cosmic mindfucks. The rather deceptively titled follow-up, Calm Black Water, is out October 10 on Off the Record.
