Frankie and the Witch Fingers “Monsters Eating People Eating” 2020. Greenway Records. Psychedelic garage rock from Indiana via L.A. and holy shit! We caught Frankie and the Witch Fingers on Wednesday night at their sold-out show at Cactus Club and it was one of the wildest performances I’ve seen so far this year (and I’ve seen a lot!). They were non-stop: dynamic, electric, hypnotizing, sweat-drenched head-banging with barely time to breathe between songs. The packed-to-the rafters crowd was a sea of movement the whole show: shaking, dancing, head bopping (except for one woman right up at the stage who literally stood there the entire show with arms crossed, glaring and not moving – I just could not understand why she was there and having such a bad time).

They played several of my top tracks from Monsters Eating People Eating (though really the entire record is fantastic) including the loud-quiet-loud shredding, bass-grooving “Reaper,” the epically killer psychedelic rocker “Where’s Your Reality?” and the ass-shaking “Simulator.” The shredding and psychedelia was courtesy of Dylan Sizemore and Josh Menashe, the ass-shaking was courtesy of bassist Nikki Pickle (I finally realized why she looked so familiar – she’s in Death Valley Girls!) and new drummer Nick Aguilar who used to drum for Mike Watt.