Lemon Sky “Lemon Sky” 2011. Self-released. Along with Suck the Honey, we also caught fellow Cincinnatians Lemon Sky’s set at Jersey Street Music Festival this past weekend after they rolled up with barely minutes to spare in their tricked-out customized biofueled Lemon RV.

Lemon Sky played a killer set, more than living up to their self-description: “a psych-rock/prog-pop quintet that creates a heavy yet highly-melodic brand of psychedelic garage rock that combines the classic rock pomp and stomp of Led Zeppelin with the paisley pop melodies and modern musicality of Queens of the Stone Age for a forward-thinking sound rooted in the past.
The band’s signature three-guitar attack consists of vocalist Aaron Madrigal, lead guitarist Ed Bruker, and noise machine Eric Cronstein while the he foundation of the the group is laid down by drummer Eric Keyes and bassist Steven Korfhagen. This pairing of instrumentation allows Lemon Sky’s live show to recreate and expand upon their recorded material with visceral textures, tonal layers, and rhythmic intricacies. A Lemon Sky show is nothing if not full, heavy, and intense.” I first saw them play last fall (along with Suck the Honey) in another middle-of-nowhere town in Wisconsin and was completely blown away by their musical talent, song craftsmanship and stage presence. At that show, and this one, they played tracks from their 2016 release Dos, including “Guillotine,” “Ash and Bone” and my favorite from Dos, “Kept in Beyond” and also played a brand-new song, “Moses Acid.” They also included an absolutely amazing song from Lemon Sky, “Miles High,” which is an epic proggy-psychedelic-hard-rock piece of amazingness that alone is worth having this entire record (though the rest of the record is pretty awesome, as well, like the hard rocking “Bail,” “Brain Freeze” and “Vendetta Machine.”) I’m pretty sure they also played the manic speed “Peruvian Torch” from Lemon Sky as well as a  couple of covers, the Beatles’ “I Want You (She’s So Heavy)” and Queen’s “We Will Rock You.” Freddy Mercury’s voice is impossible to match, but singer Aaron Madrigal has got the pipes to come pretty damn close. Lemon Sky will be back in Wisconsin in August to play Appleton’s Mile of Music Festival and I will definitely be seeing them again.