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.

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From their Facebook page “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.”

Yes to all of this. The show was pure joy to watch – there were times when their toes, choreographed in unison, reached out to touch the amazing expanse of foot pedals.

Lemon Sky’s drummer, Eric Keyes, was particularly expressive as he thrashed away, providing power that could easily fill a stadium.

I wasn’t familiar with Lemon Sky’s catalog prior to this show but I definitely remember a few songs they played that appear on Dos, the Halloween-ish “Ash and Bone,” the excellent “Guillotine” (the intro reminiscent of Zeppelin’s “D’Yer Mak’er”) and the absolute killer track “Kept in Beyond” which is an epic psychedelic hard-rock thrasher that brought to mind Zeppelin’s “The Crunge” but – I like it better! (Here is an acoustic version of “Kept In the Beyond” which is also amazing.)  Strains of the more trippy aspects of the Beach Boys peak through in the harmonies on tracks like “Dos” and “Bad Bad” (though way heavier than the Beach Boys). I hope Lemon Sky ventures back to Wisconsin soon, hopefully to somewhere less remote.

**Show photos credited to my friend Mike Collins, who has a much better camera than I do.

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