Nawty Pharmas- Canta Cafe, São Sebastião da Feira Portugal Aug 21st, 2026

Nawty Pharmas are a footstomping country, folk with stand up bass (he also plays Banjo), and two acoustic guitars, male lead and female backing vocals.  First time I saw them they also had a drummer but not longer.  Anyway, they play all original songs with the occassional cover. The lyrics are quite political and but also a sense of humour as well.  A wife variety of tracks were played in their 70mins set on this lovely summers evening. About 40 people were there. I got the feeling only about half the people came for the music and the rest just because it is a nice place to hang out and have some drinks, food, etc… They have a new digital album, just what the doctor ordered out now. 

Set List: Time to Get it on, Smartphones, Get a Grip, Last Chance Saloon, Sometimes I Wonder, Wake up train, Cripple Creek, Never Again, Just what the doctor ordered, There is a Time, Space Saga, Freight Train, Aces & ?, Darkside, Lets move Around, Nawty Pharmas, Salty Dog

You can find them on you tube, spotify, etc.. not on bandcamp.. 

https://www.youtube.com/@paulward3148

Tranquonauts- III (Kozmik Artifactz)

This is the 3rd album by the collaboration of folks from Seedy Jeezus, Isasaih from Earthless and Tony Reed. I have to say it might be my fave of the records they have made. Side A starts with some pre.recorded space stuff and into a real rockers. That is followed by an amazing cover of Space Child from UFO (Phenomenon Record). .They do it really justice and extend it out nicely with great guitar work. Side 2 is a more more moody with the laid back Sigurnova closing out the record. Actually only 2 songs on each side. Very cool record especially for those that like long guitar workouts with lots of melody, feeling but also rocking out at times.. Great stuff..

https://seedyjeezus.bandcamp.com/album/tranquonauts-2

http://kozmik-artifactz.com 

 Sonic Blast- Vila praia de Âncora, Portugal Aug 5-8th, 2026

I think this is my 8th Sonic Blast Festival. Been coming every year since I arrived in Portugal in 2017. Always a fun festival but musically the line up is moving further away from my core music tastes that last years. A bit like Roadburn has.  

Due to the fire risks in our area and not wanting to leave my wife for so many days, I missed the warm up, which had some pretty cool acts like Master Wizard and Bongzilla.  I heard that it was really packed, maybe the most people ever for the warm up.  Tom said he had a fun DJ set. 

I arrived about 1215 to the same quiet place where i have been parking the last few years since I got the camper van. Great spot, about 20mins walk from the entrance.   I had lunch, a little rest and headed down to get my press pass and wristband, in plenty of time to talk with Elephant Tree guys, Claire from France, Ricardo (organizer), the sound and light guys who are so cool, etc..  

Free Ride (Madrid, ES) were up first and as soon as they started playing the tent was full with Spanish people. The band played mostly track from their album recorded in 2022.  They really have the Fu Manchu (vocal style) mixed with the riffs of Eddy from Nebula, down well. They could easily do a tribute band. A bit to unoriginal for me. Their best songs were the instrumental ones and the slower bluesy ones that had some form of them not just copying their heroes. A guest vocalist came out and sun a song called Outsider. That was a fun addition. They rocked for their 40 mins but should focus more on creating their own sound. 

Set List: Steamroller, Blackout, Down the Line, Sativa>Vice, Nowhere East, Outside, Rolling the Wheel, Nazare

Elephant Tree (UK) switched times with Clamm, who had airport delays. ET had their own tragedy though as their lead singer and guitarist had an epileptic seizure and as in the hospital so they had to perform as a 3 piece. Bass Player had to sing the parts and he was quite unsure of himself. It was not really my kind of heavy music but they did a good job. Guitar player had a hell of tone but was not a lead player at all so he really struggled to play anything interesting in the solo parts that were missing.  Singer from Ritual King came out and sang one song, which was cool. Crowd dug them and appreciated what they had to deal with, not easy.. Super nice people in this band. I would talk with them a lot over the days. 

Clamm (Australia), were a three piece simple punk band. It was all about the energy. Female bass player had to stage presence, almost stage fright maybe and pretty much just played the E string. They had a certain intensity in the vocal guitar combination but really did not thing for me and by far the weakest act of the day in my mind.. 

Think Trash (Los Angeles) were just insane. A great performance act but musically they brought nothing. Few of their songs broke 2mins and many under a min. Almost no point really. Singer was nuts and spent most of his time out in front in the pit. I think he talked as much as they played music.  Musically, think about old DRI and COC era 1985-86… The audience loved it and it was crazy and fucked up. 

Midnight (Ohio, US), three piece old school thrash like early Venom, Sodom and crazy fuckers. He said really funny stuff inbetween songs and they had funny black metal lyrics, wore hoods and all this metal and spiikes and chains. Full on intense HM show for sure. Great performance and crowd was into it..  I have heard it all before so not really giving anything new. Sounded and looked just liked they did when I saw them a Psycho Las Vegas back in 2015.. Fun..

Frankie and the Witch Fingers (Los Angeles), this was the 3rd time for them to play Sonic Blast and maybe the best. They blew me away and by far the coolest band of the day. I was totally into their high intensity MC5- Stoogies- energy.  Played a lot of new songs, I bought the new CD! Pity they couldn’t play longer!!  Awesome.

Deafheaven (US), were insanely loud (105-107 db) at the desk!!   Sound so much like Amanra type vibe. The audience was into this sort of wall of sound, with pounding double bass drums (way too loud), screaming vocals and this intense like post rock strumming guitar mixed with heavy chords. It really did nothing for me and besides a few breaks, it all sounded nearly the same. The singer wanted them to sing a long but it was so loud no way he would have ever heard anything.  

Chat Pile (US). I forced myself to check these guys out and was disappointed. Another band that musically really just was not interesting at all. A lot of energy, a quirky singer, strange noise guitar like Sonic youth mixed with punk rock and spoken word vocals. Nothing new here and no songs people are going to remember, etc.. just powerful, intense.. this is what people will remember. I was tired and my ears had enough after 9hrs of over 100db almost constantly..

Some possibly great acts followed: Snapped Ankles (US industrial synth duo- most of my friends said they hated it and left since they had seen Bonzilla, who was next the night before), Mephistopeles, Madmess.

Day 2

Up around 930, typed up my thoughts about the festival and had breakfast and walked down to the ocean for a swim about 1030. That was awesome. Back at 12 and had lunch and a rest and headed back to the festival about 245.. Jesus the Snake were still soundchecking. Said hello.  These guys were awesome, sadly, I forgot my recorded in the van so was not able to record their great show. I did video of the opening 10 min spacey track. They played stuff from their album and then closed with an abridged version of Echoes by Pink Floyd. Was great but a lot of people probably did not even notice!!  Great start of the day.  I bought their album. Later the guitar player gave me a shirt. Cool guys..

Hög from Portland, Oregon laid down a set up short intense hard rock (like Pentagram or Sir Cloudsley Shovell), mixed with more punky and metallic attitude. Intense vocal.  A lot of their stuff sounded a like but it it was a different sound from anyone so far at the festival, which was nice.. It took a while to get into them but I dug it. 

Dead Meadow cancelled due to a medical emergency (whole rest of the tour cancelled) and were replaced with Clamm, who played yesterday. I did  not like them at all so I went and had some food and looked around for the Voivod guys as I really wanted to meet Away..

VOIVOD, one of the bands I most looked forward to see. I saw them 40 years ago on the Rrrroooaarrr tour in Arizona and interviewed and hung out with the band at the hotel after the show.  Great memories.  Anyway, the lead singer Snake was no on this tour so Away was the only original member today. The band were awesome. A few recent songs started the show and then it was all songs from the 80s and early 90s, including Ripping Headaches and Nuclear War. Wow..  One hr went by fast.. A very unique band and people had fun. Mosh pit, Cool….

What can you say about CONAN and 50,000 watt PA.. It is going to rip your head off. The band make extremely good use of the 2-3 chords that make up nearly all the pulverising tracks.  Mostly they are slow, heavy and crushing. Screaming agonising vocals.  It is not my thing but those that were nice and stoned and high, could just float away on the heavy vibrations and sound.. Incredible but not my kind of music. The last song was a short thrashy, trashy number that created the largest mosh pit I had ever seen at Sonic Blast. Wow..  See video..

They had some great films running as well. Looks  alot like what they showed last time, I think. My ears were already tired, non-stop high volume for 4hrs so far. I feel bad for those without ear protection.

The Casualties from the USA, played a mixture of hardcore UK style punk with some more catchy sing along tracks like Fuck Trump, etc..  People were tired after CONAN but good crowd and audience as these guys gave 100%.. Great performers.  Musically, nothing new but people had fun, so that is what matters really. 

Kylesa, a US band that I might have seen at Roadburn many years ago, are back again and touring. It is a four piece with a female vocalist who plays the lead guitar parts. The other guitar player also does vocals. It was a mix of heavy downtuned stuff like Conan (not as brutally heavy) and more melodic parts. Most of the vocals were in the angry department and the music over all did not speak to me at all. She played some really cool solo parts, not what you would expect and I liked that but over all no my kind of music. 

I did not want to wait another 90ms to see Turbonegro (Seen them way back in the early 2000s) as I was not enjoying this. I really like Deathchant but they were not on until almost 0100, so I left. Still Goya dn N8NOFACE after that..  

Day 3

I guess I should have stayed for Turbonegro! Several people said they had the best sound and it was a super fun concert.  Nici said Deathchant were not as good as usual and no idea about the last bands. Had another swim and that was great and felt pretty fresh when I arrived for the Porto band, Summer of Hate (replacing Levitation Room). They have signed to Tee Pee Records so it was also cool to hang out with Kenny and his lady friend and talk about stuff.  Anyway, Summer of Hate played for only a few hundred people not many but started off with two slow dream psych pop type stuff. They have three guitar players and sometimes they are doing all different things and sometimes quite similar.  It gives this thick sound. Their set really built over time and the end was quite intense and cool. The female singer is dressed very interesting and sings in this very quiet style, all the time. I wish she had more range or diversity. Anyway. they did well. 

Primitive Ring (US), featured the keyboard player from Frankie and the Witchfingers on drums and they played a set of like classic 70s high energy rock and roll. Guitar player had a nice vintage firebird and did some ripping solos.  Some songs did not have solos at all, like the one I filmed. They really picked it up and rocked in the end. They did not have any records to sell. No one sounded like either of these band so far at the festival which was good. 

Margarita Witch Cult (UK) were back and did their set up stoner doom rock with a lot of influence from the heavier side of Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats.  I wish they had a dedicated lead guitar player, it would lift the band and the tunes up to another level somehow. Very competent and the crowd totally dug it. Ryanair, misplaced their gear so they had to borrow guitars and bass from the the Madmess guys (who were standing on the stage side rocking out).  They got an encore and did about 10 black sabbath songs in 3mins!. Impressive.. all instrumental parts. Fun..

Necrot (Oakland, CA) played super intense technical death metal, I guess you would say. I am always so impressed with these drummers. Much be so hard to play that fast and keep the time. Guitar player has strange chords and was also intense. THe bass player was the singer (not really singing.. death vocals).. Not my thing but very intense..

1000 Mods (Greece), back for a 4th time, perhaps at Sonic Blast. Pretty sure they played the same set as I saw last weekend at Krach am Bach festival. They seem to play the same songs every time I see them with maybe 1-2 from a new album. I feel they need a huge change in the set list. Be bold, play the entire new record, something different. Always too much the same.  Still a great band and nice people. 

Teen Mortgage (Wash DC), were a intense duo. Concert started 10 mins late as the guitar player could not get his fuzz pedal to work and was trying to work around that. Anyway, he had a very intense and interesting use of pedals as well as a bizarre guitar playing style. They were basically a punk band with great messages and playing intensity. Very cool guitar playing. 

ELDER… what can I say. They were so awesome. They mostly played new stuff and ended the show with Sanctuary.  75mins set. Longest of the festival so far.  Amazing sound and so cool to hear them with Favio on Keyboards. To play the new stuff, you have to have a synth player. He was great.  Just loved it and the local guy did great lights. Fantastic end of the festival. 

I did not stay to see High on Fire (seen them plenty of times),  Adult, Early Moods or Ungraven. Too late for me.  Met lots of cool people and generally had a fun time but it was way too LOUD, louder than ever, which is dangerous for the hearing of the audience, 10hrs over 105-110 db… not good….   Less variety this year than ever.. Too much metal and punk for my tastes but always a great experience. Ricardo said they would try to get some of the African bands back again. Awesome festival... but please turn down the volume. 

Krach am Bach Festival ,Beelen, DE July 31st-Aug 1st, 2026

This festival has a 31 year history and I know many bands that have played there so it was such a honour to play the festival with Black Moon Circle. I came in early on Friday (only cheap flight I could get from Portugal) and was greeted at the airport by the lovely Karen. I had no idea it would be a 2.5hr drive to get to the festival from the airport. Wow. We talked about bands we know and lots of stories, etc.. Lovely lady. 

Anyway, I arrived that festival and it is super organised and great people. Get your wristband, food and drink tokens. They have a great backstage for the artists to hang out in and there is food, fruit, snacks, the entire festival and basically free drinks. Awesome. BMC were not arriving until like 22 so I just hung out with old friends, spoke to fans, signed some records, etc… Perfect weather, a bit of clouds and 26C.. awesome. 

Lazar (DE) were the first band on the main stage and delivered a set of stoner rock grooves, a few doom riffs and some dream post rock flavours at times. Not a very original sound but they do it very well and had a decent audience for so early in the day. 

Scott Hepple and the Sun Band (UK). I had seen this name around on some festivals this summer and they had a great energy and super cool visual projections by Dave and his crew of 3 doing all the visuals on the main stage. They were awesome. Wow.. Impressive.. Anyway, Scott´s band is a trio at the moment (I thought they were a four piece) and delivered a high energy rock and roll show with some great songs influenced by garage rock, 60s rock and classic rock. I missed a lead guitar play though. Scott did some solos though.  They were clearly having fun and the audience for sure were into it.  

Icarus Burns (DE) was another instrumental band and the first on the smaller stage in the forest. It is fenced in so only about 500 people can cram into the area. These guys were very powerful but I was annoyed that drums and bass were just too loud and while they had a great energy and some cool guitar solo parts. The audience were into it. They have a great PA and real pro sound folks but if you are in the front, the bass is very powerful, too much for me..

Kombynat Robotron (DE), old friends now, have really changed their look and style and it was the first time to see them since we played together.  All I can say is fucking hell, they were so intense, like a psychedelic steamroller, that just pulverised everything thing in its path.  There is this strange way they improvise with the freakouts, but the energy level and intensity was impressive. They also had song/jam that was just bass and drums and the guitar player ran around shouting and doing crazy vocals. Crowd loved it. NOISE ROCK. 

Wedge (DE) were a band I have crossed paths with many times over the years but I have not seen them in like 10!  They totally rocked with a great 70s rock vibe, some great guitar solos and organ as well on those 3 tracks or so they had the organ. (the bass player played the organ). I really dug them and so far they were my fave band of the day. Great stuff. 

Set List: Intro, Nuthin, Role, Easy, Friday, Computer, Constellation, Wrong, Lucid

1000 Mods (GR), seem to be everywhere these days.  I guess these guys are probably one of the most constant bands in the stoner scene delivering a classic 90-2000 era stoner sound and they do it fucking well. A lot of the same style riffs (sort of like what Slomosa are doing but they are too melodic for me and have almost no guitar solos).  They rocked and the crowd liked them. I would love to see them try to diversify a bit more. Nice guys as well. Lights were too bright for these guys so I actually move away as you could not watch them with out getting a headache..

The BMC guys were here and it was great to finally meet the new drummer, Alessandro! Guys were in a good mood and ready to rock tomorrow. 

Skyjoggers (FI) from Finland, are a crazy trio. I had fun talking to them backstage. I had never seen them so I had no idea what to expect. The drummer and bass player provide this intensity and the guitar player has a lot of pedals and effects and uses them in really cool ways and plays riffs, spaced out delay guitars and just goes wild. It was fucking great. I was pretty blown away and would have loved to had made some space sounds with these guys. Brilliant.

I was super tired as I have been up since 530 in the morning to catch an early flight so I wanted to go back to the place we say. Vemund and I got a ride back while the others stayed til the end.  I should also say the lovely folks that play in Sula Bassana, were going super cool lights at the small stage. Awesome....

Dead Meadow (US) I had seen at Sonic Blast in the last year or two, so i knew what to expect. They were just starting to space out when we left. Alessandro said they were a bit boring and felt the drummer was too lazy and they lacked energy.  

Day 2

We got a ride back to the festival about 1330 so we were able to catch about 20mins of Sons of Arrakis (Can). I had never heard of this band but damn, they were really good. A bit of groove rock, a bit of metal (one song reminded me of Iron Maiden), and cool guitar solos. I liked it.

Tommy & the Teleboys (DE), were very nerdy looking guys but what a set. IT started slow and I thought they were a bit boring but wow, what a build they had as the just kept lifting the intensity until they had the audience in the palm of their hand!  Pretty impressive in the end..

We now had to set up and soundcheck while out friends in Kanaan & Æverstaden (NO) were preparing to play with the folk band on the main stage. I managed to hear some of the soundcheck and take a few pics. We could hear some of their set but did not really see it as we were on just after them. Sounded really great and interesting though. Very different from Kanaan.  Hung out a lot with those guys.

Black Moon Circle (NO) It was a great time playing with the guys. I did a couple of minute intro on my new modular box and then the guys came on the stage and went into Snake Oil! Audience was totally into it and great to be on the stage with the guys again. Audience loved the little bit of War Pigs at the end of Snake Oil. We played very well. The audience dug it. We had a bit of jamming Enigmatic and Psychedelic Spacelord.  People loved it. Great response.. 

Set List: Snake Oil, Spirit World, Enigmatic Superbandit, The Ghost, Serpent, Psychedelic SpaceLord. 

                                                                  (foto by Karen)

Upapayãma (IT) was next on the main stage. I helped in the merch as I could take down my stuff fast and we sold most of the vinyls and t-shirts so that was great. I could hear this band from Italy though and it was very interesting. Guitar (who also played Sitar on 2 tracks), flute, guitar/vocals/synth, percussionist, drummer, bass.  A sort of world music psych rock. They had a lot of different styles explored in the music. 

Set List: Sound Mirrors, Fliiim/Laliimph, Moon needs the Owl, Mistic Chords, Fil Dagi, White Oak, Noriko, Mas

A/lpaca (IT) were pretty incredible, what an energy. I was tired so did not see that much of them but I heard them. It is a very intense four piece band. Kraut, punk, psych… wild and intense. 

Meatbodies (US) played Dinosaur Jr, Nirvana, grunge type sound. I liked the more slow track, Psilocybin. Audience was not that big those that were there dug it. No one had sounded like these guys at the festival. 

Weite (DE), a sort of Elder side project, who has released two records were really cool instrumental music. They started with some synth drone stuff. Nick (who plays drums and synth pad) in the band and the keyboard player (who is in Elder now) lead the way as the guitars and other instruments slowly came in.  They have a cool sound. A bit like Motorpsycho era (2016-2023) mixed with proggy sort of stuff. The guitars play like southern rock or the grateful dead in a way but I was not very improvised if at all. Very scripted in perfect in some way. I really wish the guitar players had done more solos, instead of sort each playing the same style of melodic stuff for long periods in sections. Anyway, they were great and one of the highlights of the day for sure. Very good band. 

This will Destroy You (US) are a real post rock band. I can best describe them as a more melodic, less depressing, less heavy version of Neurosis!  It was not my thing at all and I think they also had all these very bright white lights which really annoyed me and did not seem right for that band.  

Green Milk from the Planet Orange (JP) are insane. I do not know how else to describe this trio. Everything was intense. One of the most intense drummers of the festival, intense bass playing, intense wild vocals and just strange chords, like proggy riffs and chords but super wild and yet they play sitting down!!  It was something else. Just blew everyone away. I saw the drummer exit the stage I was watched most of the show from the backstage side where you could look across and see the band. Anyway, he was just dripping wet…. steam coming off his body as it was cooled off quite a bit. WOW:.

Fu Manchu (US) always deliver the goods and they only had a 60min set to close out the festival. The BMC guys had never seen them and were getting pretty drunk by now.  We all hung out and saw the entire show so of it the Kanaan guys were with us as well.  That was fun.  Pretty much the same set they have played since forever.  Mongoose, Reagle Beagle, Californina Crossing, Hell on Wheels, etc…. they closed with a great version of Saturn 3.. I spoke a bit with Bob before the show. Super nice guy. 

Just incredible and diverse festival. Very well thought out line up of bands. So nice to meet up with Anders (Liquid ORbit), Elder guys (including Jack), Kanaan guys. Huge thanks to the amazing team at the festival (Birgit, Klaus, Uli, Rene, Karen and many more)..  Highly recommend this festival as an artist but also as a music fan. Awesome…