Burgerama 4, Now A Bigger Deal Than SXSW!

Which bands should I see at Burgerama 2015? Seriously, this ‘small’ festival has taken amazing proportions and I suddenly feel overwhelmed by the amount of bands I have to see in two days… I can’t see them all, that’s a given, there are 42 bands playing on Saturday, and 44 on Sunday, and this will keep me busy from 12pm to 12 am, with no time in sight to eat and pee…

Sure, there are highlights and regulars, and so many bands I have already seen at the Echo/Echoplex are playing, but just look at this list! On Saturday, I don’t want to miss Corners, La Luz, Broncho, Cosmonauts, Jeff the Brotherhood, Tomorrows Tulips, Palma Violets, Hinds, Black Angels, MadLib, Rocky Erickson, Mystic Braves, together PANGEA, Bleached, Bass Drum of Death, Tijuana Panthers, Gang of Four, Beach Fossils, FIDLAR, and of course Weezer, but right now there is already a problem, since too many bands are playing at the same time. On Sunday, I would love to see Colleen Green, Mr. Elevator & The Brain Hotel, Twerps, White Fence. Shannon & the Clams, Twin Peaks, J Mascis, Tennis, Nick Waterhouse, the Mr T Experience, The Queers, Meatbodies, Froth, Audacity, The Garden, and of course Thee Oh Sees, Ariel Pink Witch, Black Lips, Ty Segall… but do you understand my problem?

Burgerama has become the Coachella of indie music, the who’s who of the scene is there and this is happening just a weekend after SXSW for a very strategic reason. The OC Weekly, which did feature this past week an interview with the two Burger Records founders Sean Bohrman and Lee Rickard, has noticed:

‘Every indie band worth its mettle comes from around the globe to play in Austin; give them another festival date a week later and a day’s drive away, and it becomes a question of why the hell not? And Burgerama has grown to the point at which it’s now a bigger deal for a lot of bands than SXSW.’

Wow, do you really mean I am going to a bigger-deal-than-SXSW festival, or is this some type of self promotion? I believe them, Burger Records is the small label which has dreamt big and this is really happening, they have J Mascis, Rocky Erickson and Weezer for god’s sake! These are FYF/Coachella late-afternoon-acts. But what about the future? Burgerama is held on the Observatory’s grounds with three stages, but looking at its exponential growth, they will soon need to relocate.

‘We’ve already talked about doing it somewhere else’, said Rickard to the OC Weekly. ‘Natural growth is inevitable. I would love to have a really scenic fest somewhere–a Big Sur campout, a Burger-man freak show in the desert.’ What did I say? The desert for a mini-Coachella? I hope they don’t grow too fast though.