Crowds were surfed, pits were moshed, beers were hurled at the stage, and faces were melted in a blistering fury of psychedelia. I guess one way to sum it up is the bruise I have on my hip. Sometimes being a photographer comes with dangerous terrain, and in the case of Ty Segall’s sold out show at the Mohawk on Friday night, shooting photos from the front of the stage meant being right in the midst of a good old fashioned mosh pit.
Segall has visited Austin more than a couple times in the past calendar year, but we just aren’t tired of seeing his show. That’s not surprising, considering how energetic and intense his performances can be. As he entered the stage, fans cheered wildly—so much so that Segall had to give a little small and wave to quell the noise. Perhaps this shouldn’t be surprising, but for an indie artist that inhabits an outpost of the subculture, this level of fandom caught me off guard. Segall played a good amount from his newest album Twins, talking little with the crowd, and reserving his time for delivering reverb-soaked psychedelic tunes.
Several fans jumped onto the front edge of the stage just long enough to launch themselves out into the crowd. If one lingered too long, he or she ran the risk of being pushed out into the crowd by Mohawk’s stage personnel. A few times a shower of beer sprayed from the crowd up across the front few rows and onto the band.
The sets preceding Segall’s were no less insane. Ex-Cult, whose recent debut album happened to be produced by none other than Ty Segall, generated their fair share of moshing as they delivered their brand of brash punk. However, it might have been local, up-and-coming punk rockers OBN III’s that delivered the most brazen stage antics. 
Lead singer Orville Bateman Neely III (whose initials comprise the band’s name) committed acts including but not limited to diving into the crowd to mosh and wander, drawing and brandishing a pocketknife back onstage, and partially disrobing in a kneeling position.
After a show like this, it’s hard to imagine that anyone wouldn’t have had a great time, if for no other reason than the sheer spectacle and raw energy. Fans of abrasive, psychedelic, and frenetic music found great reward in all three of the acts to perform Friday night at Mohawk.
