The final addition to the lineup for Up in Smoke 2016, which starts this Friday at Z7 in Pratteln, Switzerland? Camping space. Namely the floor of the venue, which will be cleaned after the last band finishes each night so that fest goers can grab their sleeping bags and bed down for the night, only to find breakfast waiting when they roll back to consciousness the next morning. I’ve never slept on a venue floor before. That would be a new one. But provided they get the beer/other fluids up, which I’ve no doubt they’ll be able to do because it’s Switzerland and things like that increase the likelihood that anyone gives a shit about what they’re doing, it seems like a cool way to achieve total immersion in a festival atmosphere. I’ve never gone camping either, though, so don’t necessarily take my word as an expert or anything.

With the festival’s most massive lineup yet, Up in Smoke 2016 kicks off this Friday. A new trailer for the fest with some 1000mods in it has been posted and you can find that under the camping info and complete billing below:

SOUND OF LIBERATION and Z7 KONZERTFABRIK PRATTELN proudly present the 4th edition of UP IN SMOKE INDOOR FESTIVAL on September 30th and October 1st 2016! Musical Highlights include Electric Wizard, Yob, Truckfighters, Pentagram and many many more.

Many of you asked for the chance to sleep over in the venue, like we offered in the last editions. Here´s the procedure:

After the last band is done playing, we will go on partying with Dj music for another hour. Then afterwards, we will ask everybody to step out of the main hall for a few minutes. The floor will be cleaned and covered with a sheet so that the place gets clean for all our “in site – campers”. If you want to sleep over in the venue, you should bring your sleeping bag and camping mat. Upon your arrival on the festival site you can store your belongings in the wardrobe and get it back for the night.

In the morning, we will offer you a nice breakfast with coffee/tea, bread and breadrolls, meat and cheese and sweet stuff to get you in shape for the next festival day! The price for sleep over and breakfast is 15.- CHF per person/night. There´s no option of separate bookings like ” only sleep over and no breakfast” or “only breakfast”.

Up in Smoke 2016 Final Line Up
Electric Wizard
Pentagram
Truckfighters
YOB
Elder
Greenleaf
Monkey 3
Cough
Black Cobra
1000mods
Yawning Man
Fatso Jetson
Dyse
Wucan
Desert Mountain Tribe
Giobia
High Fighter
Mother’s Cake
Ephedra

Also not to forget: No overlapping set times, sleep over/breakfast possibiity in the venue + some more specials to be announced soon to sweeten you the “TWO NOT TO BE MISSED DAYS OF VOLUME WORSHIP” !!! Grab your ticket (2-day passes) right now on our website, on www.z-7.ch and on our Facebook (tab ‘Buy Tickets’). If you prefer to buy an original, real hard-ticket, our partner Woolheads is selling them!

http://woolheads.com/cms/shop-2/festivalmerchandise/up-in-smoke-the-indoor-festival-vol-iv-ticket/
http://www.upinsmoke.de/eventinfo-indoor-festival
https://www.facebook.com/UpInSmokeIndoorFestivalInZ7
https://www.soundofliberation.com

Up in Smoke 2016, festival trailer

With the additions of Black Cobra, Dÿse, Mother’s Cake and High Fighter, the lineup for Up in Smoke 2016 is complete. The Pratteln, Switzerland-based festival runs for two nights, Sept. 30 and Oct. 1, and will be headlined by Electric Wizard, John Garcia, Pentagram and Truckfighters, with YOB, Elder, Yawning Man, Fatso Jetson and more listed below on the bill.

Black Cobra and High Fighter are particularly interesting of this final batch of adds. I’m not an expert on Desert Mountain Tribe or Ephedra to say for sure, but it would seem the San Francisco heavy thrash duo and the German sludgecore rockers are the two most aggressive acts playing. I guess you could make an argument for Cough, but they’re more about drowning you in tone than getting a pit going, where it doesn’t seem unreasonable to think that in the right setting Black Cobra or High Fighter would do just that.

The PR wire has this:

UP IN SMOKE 2016! Sept. 30th / Oct. 1st … Black Cobra, Dÿse, Mother’s Cake & High Fighter complete the line-up!

Summer is here, and before you all go on vacation trying to find the sun far, far away (…), we’d like to give you the last bands confirmed for our Up In Smoke Indoor Festival 2016! We are thrilled to welcome San Francisco’s Hardcore-fueled Sludge Metal duo Black Cobra, Berlin’s incredible Noiserock stage freaks Dÿse, Austrian Alternative Space Rock outfit Mother’s Cake (touring with John Garcia next fall) and Hamburg’s rising Heavy Stoner Bluescore band High Fighter (who just released their debut album ‘Scars & Crosses’ on Svart Records)!!

Taking place on September 30th and October 1st 2016, in our dear Z7 Konzertfabrik (Pratteln / near Basel / Dreiländereck) this year’s edition also features Electric Wizard, John Garcia, Pentagram, Truckfighters, Yob, Elder, Cough, Greenleaf, Monkey3, 1000Mods, Yawning Man, Fatso Jetson, Wucan, Giöbia, Desert Mountain Tribe and Ephedra.

Unfortunately, the Italian band Noon had to cancel their appearance for medical reason.

Also not to forget: No overlapping set times, sleep over/breakfast possibiity in the venue + some more specials to be announced soon to sweeten you the “TWO NOT TO BE MISSED DAYS OF VOLUME WORSHIP” !!! Grab your ticket (2-day passes) right now on our website, on www.z-7.ch and on our Facebook (tab ‘Buy Tickets’). If you prefer to buy an original, real hard-ticket, our partner Woolheads is selling them!

http://woolheads.com/cms/shop-2/festivalmerchandise/up-in-smoke-the-indoor-festival-vol-iv-ticket/
http://www.upinsmoke.de/eventinfo-indoor-festival
https://www.facebook.com/UpInSmokeIndoorFestivalInZ7
https://www.soundofliberation.com

Black Cobra, “Imperium Simulacra”

The European fall festival scene continues to develop with the news that Up in Smoke 2016 in Switzerland has brought YOB, John Garcia, Fatso Jetson and Giöbia to its already-considerable lineup with Electric Wizard, Pentagram, Truckfighters, Greenleaf and so on. Similar to watching the spring Desertfests in Berlin and London take shape, it continues to be fascinating to watch Up in Smoke 2016 and the several fests on weekends in close proximity — Desertfest in Athens and Belgium as well as Keep it Low in Munich — as they come together, which bands will be shared between them, whose tours are we waiting to see announced (looking at you, Fatso Jetson), and what ultimately will be the crux of each.

Interesting to have it work out like this, with fests on consecutive weekends in different areas throughout Europe. I think it only makes everybody’s product stronger, and I just hope that an indoor two-dayer like Up in Smoke 2016 can continue to distinguish itself as it has thus far.

From the PR wire:

UP IN SMOKE 2016! Sept. 30th / Oct. 1st … John Garcia, Yob, Fatso Jetson & Giöbia added to the line-up!

Here we go, the next 4 bands added to the most outstanding Heavy Rock Line-up Switzerland have ever seen before!!!

Taking place on September 30th and October 1st 2016, in our dear Z7 Konzertfabrik (Pratteln / near Basel / Dreiländereck) this year’s edition will feature John Garcia (X Kyuss with full band show, new album and surely some Kuyss classics in the pocket), the crushing doom metal trio Yob, the legendary Desert Rock Godfather Mario Lalli with his Fatso Jetson and Italian acid/space rock outfit Giöbia, alongside previously announced Electric Wizard, Pentagram, Truckfighters, Elder, Cough, Greenleaf, Monkey3, 1000Mods, Yawning Man, Wucan, Desert Mountain Tribe, Noon and Ephedra.

Also not to forget: No overlapping set times, sleep over/breakfast possibiity in the venue + some more specials to be announced soon to sweeten you the “TWO NOT TO BE MISSED DAYS OF VOLUME WORSHIP” !!! Grab your ticket (2-day passes) right now on our website, on www.z-7.ch and on our Facebook (tab ‘Buy Tickets’). If you prefer to buy an original, real hard-ticket, our partner Woolheads is selling them!

http://woolheads.com/cms/shop-2/festivalmerchandise/up-in-smoke-the-indoor-festival-vol-iv-ticket/
http://www.upinsmoke.de/eventinfo-indoor-festival
https://www.facebook.com/UpInSmokeIndoorFestivalInZ7
https://www.soundofliberation.com

John Garcia, “Pilot the Dune” live in Stockholm, 2014

By my count, Up in Smoke 2016 currently has 13 bands slated for its lineup. According to the ticket page, the end goal is a total of 20 — listed as Electric Wizard and 19 others, which is fair enough — so they’re well on their way to unveiling the complete bill, still more than four months off from the fest itself. I’ll admit to having missed an announcement (if you admit to having missed that I missed it) before this latest one, which brings Greenleaf, Wucan and Desert Mountain Tribe, but better late than never in including it here, especially since it adds Truckfighters, Elder, 1000mods, and Cough, as well as Swiss instrumentalists Ephedra, to the mix. That’s enough for a fest right there.

Of the latest bunch, Greenleaf easily steal the headline. The Swedish outfit will be out heralding their latest LP and Napalm Records debut, Rise Above the Meadow (review here), which continues to astonish. I’ll have an interview with guitarist Tommi Holappa up in the next couple weeks, so keep an eye out for that, but in the meantime, here’s the latest from Up in Smoke 2016:

We couldn’t post that before Desertfest as we planned, but those of you who were in Berlin last week-end got the news… for others, there you go! Swedish heavy-rockers Greenleaf, Germand kräuterrock quartet Wucan and English psych-noisenik three-piece Desert Mountain Tribe are confirmed for UP in SMOKE indoor festival in Z7 2016!

Alongside the previously announced bands, we are proud to add to this year’s line-up:

– Swedish high-voltage fuzz rockers Truckfighters,
– Massachusetts’ ultimate progressive stoner rock trio Elder,
– Virginia’s sludge/doom mongers COUGH,
– Hellenic grooviest psychedelic outfit 1000mods,
– and Switzerland’s instrumental heavy rockers Ephedra!

E-tickets can be purchased on www.upinsmoke.de, on www.z-7.ch and on our Facebook. If you prefer to buy a hard-ticket, our partner Woolheads is selling them!

20 Bands – 2 Stages
2 days of Volume Worship

No Overlapping Stage Times
Indoor Camping possible

http://woolheads.com/cms/shop-2/festivalmerchandise/up-in-smoke-the-indoor-festival-vol-iv-ticket/
http://www.upinsmoke.de/eventinfo-indoor-festival
https://www.facebook.com/UpInSmokeIndoorFestivalInZ7
https://www.soundofliberation.com

Up in Smoke 2015 wrap-up video

Pretty courteous if you think about it for Up in Smoke 2016 to give you six months of advance notice that you should get your ass to Switzerland — which, yes, I phrased that way because it might as well be Mars. Still, if you think about starting lineups, Sound of Liberation isn’t screwing around in this first batch of announcements, bringing out big guns in Electric Wizard, Pentagram, Monkey3 and Yawning Man and showing further dedication to Europe’s booming underground with Noon.

I’m especially curious to see how Yawning Man shakes out. The Gary Arce-led desert rock progenitors recently unveiled a new four-piece lineup with Bill Stinson still on drums, Justine Summer Heaven presumably on bass and Malene Arce (LewdFlesh) on… vocals, maybe? They reportedly have a new EP in the works for the summer, so we’ll hear how it turns out, hopefully.

I got sidetracked. That release will hopefully be out by September, which is when Up in Smoke 2016 is set, at Z7 in Switzerland, with indoor camping and more, as the PR wire informs:

UP IN SMOKE 2016! Sept. 30th / Oct. 1st … Electric Wizard, Pentagram, Monkey3, Yawning Man, Noon confirmed!

We are proud to present our UP IN SMOKE INDOOR FEST IV, that will take place on September 30th and October 1st 2016, in our dear Z7 Konzertfabrik! Two days of stoner/heavy-psych/doom music in Basel-area (Switzerland) featuring 20 outstanding acts on two stages with no overlapping sets, and an indoor campsite!!

ELECTRIC WIZARD, which have been announced last fall, will headline one of the nights, and we are stoked to tell you today that Pentagram, Monkey3, Yawning Man and Noon are confirmed as well for this new edition! 2-day passes (e-tickets) are already on sale on our website, on www.z-7.ch and on our Facebook. If you prefer to buy a hard-ticket, our partner Woolheads is selling them!

Enjoy our new design made by Elvisdead, grab your ticket, and stay tuned! More names will come in March.

http://www.upinsmoke.de/eventinfo-indoor-festival
https://www.facebook.com/UpInSmokeIndoorFestivalInZ7
https://www.soundofliberation.com/

Electric Wizard, Live in Minneapolis, MN, April 8, 2015