Mojave Experience Festival Adds Mario Lalli and the Rubber Snake Charmers & Ecstatic Vision
I mean, yeah, you probably could put on a festival centered around desert rock in the California desert and not invite Mario Lalli to be a part of it, if you wanted to do it wrong. Fortunately for those who’ll attend, next March’s inaugural Mojave Experience Festival will indeed include Mario Lalli and the Rubber Snake Charmers, who bring their avant-dezzpsych and poetic undulations of sound and form to the proceedings alongside the previously announced likes of John Garcia, Acid King, Dead Meadow and Earthless. If you’re keeping track, that makes Mojave Experience five-for-five in my book. I know — nobody’s keeping track. But still.
Joining the ultra-desert representation in this round are Philadelphia psychblasters Ecstatic Vision, who bring an element of chaos to any stage they take. They’re the first non-Californian act to be announced for the festival, and while I don’t know their tour plans if they even have any, it will have been nearly four years since 2022’s Elusive Mojo (review here) by the time March 2026 comes around, the prospect of a West Coast tour heralding a studio return from them is enticing to say the least. As ever, I know nothing, so don’t go being like, “that bozo from The Obelisk said you have a new record” on their Instagram or whatever. Would add to the fun though.
From socials:
Mario Lalli & The Rubber Snake Charmers
Born from the wild pulse of the California desert, Mario Lalli & The Rubber Snake Charmers is less a “band” and more a living ritual — an ever-shifting collective of players led by the godfather of desert rock himself, Mario Lalli (Yawning Man, Fatso Jetson). Known for his hypnotic bass lines and free-flowing improvisation, Lalli steers the Charmers through sprawling, psychedelic jams that blur the line between song and trance. Each performance is unique, unfolding like a mirage under the desert sun — heavy, meditative, and unpredictable.
Drawing on over four decades of underground legend, Lalli and his collaborators channel the spirit of the generator parties that birthed a global movement. Their music is a communion of rhythm and atmosphere — drone, groove, riff, and release — with raw, poetic incantations from desert icon Sean Wheeler adding grit and mysticism to the sonic storm.
Whether in a dusty dive, a windswept canyon, or beneath the stars of Joshua Tree, The Rubber Snake Charmers embody the living heart of the desert sound — heavy, spiritual, and endlessly evolving. It’s not nostalgia; it’s the continuation of a tradition that never needed permission to exist.
Ecstatic Vision
Ecstatic Vision are Philadelphia’s high-voltage shamans of heavy psych — channeling the raw spirit of Hawkwind, Amon Düül II, and Detroit’s proto-punk underground into an ecstatic, world-driven eruption of sound. Since emerging in 2013, the band has carved a singular path through the modern psych scene, releasing a string of feral, hallucinatory records and earning a reputation for live shows that unfold like trance-fueled eruptions of energy and sound.
After signing to Relapse Records on the strength of their early demos, Sonic Praise (2015) established Ecstatic Vision as torchbearers of primal, high-energy psychedelia — a blur of fuzz, sax, and trance-inducing groove. Their subsequent releases — Raw Rock Fury, Under the Influence, For the Masses, and most recently Elusive Mojo (Heavy Psych Sounds) — have only pushed the band further into uncharted territory, fusing Detroit rock grit, krautrock pulse, and global rhythm into a feverish brew.
With appearances at Roadburn, Hellfest, Desertfest, Levitation, and the legendary Duna Jam, Ecstatic Vision continue to embody the reckless, transcendental edge of heavy music. Their latest era is a full-force revival — heavier, hungrier, and more unhinged than ever — where molten grooves, scorching saxophones, and trance-inducing jams blur the line between the cosmic and the carnal.
Come ready. Come raw. The Mojave Experience isn’t here to entertain you — it’s here to change you.
See you March 20 & 21.
Tickets On Sale Friday – mojaveexperience.net
https://www.mojaveexperience.net
https://instagram.com/mojave_experience_festival
https://www.facebook.com/mojave.experience.festival/
I’m keeping track.