The Snozzberries reconfigure canceled gala event Psychedelic Circus

The Snozzberries released a new self-titled album on Oct. 11. The Asheville-based group — a fixture of the progressive/psychedelic/funk scene since forming in 2017 — had already previewed the new album with a pair of advance singles, “Return” and “Hide.” And beginning in August, the band embarked on a tour visiting 20 cities, some as far away as Colorado, Nebraska and Illinois.

The tour began in the band’s Western North Carolina hometown, and in mid-September, the Snozzberries announced plans to end the run of live dates with a grand celebration — the fourth installment of Psychedelic Circus. Historically held at Salvage Station, the annual performance is an immersive, multimedia, multisensory celebration that delivers much more than a concert. 

At the time, guitarist and vocalist Ethan Heller noted that the 2022 edition featured several hundred balloons variously stuck onto surfaces and launched into the audience with the aid of a leaf blower. The 2023 Psychedelic Circus focused on art installations and featured massive murals and neon netting. The convivial feel of those events established a baseline that the Snozzberries planned to exceed with their 2024 hometown performance.

“Psychedelic Circus is our homecoming show after the tour,” Heller told Xpress in September. “It’s also the unofficial album release party.”

The event was set for Friday, Nov. 29, at Salvage Station. Tropical Storm Helene had other plans.

The show must go on

In the wake of the massive flooding of the French Broad River, Salvage Station suffered total destruction. Though the venue was facing imminent closure to make way for the planned construction of a new Interstate 26 interchange, Salvage Station still had an impressive schedule of shows lined up for the remaining months. But Helene’s razing of large swaths of Asheville’s River Arts District and regions along the banks of the French Broad and Swannanoa rivers meant that the popular concert venue met an early end.

As Asheville and other affected areas in WNC began to recover and deal with the aftermath of Helene, the Snozzberries pivoted. The group has secured a new venue for the fourth annual Psychedelic Circus — Asheville Music Hall. While adding new aspects aimed at helping the region heal from the disaster, the event has retained much of its originally planned experience. 

Only a few components couldn’t make the shift. Acclaimed bandleader and punk-jazz vibraphonist — and frequent visitor to Asheville — Mike Dillon had been billed with his Punkadelick trio as part of the show. But when Helene struck, it wasn’t immediately clear that the event would continue in any form, so his management rescheduled a run of dates in the Midwest.

Other pieces changed because the Snozzberries’ plans at the outset had leveraged the unique character of Salvage Station. “We were going to have fire spinners and make this year’s Psychedelic Circus a sort of indoor/outdoor event,” Heller explains. Open flames certainly aren’t an option at Asheville Music Hall, so the group adjusted the theme in a less incendiary direction. “We’re bringing in visual artists and their work,” Heller says.

As part of that, Heller is pleased to add Joel Schooling to the event’s festivities. The Charleston, S.C.-based video artist has done extensive work adding visual elements to performances by a number of regional musical acts, including fellow Charlestonians, satirical pop group Sexbruise? “Joel will bring a whole new element to the show,” Heller promises, noting that Schooling’s setup includes lasers. “His style is really exciting.”

Asheville-based Magenta Sunshine was billed for the event as originally scheduled, and the group will open the show at Asheville Music Hall. “They’re a really fun, feel-good band,” Heller says. “Especially with what we’re all going through as a city right now, it’s great to have them on the bill. Their positive messages will help bring a really good vibe to the show.”

Spirit of fun

Heller believes that the progressive, psychedelic and funk textures of the Snozzberries’ music lend themselves to the sort of audiovisual extravaganza the event has in store. But the band’s development has been a gradual process. “We started as a bar band playing covers,” he says. “At the beginning, we didn’t really take it seriously. We were just a silly jam band.”

That lack of seriousness was underscored by the ad hoc name they adopted. “But the name stuck,” Heller says with a laugh and a shrug.

Heller recalls a gig at The Orange Peel opening for Here Come the Mummies as a major break for the band. Within a year of forming, the Snozzberries had begun adding original material to its set, and a more distinct musical identity began to emerge.

Baked into that identity, though, is variety. Heller says that each band member — himself plus keyboardist Ian Taylor, bassist Josh Clark and drummer Paul Gladstone — has contributed songs to the new album. “Each of us comes into the studio with our composed ideas,” he says. “Then it’s a free-for-all from there.”

The group has gone through its share of changes. Clark, who joined a year and a half ago — in time to be involved in all aspects of writing and recording the new album — is the third bassist since the band’s launch. Original drummer Sean Mason passed away during the COVID-19 lockdown, and Gladstone’s addition brought a harder sound that moved away from the jam aesthetic and toward rock. “The lineup is solid now,” Heller says. “And our material has gotten a lot more mature lately.”

But the spirit of fun that inspired the group’s formation remains embodied in its annual Psychedelic Circus. “I had always wanted to throw an event that combined a rock concert with a carnivalesque character,” Heller says. “Doing this show reminds me of some of the first music festivals I ever attended.”

Another component of this year’s event that will set it apart from previous Psychedelic Circus stagings — the first of which took place in 2019 — is an auction and raffle. “We’ll have some Snozzberries merch, and we’re talking to local artists and businesses who will add to that,” Heller says. Proceeds from the auction and raffle will benefit the work of local nonprofit BeLoved Asheville. “We want to help as much as we can,” he adds.

Amid the sensory spectacle, the centerpiece of this year’s Psychedelic Circus will be the original music of the Snozzberries. The new album was recorded at The Eagle Room in Weaverville with producer/engineer Matt Williams, and The Snozzberries is available in digital and on CD and vinyl.

Heller notes that Williams created a unique mix of the album for its vinyl configuration. And one of the tracks, “Storm,” is nearly a minute and a half shorter on the LP version than on the other formats. “I actually like the shorter version better,” Heller admits with a laugh. “But it was too late to change on the other formats.”

Still, the Snozzberries have proved resilient when it comes to making late-breaking changes like rebuilding concert plans on short notice in response to a disaster like Helene. “We try to make it a little more exciting every year,” Heller deadpans.

WHAT: Fourth annual Psychedelic Circus featuring the Snozzberries, Magenta Sunshine and more
WHERE: Asheville Music Hall, 31 Patton Ave., avl.mx/ebe
WHEN: Friday, Nov. 29, 9 p.m. $25 advance/$30 day of show