Dead Meadow is a psychedelic stoner rock band that formed over ten years ago.  There was a good amount of people filling the floor for this opener.  After one band member came out, the other two come on stage shortly after with six-pack in hand, which is probably the reason for their delay.  They started without warning with a mellow groove.  I was entranced by the bubble effect that was projected onto the bass drum head, watching as it twirled around against the interesting design that had a triangle hidden among a drawing of a web of vines.  The drummer was doing some nice work with smooth crossed arm action.  

After a few songs there was an apparent trend where the song was mostly slow and steady, but then later broke into a more interesting psychedelic rock part.  I began to look forward to these sections.  The fifth song stayed mellow mostly for the whole song, but was done more interestingly as a whole and so was okay when it did not get heavy.  The next song did not sound like their standard style, but later went to that place.  The following song had a point where the guitarist stopped and lifted his drink to us while drum and bass went at it.  After some more of this off and on playing the song seemed to end, but either kept on or went straight into a new one.

At the final song the bassist knocked over his drink and finished what was left of it.  The singer, Jason Simon thanked the crowd before the song ended.  They received good applause, but also there was a drunk fan who was over enthusiastic, giving them as much praise as if Jimi Hendrix played.  While not as amazing as the legend, they played some great psychedelic rock and had the effects to match, including another projector that had kaleidoscope images along with lava lamp shapes and the usual smoke, though it came straight up in a pillar behind Simon.  Any fan of this genre will probably love this band.