From my perspective, Sunday’s CHBP lineup couldn’t match up to the happenings occurring at Vermillion Gallery & Bar, on 11th Ave. in front of Vermillion, and at the Comet.

Megan documented Mountainss’ street-level set in this post; what a surprising, sinister rush that was. Inside at Vermillion, Jonathan Carr and Garrett Moore of Brain Fruit did a brief performance that sounded like Terry Riley circa Persian Surgery Dervishes crossed with the complex, combustible jazz drumming of Tony Williams. Midday Veil followed that with an improv set featuring Moore on drums, making his debut with the Seattle psych-rock mainstays. What I heard of this extended piece recalled Spacemen 3’s “Suicide” done with less monomania and more nuanced psychedelic levitation.

I exited Vermillion while MV’s track was in progress to hit the Comet to catch Phil Manley Life Coach, featuring Trans Am and Jonas Reinhardt’s guitarist Manley and drummer John Theodor, who also kept time for Dâm-Funk earlier in the afternoon on the Block Party’s Main Stage. Theodor was a dexterous maniac of intricate funk-rockiness and Manley unleashed about five of my favorite kosmische-krautrock guitar sounds of all time in about 30 minutes. Expectations surpassed!

Then the Psychic Paramount, fresh off the Block Party’s most monumental display of power at Neumos, crossed Pike St. to scorch yet more cochleas with another nuclear meltdown of rock’s moldy infrastructure. (I swear I can hear an immolation of Yes’ “Heart of the Sunrise” in the video after cut.)

Kudos to venues outside of Block Party for rising to the occasion and offering options that are, shall we say, less clusterfucked.