Sleep @ Brouwerij West; San Pedro, CA

When Sleep announces a tour, my ears perk up. When Sleep tour dates are announced and include a show in Los Angeles, my eyes widen. When I learn that the concert is to be held outdoors — at a brewery — I program an alert on my phone so I can make sure my browser is pointed at the ticketing website exactly at 12:00:00 pm on sale day.

When I last caught up with Sleep, they were expanding my mind with their set at Psycho Las Vegas in 2017. On that night, the trio performed “Dopesmoker” and “The Clarity.” Since then, a new album has been released! The band’s first since 1999 (!). The Sciences dropped in April, and if you haven’t heard it, it’s quite good. New Sleep album + Sleep concert + Brewery = Happy me.

The last time I visited Brouwerij West was for their anniversary party earlier this year. I hated it. Whether graded on the concert scale or the beer event scale, it was one of the worst-run events I’ve ever attended. Somehow I neglected to take this into consideration when buying tickets for the show (you know, because… SLEEP! AT A BREWERY!). It wasn’t until we parked the car and started to walk towards the brewery that I remembered how horrible a shit-show that anniversary party was. Thankfully, this event ran more smoothly than the last one. It was notÂ much better, but it was a slight improvement.

Speaking of which, right as we were parking our car, I was winning HQ trivia for the…fourth time? My biggest win yet. Check it out:

Yup, I am the smartest man alive!!!

8 beers into the night, Sleep took the stage. We’d procured a spot as close as we could get along the brewery side of the crowd, right by the barriers that blocked off the stage area, but slightly more elevated than ground level. Matt Pike’s guitar was a little muted from this vantage point, but it made for an unobstructed view. No official setlist has been posted but I’m 99% sure they played “Marijuanaut’s Theme” (during which a crowd surfer wearing a full astronaut costume emerged from the crowd and completely stole the show!), “Holy Mountain,” “The Clarity” “Giza Butler” and “Dragonaut.” I think. There were probably more tunes than that, but I was pretty damned drunk.

Here are some pictures. At some point, an older woman standing near us turned to me and said, “Ooh, that’s gonna be a good one.”

In hindsight, that remark is hilarious… because my pictures came out horribly.