Picnic, Lightning

Picnic Lightning from Fort Worth, Texas are a rock band whose raw and brooding desert punk is the sound of summer heat and dimly lit clubs. Their dark, post-everything wall of sound howls like a dust storm, delivering a spiritual stomp that dwells in the shadowland of trenchant questions and orphic revelations.



"Desert rock meets lo-fi punk." - Punktastic



"Fuzzed-out rock that deftly walks the line between cerebral and unhinged." - DFW.com



Picnic Lightning formed in 2013 with Thomas Ketchersid on vocals, guitar, Cole Watkins on lead vocals and guitar, John Cope on bass and vocals and Cameron Navarro on drums and vocals. Their Gilded Youth EP (2014) and eponymous debut album (2016) were enthusiastically received by local press and blogs, earning them nominations for Best Rock Band, Best Rock EP, Best Rock Album in the Fort Worth Weekly Music Awards.



"FURIOUS IMMEDIACY." - Fort Worth Weekly



"Just let your ears buzz with joy." - Austin Town Hall



Influenced by ...and you will know us by the Trail of Dead, Arcade Fire and Courtney Barnet as well as Velvet Underground and The Beatles, their songs deftly touch the inexhaustible complexities of life and do so with sonics as singular as the individual human experience. They croon and holler, stomp and skip, wax thoughtful where vengeance belongs; and vice-versa. It’s the fuel that sets your car aflame or gets you home; the drug that puts you down or brings out the beast. The band’s mantra from day one has been: let no one suffer.



“Barely restrained indie rock that has touch-points from Yo La Tengo to Sonic Youth to Ty Segall.” - The Mad Mackerel



"Roars and stomps on wild, twisted guitars." - The Big Takeover



"All the right amounts of grittiness." - Paste


For Fans of Arcade Fire, Arctic Monkeys, The Black Keys, Iceage, Japandroids, The Killers, Lord Huron, Manchester Orchestra, mewithoutYou, Ty Segall, Queens of the Stone Age, Squid, The White Stripes.

“Barely restrained indie rock that has touch-points from Yo La Tengo to Sonic Youth to Ty Segall.” - The Mad Mackerel