Sacri Monti’s Spinal Tap moments

“Last summer, our tour manager had a sleepwalking problem. One mellow night at a hotel in Milan, Italy he got up while everyone was asleep and took a nap — butt naked — in the middle of a hallway that wasn’t even on the same floor as our rooms. No one had any idea that happened until the hotel contacted us the next day demanding 200 euros for ‘damages’. He didn’t pay it. Love that guy.”

Sacri Monti’s keyboardist Evan Wenskay says rock band touring still has, after all these years, a few indisputably Spinal Tap moments. But the San Diego heavy psych-rock band — named after a set of “sacred hills” in Italy — got a taste of the world, touring behind their first, self-titled set back in 2015.

Back now with their second long-player Waiting Room for the Magic Hour, released July 5, you might think the band, having grown just a tad wiser and older, would forsake their youthful affection for potentially-dangerous skateboard action. But Wenskay says no way.

“Oh absolutely still skating! I usually skate slappy curbs or Leucadia Park. Dylan [Donovan, guitar] has got kickflips on buttery lock, and Thomas [Dibenedetto, drums] still remains flat-ground god. But for the most part, Brenden [Dellar, guitar] and we go surfing together whenever we can.”

Heavy, heavy distortion, and heavy on the organ, remain Sacri Monti bywords, but Magic Hour, cut at SD’s Audio Design with with Jordan Andreen at the board, finds them shunting in a few sounds not found in the formula.

“Yep,” Wenskay affirms. “Pedal steels, synthesizers, saxophones, theremins, we got all types of toys. Honestly surprised more of them didn’t make it on the record too, haha. Nothing too crazy. It was whatever we brought into the studio to jam on with headphones while we were bored. So some of those ideas ended up making the cut.”

Asked about future plans for the band, the keyboardist’s only happy to enthuse.

“We have a record release show at the Casbah on August 30 with Volcano! and Warish, with Operation Mindblow on visuals. After that, we have a West Coast run in the works, not sure of the dates yet, but besides that just trying to plan more tours in 2019.”

“We hope the populace of the entire planet enjoys our new record so we may relish in the bounty of the Yellow Brick Road forever and ever.”