The return of Rain Parade

In the early 1980s in Los Angeles, a DIY style of music blending punk, psychedelia and classic jam rock emerged, and the scene associated with that sound became known as The Paisley Underground.

One band that became a major part of that scene was Rain Parade, whose 1983 album “Emergency Third Rail Power Trip” would ultimately be praise by rock critic Jim DeRogatis (“Turn on Your Mind: Four Decades of Great Psychedelic Rock”), who said of the album, it “is not only the best album from any of the Paisley Underground bands, it ranks with the best psychedelic rock efforts from any era.”

Throughout the 80’s, Rain Parade played with other Paisley Underground acts, including The Bangles, Three O’Clock and “The Dream Syndicate, but broke up before the end of the decade. In 2012, 30 years after they originally formed, most of the band reunited, and have been touring ever since. This month, celebrating the release of ”Last Rays of a Dying Sun,“ their first album since 1985, Rain Parade is coming to Petaluma’s Mystic Theater, opening for The Third Mind on Thursday, Jan. 18.

A review in Glade called the new album, “A soaring psych-pop statement that should make many a best-of-2023 list.” The Mystic show will includes tunes from across Rain Parade’s history, and should expand local enthusiasm for the band’s trippy, upbeat, gently positive style of psychedelic musicality.