Rock Monsters Romania

Stray Lights Sessions returns to Control for a second year, with Methadone Skies and Mock Surprise.

Autumn begins at Control with sounds that refuse to fit neatly into a single genre. On September 23, the Stray Lights Sessions series returns to the club for a second consecutive year, with the first concert of the autumn season: Methadone Skies, the psychedelic rock band from Timișoara that has been exploring territories between stoner, post rock, doom and progressive rock for more than 15 years, and Mock Surprise, the post punk quintet that blends noise with intimate moments, jazz influences with noise rock, and pop vocals with post hardcore energy. Tickets are available online via Eventbook.

Stray Lights Sessions sets off once again in a place where such combinations make sense: Control, where music can be both familiar and slightly strange, and unpredictable enough to make you wonder what comes next. For the first concert of the autumn, the two bands bring two very different ways of building a sonic universe, but share the same curiosity about stepping outside familiar paths.

Methadone Skies have been active since 2009 and have released six albums, each with its own direction and experiments. From Enter the Void, released in 2012 and reissued in a remastered version in 2020, to Spectres at Dawn (2024), the band has imposed very few limits on itself, allowing each release to become a combination of influences and sonic explorations. Stoner rock, post rock, doom metal, progressive rock, psychedelia and jam rock come together in music where riffs can grow into epic constructions, and a song can start in one direction and end up somewhere completely different.

The way Methadone Skies build their live shows has also gained recognition beyond the local scene. Over the years, the band has performed at festivals such as Exit, Lake on Fire, Doom Over Vienna, Dark Bombastic Evening and Fekete Zaj, sharing stages with bands including Motorpsycho, Yawning Man, Samsara Blues Experiment, My Sleeping Karma, Stoned Jesus, 1000MODS and Nightstalker. Since 2012, the band has consistently toured Central and Eastern Europe, gradually building its own circuit through clubs, festivals and alternative venues.

On September 23 at Control, Methadone Skies will take the stage with Alexandru Wehry (guitar), Casian Stanciu (guitar and E Bow), Mihai Guta (bass), and Flavius Retea (drums, percussion and synths).

That same evening, Mock Surprise will come to Bucharest as part of the tour celebrating the release of their second album, Okapi, which comes out on September 16. Formed in 2019, the musicians from Cluj Napoca initially started out as a progressive rock band, while the gradual arrival of new members also shifted the band’s musical direction. Today, Mock Surprise operate in an experimental post punk space where post hardcore attitude, pop vocals, jazz chords and noise rock can all fit into the same song.

Their debut album, Portmanteau, released in spring 2025, was the point at which this transformation found its first complete form. The members’ influences range from Black Midi and Radiohead to Charli XCX, and the result does not necessarily try to choose between pop sensibility and noise, but rather to see what happens when the two are placed side by side. Live, Mock Surprise move from quiet and intimate moments to noisy and aggressive sections, constantly maintaining the feeling that the songs can come apart and reassemble themselves right in front of the audience.

On September 23, the two bands will meet at Control for the first Stray Lights Session of the autumn season. Two bands, two ways of looking at rock, and an evening when the usual order of things can be left at the door for a while.

Stray Lights operates as a support network for dozens of active alternative bands, including Cardinal, Orkid, D.E.N.I.S, Zammorian, Second Wave, Baby Elvis, PLANT, Valerinne, Methadone Skies, Midpoint and Air Lines, a form of cultural resistance within a precarious music ecosystem.

“Stray Lights 2.0 is a necessity. A form of cohesion, collaboration and mutual support among as many bands as possible that are making alternative, contemporary and relevant music in Romania. (…) It’s not an agency, it’s not a label. It’s a small group of people trying to help one another and, from time to time, put on a show.” said Vlad Ilicevici, Orkid / Stray Lights initiator.

Media partners: Clivaj, Contacte Culturale, Critic Eyez, Happ.ro, Infomusic, Observator Cultural, Radio Guerrilla, Rock Monsters, Subversiv, Sunete, Traieste Muzica, Utopia Balcanica, Zile si Nopti.