Enjoy two nights of local psychedelic rock with Richard Tripps and the Shrouded Strangers.

“Shrouded Strangers are kind of like if you went prancing around in the woods at night and all of a sudden an alien ship comes and picks you up, and you get up to the spaceship and it’s all your friends and family having a good time dancing around.”

That’s how Richard Tripps describes the band that opens for him at the two-night celebration of psych-rock. He is a reliable source; after all, he will play drums with Shrouded Strangers before he gets back up on stage and presents his own material.

Defining either band is futile, especially since everything about Richard Tripps and Shrouded Strangers is so meta – from lyrics to how they choose to present themselves. Shrouded Strangers proclaim on Instagram to be playing “guitar cubism” and “appalachian jazz.” Psychedelic rock is an umbrella term, with a few characteristics at core: distorted guitars and metaphysical and/or absurd lyrics.

Tripps, who is based in Big Sur, has been writing and recording music for years, but it wasn’t until 2023 until he put a band together. He then released his LP, Between the Morning, and is now working on releasing new material. The signature song from the LP is a soothing anthem with spare lyrics, perfect for observing the passing day. A video loop shows Tripps in a blue striped pajama gown and a matching nightcap, dancing on a hill with a rattle in his hand. His deep, slightly old-fashioned vocal style defines the sound of his band.

Shrouded Strangers, with Aaron Carlson from Santa Barbara and Mike Scutari of Big Sur at the core, have a longer history. “I guess we recorded our first thing in 1999,” says Carlson, adding that for a long time the band had “48 fans or something.” They have put out five albums, toured nationally and now are “ramping back up after a post-pandemic hiatus,” Scutari adds.

The band combines weird guitar sounds with bold storytelling. They introduced their most recent (2019) album, Night Prancing, as “arguably the soundtrack to an ‘unrealized film script’ chronicling the adventures of a late-1950s surfer gang (the ‘Night Prancers’) in the fog-enshrouded coastal hamlet of Seaview, Washington.” They promise new material out in spring 2026.

RICHARD TRIPPS AND THE SHROUDED STRANGERS perform 10pm Friday, Nov. 14 at Fernwood Resort, 47200 Highway 1, Big Sur (free show) and 8pm Saturday, Nov. 15 at Pop & Hiss, 215 Forest Ave., Pacific Grove ($3). fernwoodbigsur.com, popandhiss.net.