Each time the Acid Mothers Temple visit these shores, they do so as a new incarnation – be it a new band title or a different lineup – but the end result is pretty much the same; an insanely brilliant, chaotic din with enough guitar heroics to send most virtuosos running to the hills.
Tonight’s manifestation is the Acid Mothers Temple and The Cosmic Inferno, a new lineup since long-term synth ‘Mother’ Cotton left the group, being eventually replaced by Pikachu, the groups new drummer, vocalist and go-go dancer extraordinare. This tour is also promoting no less than four new 2008 releases (two albums as ‘The Cosmic Inferno‘ and two as ‘The Melting Parasio U.F.O‘), so no one really knows what to expect.
The now five-strong group (including two drummers) kick off slowly, building a rumble of cymbals and guitar drone, as the wizard-like Higashi Hiroshi creates their trademark swirls of spacey synth… the calm lasts a few minutes before guitarist Kawabata Makoto lets rip, blowing eardrums and minds in equal measure. In full flight the AMT are ridiculously loud and overwhelming, the additional drummer only increasing their fury. Makoto’s guitar solos/freakouts are a noisy maelstrom around which the rest of the band ebb and flow – they can last well over 10 minutes (and considerably longer on their records) and are as captivating visually as they are sonically; as he swings, waves and throttles the instrument like a man possessed.
The setlist draws heavily from their recent ‘Pink Lady Lemonade – You’re From Outer Space‘ album, a collection of celebratory songs based around the key melody of Pink Lady Lemonade; an old live favourite. The theme is one of welcoming; a new beginning – the more doom and metallic elements of their rather extensive back catalogue are largely ignored in favour of more upbeat material.
During a rare performance of a song by the Acid Mothers Gong song, Pikachu gets out from behind her drumkit and instead dances on top of it, then takes to the microphone to scream and holler along. She may be a new recruit, but Pikachu seems to have enough of a crazy streak to feel right at home alongside the well-honed weirdness of her bandmates.
As the show approaches the two hour mark, the last song fizzles out in yet another terrific jam, Makoto playing his guitar with a screwdriver and sliding it against the ceiling to generate some fittingly cosmic levels of feedback. Finally he throws his strat into the lighting rig; snagging the cord on a beam so that it hangs, screaming its last, above the band as they make their exit.
For the encore, we’re treated to some a-capella throat singing, which eventually evolves into a Hey Jude singalong led by Pikachu, to which Makoto starts to beat more noise from his guitar as it hangs from the ceiling. We’re left dazed and rather deaf, our senses well and truly bombarded by the Japanese collective and their mind-bending music.
