Thursday, May 27, 2004
recumbent upon the hump of wonder
Acid Mothers Temple was good. It wasn’t great. I expected to be nearly destroyed, but my haphazard walk home had more to do with beer than overwhelming riff rape. There were only four of them, which surprised me, and might be one reason why it seemed less powerful than the records. Also the guy who sang the most wasn’t the gray-haired wizard dude, like I thought. They played some amazing stuff, but it was all just a bit more sedate than I had expected. There was a lot of a capella chanting, which was cool, and some fantastic guitar shit by Kawabata and the other guy. The centerpiece of the set was a song that went on for a good fifteen minutes or so, and that had a more straight-forward, classic rock feel than most of their stuff. I’m sure on record it sounds like a thunderous orgasm in outer space, but live it was just a pretty good rock jam that could have been played by an amped-up Grateful Dead. They did meet my expectations when it came to wrestling related content, however; the bass player wore a HHH shirt, and the only English they spoke all night was “finally, Acid Mothers Temple has come back to Boston”. So yeah, it was a very good show, but it wasn’t half as manic or crazed or revelatory as I had expected / hoped.
Subarachnoid Space opened. Their longish jams (maybe not jams at all) swooshed a lot, but their Rob Van Dam looking bass player kept things from getting too out there. They weren’t too bad; their rhythm section was grounded in some traditional-sounding rock territory, and that kept them from hurtling into a vortex of formless cosmic bullshit. It also prevented them from branching out and playing anything all that interesting. They did have some good films projected behind them, though.
Some other band played first. I didn’t see ‘em. I was too busy drinking with my future mother-in-law.
Acid Mothers Temple was good. It wasn’t great. I expected to be nearly destroyed, but my haphazard walk home had more to do with beer than overwhelming riff rape. There were only four of them, which surprised me, and might be one reason why it seemed less powerful than the records. Also the guy who sang the most wasn’t the gray-haired wizard dude, like I thought. They played some amazing stuff, but it was all just a bit more sedate than I had expected. There was a lot of a capella chanting, which was cool, and some fantastic guitar shit by Kawabata and the other guy. The centerpiece of the set was a song that went on for a good fifteen minutes or so, and that had a more straight-forward, classic rock feel than most of their stuff. I’m sure on record it sounds like a thunderous orgasm in outer space, but live it was just a pretty good rock jam that could have been played by an amped-up Grateful Dead. They did meet my expectations when it came to wrestling related content, however; the bass player wore a HHH shirt, and the only English they spoke all night was “finally, Acid Mothers Temple has come back to Boston”. So yeah, it was a very good show, but it wasn’t half as manic or crazed or revelatory as I had expected / hoped.
Subarachnoid Space opened. Their longish jams (maybe not jams at all) swooshed a lot, but their Rob Van Dam looking bass player kept things from getting too out there. They weren’t too bad; their rhythm section was grounded in some traditional-sounding rock territory, and that kept them from hurtling into a vortex of formless cosmic bullshit. It also prevented them from branching out and playing anything all that interesting. They did have some good films projected behind them, though.
Some other band played first. I didn’t see ‘em. I was too busy drinking with my future mother-in-law.
