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Acid Mothers Temple and the Cosmic Inferno!!!
If any band's live act can be labeled "essential" (if only because they self-release SO MANY cd-r recordings that it's difficult for anyone but fetish-level cultists to keep up), it must be Japanese psych-rock collective Acid Mothers Temple.
Before Wednesday, I had seen AMT twice, and both times left me beaten and near-deaf by the impenetrable wall of noise they create. Needless to say, I insist on seeing them at least once every time they come around. The lineup is pretty standard: a guitar, a bass, drums, some vocals, and an echoplex (which is sometimes switched out with a second guitar). But in the midst of their onslaught, it becomes practically impossible to determine which element of the sound is coming from which instrument or player, and I've learned to not even try... just stand there and let it wash over me. The live show becomes a wonderful endurance test.
They hit New York this year in their newest configuration, Acid Mothers Temple and the Cosmic Inferno, which differs from their previous configuration, Acid Mothers Temple and the Melting Paraiso UFO, only in the addition of a second drummer (!!!)(those who know me know that multiple drummers onstage is one of my favorite musical situations) and occasional extra guitars. As if that aforementioned wall of sound needed to be stronger or louder...
I rolled down to Southpaw in Brooklyn with Cory, Ben, and Ignacio (friend of Cory's from kickboxing/jujitsu classes) to be summarily destroyed by AMT's latest New York City visit. Before the show, I had all intentions of checking them out the following two nights at The First Unitarian Church in Philly, and Knitting Factory (back in NYC). Buuuuut... Well, the Wednesday show worked out a bit differently than I had originally planned. Pentax was well active, and I even went the extra technological mile for this show... That's right kids, NTG is proud to include some VIDEO CLIPS! Moving up in the world, we are... Keep your eyes peeled for them throughout the post...
Be patient while the video clips load, they're worth it! And make sure your speakers are on!
***************
First order of business when I hit Southpaw was to head downstairs to the basement. In the bathroom lounge area, every inch of which is wallpapered with thousands of photographs, they've got my favorite picture of Jimi Hendrix ever. Check it:
The look on his face cracks me up. The venue room itself is wallpapered with show posters:
Even cooler (although sadly I didn't snap it), one of the bathroom stalls downstairs is entirely papered with baseball cards. The unifying factor between ALL of them: they're all lefties. (Get it? Southpaw?)
Anyway, as the crowd anxiously awaited their own sonic destruction...
...we stood perplexed by the futuristic Budweiser bottles they were slinging at the bar:
I had never seen a bottle like it before. While we waited, Ben ranted about the smoking ban... I believe it started something like: "A society in which you can't go smoke a zeppelin in the b-" [VIDEO: THE RANT CONTINUES, :29]
I love how Dead Meadow's "Heaven" is heard to begin juuust at the end of this clip. Here's Ben post-rant:
Cory proudly saluted AMT with his choice of attire:
At long last, Acid Mothers Temple took the stage. Once they started, the noise didn't stop for about 90 minutes.
Here's an early sample of the chaos: [VIDEO: OPENING RIFF, :51]
See, the way AMT plays... I don't want to get too long-winded about this, but essentially, they start off with a simple riff. It's usually very heavy, but catchy and SUPER-precise. Then, they play the same riff for about 20 minutes, slowly building it and adding layers of noise to it, and it builds and builds and builds until it's rumbling inside your head and practically lifting you off the ground. Then they make it heavier. It's a mix of meticulously exact bass and drums, and a chaotic swirl of guitar and echoplex, often mixed with singing, sometimes chanting. It begins, very shortly, to sound almost religious. A full-on show might include only three or four "riffs" that are stretched into entire songs, but the whole show comprises 90 minutes of pure, soul-wrenching greatness.
A standard of theirs is "Pink Lady Lemonade," found on their 2002 release Live In Occident, among other places. This song follows that build-on-a-riff pattern I just described. Check it: [VIDEO: PINK LADY LEMONADE, :30]
I have no shame in admitting that I was crying at the end of "Pink Lady Lemonade." None whatsoever.
Okay, I'm talking too much... Here's a bunch of snaps from the night...
...and yes, in that first one, he's actually playing two guitars simultaneously...
That last one looks like he's crying out to Heaven. That's about how I felt by that point in the show.
They bashed it out a bit more after that: [VIDEO: MORE BEAUTIFUL CHAOS, :52]
AMT also works a good degree of theatricality into their performances. At the two shows of theirs I saw in 2004 (May 23 at Knitting Factory - my AMT initiation - and June 19 at Southpaw) they performed a brief puppet show in the middle. The puppets acted out a scene from Romeo & Juliet in falsetto, both voiced in broken Japanenglish by the bass player. One of the puppets was a horse, and I can't remember how he got to this point, but by the end of the Southpaw show he ripped the horse off his hand with his teeth and chewed on it, proclaiming "we're Japanese! We love to eat horse! Japanese love eating horse!"
This time around, the echoplex/guitar player vanished for a moment, and reappeared shirtless and wearing a viking helmet:
When they finally wrapped up, they thanked the crowd profusely and gave us all an extended thumbs up, which we all gladly returned.
They played no encore. Really, after a set like they usually play, I don't think anyone could handle one, them or us.
***************
Once the show was over, I noticed Cory and Ignacio were gone, and I hadn't seen Ben since about halfway through the show. I never found out exactly what happened to Cory and Ignacio, but I eventually found Ben. The story of where he wound up, and our entire journey home, is a post all its own...
*****N*T*G*****
Never hesitate to comment!
Before Wednesday, I had seen AMT twice, and both times left me beaten and near-deaf by the impenetrable wall of noise they create. Needless to say, I insist on seeing them at least once every time they come around. The lineup is pretty standard: a guitar, a bass, drums, some vocals, and an echoplex (which is sometimes switched out with a second guitar). But in the midst of their onslaught, it becomes practically impossible to determine which element of the sound is coming from which instrument or player, and I've learned to not even try... just stand there and let it wash over me. The live show becomes a wonderful endurance test.
They hit New York this year in their newest configuration, Acid Mothers Temple and the Cosmic Inferno, which differs from their previous configuration, Acid Mothers Temple and the Melting Paraiso UFO, only in the addition of a second drummer (!!!)(those who know me know that multiple drummers onstage is one of my favorite musical situations) and occasional extra guitars. As if that aforementioned wall of sound needed to be stronger or louder...
I rolled down to Southpaw in Brooklyn with Cory, Ben, and Ignacio (friend of Cory's from kickboxing/jujitsu classes) to be summarily destroyed by AMT's latest New York City visit. Before the show, I had all intentions of checking them out the following two nights at The First Unitarian Church in Philly, and Knitting Factory (back in NYC). Buuuuut... Well, the Wednesday show worked out a bit differently than I had originally planned. Pentax was well active, and I even went the extra technological mile for this show... That's right kids, NTG is proud to include some VIDEO CLIPS! Moving up in the world, we are... Keep your eyes peeled for them throughout the post...
Be patient while the video clips load, they're worth it! And make sure your speakers are on!
***************
First order of business when I hit Southpaw was to head downstairs to the basement. In the bathroom lounge area, every inch of which is wallpapered with thousands of photographs, they've got my favorite picture of Jimi Hendrix ever. Check it:
The look on his face cracks me up. The venue room itself is wallpapered with show posters:
Even cooler (although sadly I didn't snap it), one of the bathroom stalls downstairs is entirely papered with baseball cards. The unifying factor between ALL of them: they're all lefties. (Get it? Southpaw?)
Anyway, as the crowd anxiously awaited their own sonic destruction...
...we stood perplexed by the futuristic Budweiser bottles they were slinging at the bar:
I had never seen a bottle like it before. While we waited, Ben ranted about the smoking ban... I believe it started something like: "A society in which you can't go smoke a zeppelin in the b-" [VIDEO: THE RANT CONTINUES, :29]
I love how Dead Meadow's "Heaven" is heard to begin juuust at the end of this clip. Here's Ben post-rant:
Cory proudly saluted AMT with his choice of attire:
At long last, Acid Mothers Temple took the stage. Once they started, the noise didn't stop for about 90 minutes.
Here's an early sample of the chaos: [VIDEO: OPENING RIFF, :51]
See, the way AMT plays... I don't want to get too long-winded about this, but essentially, they start off with a simple riff. It's usually very heavy, but catchy and SUPER-precise. Then, they play the same riff for about 20 minutes, slowly building it and adding layers of noise to it, and it builds and builds and builds until it's rumbling inside your head and practically lifting you off the ground. Then they make it heavier. It's a mix of meticulously exact bass and drums, and a chaotic swirl of guitar and echoplex, often mixed with singing, sometimes chanting. It begins, very shortly, to sound almost religious. A full-on show might include only three or four "riffs" that are stretched into entire songs, but the whole show comprises 90 minutes of pure, soul-wrenching greatness.
A standard of theirs is "Pink Lady Lemonade," found on their 2002 release Live In Occident, among other places. This song follows that build-on-a-riff pattern I just described. Check it: [VIDEO: PINK LADY LEMONADE, :30]
I have no shame in admitting that I was crying at the end of "Pink Lady Lemonade." None whatsoever.
Okay, I'm talking too much... Here's a bunch of snaps from the night...
...and yes, in that first one, he's actually playing two guitars simultaneously...
That last one looks like he's crying out to Heaven. That's about how I felt by that point in the show.
They bashed it out a bit more after that: [VIDEO: MORE BEAUTIFUL CHAOS, :52]
AMT also works a good degree of theatricality into their performances. At the two shows of theirs I saw in 2004 (May 23 at Knitting Factory - my AMT initiation - and June 19 at Southpaw) they performed a brief puppet show in the middle. The puppets acted out a scene from Romeo & Juliet in falsetto, both voiced in broken Japanenglish by the bass player. One of the puppets was a horse, and I can't remember how he got to this point, but by the end of the Southpaw show he ripped the horse off his hand with his teeth and chewed on it, proclaiming "we're Japanese! We love to eat horse! Japanese love eating horse!"
This time around, the echoplex/guitar player vanished for a moment, and reappeared shirtless and wearing a viking helmet:
When they finally wrapped up, they thanked the crowd profusely and gave us all an extended thumbs up, which we all gladly returned.
They played no encore. Really, after a set like they usually play, I don't think anyone could handle one, them or us.
***************
Once the show was over, I noticed Cory and Ignacio were gone, and I hadn't seen Ben since about halfway through the show. I never found out exactly what happened to Cory and Ignacio, but I eventually found Ben. The story of where he wound up, and our entire journey home, is a post all its own...
*****N*T*G*****
Never hesitate to comment!
posted by JMP at 1:45 AM
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