There are some bands that work exceptionally well live and Acid Mothers Temple (in all their various guises) are one of them. On stage they are a maelstrom of energy, throwing out riffs, licks and solos like people at a wedding through confetti. Needless to say, whenever they come to town I make sure I am there and up the front and I have yet to leave disappointed. This performance not only kept up the tradition of AMT shows being awesome but was possibly the best performance I have seen them give yet. It was hard, heavy, sweaty and was louder than war.
Whelans, Dublin, 6 August
The line up for the concert included AMT regulars Kawabata Makoto and Higashi Hiroshi on guitars (and in the case of the latter, synth too) and they were joined by other long time Acid Mothers Shimura Koji on drums, Zeni Geva’s Tabata Mitsuru on bass and Afirampo’s Pikachu on drums (and by the end of the night, everyone was on vocals). Pikachu is a relatively new addition to the Soul Collective, she has turned up on a few releases but this is her first tour outside of Japan and she was excited to be here. She was electric as her Pokemon namesake, her drumming was spot on and she kept up with Koji’s solid percussion work. She also filled the vocal space left by Cotton Casino since her departure, the singing sounded much more rounded with her voice in addition to the usual crew.
The set was largely improvised and was powered by a strong krauty beat, Makoto’s guitar not being as obvious as expected for the first couple of numbers. It was obvious he was there but he saved his fire for a rousing version of “Pink Lady Lemonade.” Once the guitar solos were out of the bag there was no stopping him. He never fails to impress when he gets going and tonight was no exception. He uses all the usual and clichéd guitar tricks but in his hands these are as far from cliché as you can get. He has virtuosity by the bucket load but his skill is tempered by a sheer love of rocking out (which I can relate to).
As the band heated up, they became the cosmic inferno of their name and it felt like they could play til dawn. “Pink Lady Lemonade” weaved in and out of white hot jams and Mitsuru’s eyes rolled back in his head as he blissed out on the music. Eventually the band took a breather and Makoto complimented the crowd on the number of Gong t-shirts he saw. The group then launched into a furious cover of Gong’s “Master Builder” in response to the cheers from the crowd in celebration of Gong. With Pikachu dancing on her drum kit, Hiroshi jumped into the crowd armed with his synth and a microphone and Mitsuru tore one of the strings from his bass with the power he was playing with. The crowd shook along to the beat and when the song finally ended, Acid Mothers Temple walked off the stage to the thunder of applause.
As they had trashed all their equipment (or at the very least detuned it all), an a cappella encore rounded off the evening. Leaving the crowd singing “Na na na na, na na na na, hey hey hey, goodbye!” to themselves they set off again, leaving me quivering with joy and dozens of goofy grins on the faces of those around me.
