By: Sander Van Den Driesche
Photos: Bruce Cowie
Acid Mothers Temple & The Melting Paraiso U.F.O. | website | facebook | twitter |
Summerhall, Edinburgh | October 27, 2015
Edinburgh’s Braw Gigs has been a stable factor in the local music scene for many years now, always bringing great noise and psych to Scotland’s capital. Last Tuesday Braw Gigs, in collaboration with Nothing Ever Happens Here, managed to bring the legendary Acid Mothers Temple & The Melting Paraiso U.F.O. (Underground Freak Out) to Summerhall in Edinburgh. Summerhall is the old University of Edinburgh’s Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies, aka The Dick Vet and the gigs take place in the old dissection room. Make of this bit of information what you want, but I think that’s pretty awesome, though the fact I’m a Biologist might have something to do with that. I’d been at Summerhall for lots of different events, but never before for a gig, so I was also very keen to see how the venue works for live music.
After a nice pint of Barney’s Stout at in house bar The Royal Dick (*snigger*), the gig started with another legend, though more local than the Japanese headliners, namely Glasgow’s Nackt Insecten. This was his first solo performance in quite a long time apparently, and it was also my first opportunity seeing Ruaraidh Sanachan’s psychedelic drone in action. As he was sitting at the far right corner of the stage, surrounded by Acid Mothers Temple’s electronica and guitar setup, it was not easy to exactly see what Ruaraidh was doing. But that didn’t matter much as it was mesmerising to hear the drone develop, getting more intense with the addition of subtle noises in the mix. I usually see the more distorted drone live, but it was refreshing to see a more psychedelic, electronic drone, which made for a pleasant change.
After a short break the stage was Acid Mother Temple’s. This was my first time seeing them and from what my friends told me I was in for a treat. And let me just say this up front, they did not disappoint and this was one of the best gigs I’ve seen this year.
I’m only familiar with the tip of the iceberg which is their vast back catalogue, so I am not completely sure of the first half of the set they played, although since they are known for on the spot improvisations I’m sure I’m not the only one. But who really cares as they were the best live psychedelic band I have ever seen. What made them fantastic was the fact that they didn’t stick with one particular type of psychedelic music, but instead they played a different psych sub-genre with each song.
They started with what is probably best described as the one that sounds like very early Pink Floyd, including the Ummagumma inspired part at the end (or was it an intermezzo?), where the band started playing various instruments in parallel with interesting vocal parts and chants. I found out later while I’m writing this up that this opening song was pure improvisation. Following this the band changed course and started a long heavy kraut section, which almost turned into some amazing psychedelic techno, with the drums steadily increasing the tempo. This was some amazing, trance-inducing stuff here, and probably my highlight of their set!
They then went back to the more Hawkwind sounding psych rock when they started playing the very recent track ‘Benzaiten’ taken of this year’s released album of the same name. This is where their set got even trippier as the band presented a masterclass in psychedelia. And seeing guitarist and psychedelic mastermind Kawabata Makoto in action was an absolute pleasure. The band ended their extensive set with ‘Pink Lady Lemonade’, which made the crowd shout for an encore afterwards, but sadly this didn’t happen.
Coming back to the venue, Summerhall makes a fantastic live music venue, though it probably depends a lot on what band’s playing. But having a bar in the actual venue bit is great (something not always present at Edinburgh venues). Summerhall’s fantastic light show and great sound added those extra bits to what made this gig a very memorable one. More gigs like these please.
