Acid Mothers Temple - Over-Gain Optimal Death -- DC9 - April 8 2010

Over-Gain Optimal Death - We begin with this LA trio. The sound is pounding hard psychedelic rock from beginning to end. They begin with a more moderate paced number with distorted vocals "sung" in sort of a Roger Waters/Set the Controls... mode. The songs rock out a bit more showing gutsy 70s rock underneath the psychedelic swirl of the guitar. The rhythm section is kind of on the Wooden Shijps minimalist model, but seems even simpler. A few endings were casual, but these were jams more than songs, so that hardly matters. I like the younger crowd indulging in this music, so it was a good night for band and all.

Acid Mothers Temple - Oh the irony, after suffering one of my most painful hearing experiences, Monday, the next show I see has Kawabata who offered me one of my other most painful memories at Terrastock with a feedback laced solo set. But I have seen his band twice before and it was "good loud" with no painful thereafter. If you don't know this band, it is a long running Japanese collective lead by guitarist Kawabata Makoto. Although there are many offshoot projects, it seems recent years have focused on the "Melting Paraiso UFO" lineup which has drums, bass+vocals, and a synth/rhythm guitarist. They certainly have great comfort in playing with one another as the psychedelic jams offered up this evening were excellent. I have enjoyed them every time, but I think this set may have been the best yet. The drummer reminds me of Charlie Watts just calmly laying down a foundation for the others to have fun with. And they did. The bass playing is excellent with some occasional jazz moves on clarinet that were fun. Kawabata cuts loose with all kinds of great guitar moves and the mystical looking man in the center offers up great synth runs and rhythm guitar playing to fill out the sound. Great set, and always a good night out with the Acid Mothers Temple.

Follow up from Monday: My right ear still hurt a lot the day after Monday's BRMC show, which annoyed me enough to fire out some emails. To the 9:30 Club's credit, they forwarded it to their Sound Engineer who wrote back a detailed response telling me much more than I ever would have expected. Basically, there is no decibel limit as they try to allow freedom for the bands to operate. He said they may have to monitor this more, but try to still allow the band some freedom. I agree completely as I do not want to see a heavy hand coming down on every show, but in this case, they may have been able to protect the band from itself and have happier customers. This is the club where security once told me I could not sit down at the top of a couple of steps due to their insurance company's demands. So, this and many other clubs should monitor all situations where liability could become involved. And frankly, I think most do in this day and age.

Oh, and no credit due to Black Rebel Motorcycle's world-wide management team who did not write me back.