Japanese psych band Acid Mothers Temple returns to Bay Area
Dealing out mind-altering sounds for going on three decades, Japanese experimental rock outfit Acid Mothers Temple brings its otherworldly live show to Santa Cruz and Oakland starting Sunday night.
Guitarist Makoto Kawabata's career dates back to his early days on the fringes of the Osaka music scene during the late '70s when he first tried to bring together the heavy rock of Deep Purple with the electronic sounds of German composer Karlheinz Stockhausen. In the mid-1990s, he would form Acid Mothers Temple as a musical collective exploring cosmic sounds drawing from progressive rock, the propulsive krautrock of Can and Neu and avant-garde classical giants like Stockhausen, Terry Riley and Iannis Xenakis.
Initially, the group recorded their collective improvisation before Kawabata edited and overdubbed those tapes for a final result similar to the working process of Can or electric-era Miles Davis. The band self-released several cassettes and gradually built a cult following with their powerful live shows, touring the globe extensively. Along with underground outfits like Ghost, High Rise, Boredoms and Kawabata's noisy power trio side project Mainliner, Acid Mothers Temple became part of a vanguard of the Japanese neo-psychedelic rock movement.
With longtime synthesizer player Higashi Hiroshi (a member since 1998) at his side, Kawabata and company have made a name for themselves with a prolific output of live and studio recordings over the decades. Acid Mothers Temple has also managed a number of notable collaborations with their heroes, recording and performing onstage with members of UK prog greats Gong and iconic krautrock drummer and Guru Guru founder Mani Neumeier.
The current line-up of AMT -- Kawabata and Hiroshi along with Satoshima Nani on drums, Jyonson Tsu on guitar and relative newcomer Sawano Shozo on bass -- unleash their unique style of epic cosmic music at these local shows with like-minded Long Beach psych band Spirit Mother. The moody power trio of bassist/singer Armand Lance, drummer Landon Cisneros and guitarist Sean McCormick is joined by classically trained violinist and vocalist Sarah Jane "SJ" Long, creating a sometimes languid and experimental approach to heavy sounds.
The band issued its first full-length studio album Space Cadets in 2020 right before the pandemic hit. Despite the shutdown curtailing their live activity, Spirit Mother's compelling combination of ominous atmospherics, punchy riffs and tandem melodic vocals by Long and Lance quickly made a name for the foursome as one of the more unique groups on the SoCal stoner/psych scene. They were one of the younger acts to be included as part of the Giant Rock Records' pandemic concert recording series Live in the Mojave Desert that included such established greats as Earthless, Nebula and all-star trio Stoner releasing live albums and blu-rays of their performances among the Mojave's majestic rock formations after their sets were livestreamed for quarantined fans.
More recently, the group experimented with an expanded line-up, adding second violinist/vocalist Camille Getz for some shows. Spirit Mother has paid regular visits to the Bay Area in the last couple of years, sharing stages with notable heavy acts like Blackwater Holylight and King Buffalo and appearing at the afterparty for last year's Heavy Psych Sounds festival. They also put out a 7-inch single featuring a pair of new tunes last year and recently released the band's sophomore effort Trails on Heavy Psych Sounds Records.
The potent combination of bands stops at Moe's Alley in Santa Cruz Sunday evening before coming to Thee Stork Club in Oakland Monday night with psychedelic visuals provided by Madame Varga. The tour also hits Harlow's in Sacramento on Tuesday before heading north to Oregon and Washington. More information on the "Holy Black Mountain Side Tour" can be found on the AMT website.
Acid Mothers Temple & the Melting U.F.O with Spirit Mother
Sunday, Sept. 29, 7 p.m. $20-$25
Moe's Alley
Monday, Sept. 30, 8 p.m. $20
Thee Stork Club
