REVIEW: Acid Mothers Temple, Aura Mismo, YAMANTAKA // SONIC TITAN @ Great Scott 4/18

By Jack Beck

Did you ever think how low the odds of all this happening are? Your parents had to meet and do all the things they did in the exact way they did them for you to be here. And their parents had to meet and do all the things they did in the exact way they did them for your parents to be here. Same for their parents, and their parent’s parents, and so on. Then you had to do all the things you did in the exact way you did them (and do all the things you do in the exact way you do them) and because of all those people doing all those things in their own special way, and also all of Acid Mothers Temple’s parents and grandparents and great-grandparents and so on doing all their own things in their own special way, you’re here, reading this review of Acid Mothers Temple at Great Scott last Thursday. Crazy.

But first, the openers! Round one was a local band named Aura Mismo who were super cool. All of them wore blacks shirts (expect for the drummer who wore a purple shirt that was very dark and close to being black) but I don’t think it was coordinated, it seemed more like they just really like black shirts. Their music sounded like The Cure if The Cure played way faster. They seem like the type of people who like to wear black shirts. Also, all their music is pay-what-you-want on Bandcamp (which is awesome), so check them out!

Next up is YAMANTAKA // SONIC TITAN. They’re only one band even though they’ve got two names! They wore all black and this time it definitely was coordinated because they also had on cool face paint designed to look like a mix between a black metal aesthetic and the masks from Japanese noh theater, which is a type of traditional performance that was influential on avant-garde theater of the twentieth century and today. Cool! Their music was definitely metal but also very swirly and psychedelic. Their drummer was was nuts, especially on the longer songs where the band would get into super intense jammy bits. These guys were really, really cool. After they finished, there was an hour gap before the headliner came out.

Acid Mothers Temple (full name Acid Mothers Temple & The Melting Paraiso U.F.O.) sound and look exactly like you would expect for a band whose full name is Acid Mothers Temple & The Melting Paraiso U.F.O. The frontman was Kawabata Makoto, who wasn’t actually the singer but instead had a box with buttons that played a really long beep that he could make higher or lower depending on what he felt like doing. He was intense. They make music where you would want the person who makes the long beep to take their job very seriously.

These guys are super cool. For those of you who haven’t heard of them, Acid Mother Temple have been the stars of underground Japanese psychedelic experimental noise jam rock for the past twenty five years. They tour America almost every spring, so they’ve done tons and tons of shows. It’s weird, because on one hand they’re like any other band who have been around for decades and are at the point where they can play every note of their songs without even thinking, but then on the other hand these guys still manage to make music that’s some of the most wild out-there wackiness you’re ever gonna see. According to setlist.fm, they played three songs, but I couldn’t even begin to tell you where one of those ended and the next one began, their music just flows in waves of crazy heavy prog-style jams and oceany ambient sounds and solos to make an ‘80s metal band blush and tribal chants and folksy bits and beep-box breakdowns. At one point the guitarist was playing his guitar upside down above his head with both his hands on the fretboard. The drummer sat on the floor and I’m pretty sure one of his solos lasted for over ten minutes. One of the guys I was talking with before the show said this was his thirty sixth time seeing them play. Crazy.