REVIEW: PSYCHEDELIC PORN CRUMPETS @ SINCLAIR 10/18

Review by John Maniace

A sold out crowd at The Sinclair awaited the Psychedelic Porn Crumpets, who embarked on their first North American tour in two years. The openers, Acid Dad, a band from Brooklyn, was playing in Boston for the first time. Their set featured shoegaze melodies, two guitars that mirrored octaves and riffs with each other, and drowned out vocals. During the song “BBQ” the band went from both guitars playing tight punchy licks, to a chorus that was able to open up the air in the venue. The sound of Acid Dad consisted of a three piece: two guitars and a drummer. This left room for the guitars to take full control of the space that they were creating, yet it definitely left a hunger for the low end that was missing.

That desire for low end eventually came as soon as the Psychedelic Porn Crumpets stepped onto the stage. They nonchalantly walked out with the lights fully on to do a quick soundcheck, which the crowd applauded in excitement for. And then ten minutes later… Andrea Bocelli? During soundcheck the band left a lone plastic turtle on a stool with the appearance of it singing into a mic. Once the Bocelli started playing, a spotlight was shone on the lone turtle and the audience went hysterical. When the group finally came on towards the end of the song, The Sinclair was suddenly zoned in on the performers. The band consists of Jake McEwan on guitar/vocals, Luke Parish on Guitar, Wayan Billondana on bass, Danny Caddy on drums, and Chris young on guitar/keyboard.

The Band opened with the song Tally-Ho off of their 2021 album, SHYGA The Sunlight Mound! Immediately the crowd started to jump around to the beginning of the high energetic set that was yet to come. Similar to the studio recordings, there was a heavy amount of reverb that created a wall of spacey guitar riffs and keyboard sounds. The crowd certainly felt the energy between the music and the hallucinatory visuals that were displayed behind the band. On top of this, the strobe lights during the songs and vibrant blues and reds of the spotlights gave the entire place a visual show that was staggering.

After the first four songs were played, McEwan turned the fuzz off of his guitar and played a clean signal arpeggiating lick before going into the band’s famed song Found God in a Tomato. As soon as he played the familiar riff, the crowd instantly started moshing, and holding onto every word that was being sung. The song featured streams of quick fills and the presence of a heavy crash cymbal by Caddy.

Before they broke into the song “Mr. Prism,” McEwan joked, “For anyone who doesn’t know, we’re Tame Impala.” Both Kevin Parks (Tame Impala) and the Porn Crumpets hail from Perth, Australia. After this was said the fast paced song that featured more clean vocals than in the recorded version. This is probably due to production processes that were able to layer different vocal tracks on top of each other. The end of the song featured the similar spaceship
control sound effect at the end with help from Young on the keys.

Towards the end of the set, the lead singer said, “To play in a place like this outside of Perth is a dream come true.” The Porn Crumpets energy they exerted on stage along with the moshing of the crowd made The Sinclair consist of sounds from space with the atmosphere of a basement show.

After they played Cubensis Lenses to end their set, the crowd immediately started to chant, “One more song,” after the band left the stage. About one minute later, each member came running back onto the stage grinning ear to ear towards the audience. McEwan started singing the Mary Poppins classic “Chim-Chim-Cher-ee,” and then the band broke into the opening riff of “Cornflake” to end the set. Just as it is proclaimed in the song the Psychedelic Porn Crumpets let the audience sit back and “Let life take over” for a pulsing Tuesday evening show.