Live Review: Acid Mothers Temple & The Melting Paraiso UFO, Empat Lima

One of Melbourne’s best kept musical secrets would have to be Empat Lima. They warm the crowd with their quirky presence, their feel-good garage sounds redolent of the sweet sea breeze of surf rock with post punk flourishes.

They charm with tunes like Bowie On The Beach that have the crowd gently boppin’. Empat Lima serve their tunes with an attitude reminiscent of Le Tigre but they also seem to have a gently weird cosmic side that’s a touch spaced out. Tonight their set feels light and fun which is probably a good thing ahead of the extreme underground freak-out experience into which we are about to be immersed.

Tonight is one of those nights where the first show of the tour is actually the second that went on sale. Unfortunately for the bands, this gig is not completely sold out, but it does mean that fans have a little more room to move. 

This lends a certain intimacy to the evening and helps Acid Mothers Temple & The Melting Paraiso UFO connect with their audience on a somewhat deeper level. The Acid Mothers have a long and illustrious history that stretches back almost 25 years with well over a hundred releases. They seem to be a virtual cottage industry and before the show the whole band mans the merch stall which is overflowing with vinyl and compact disc burns of obscurities and solo efforts. Alongside obligatory T-shirts is a huge range of intriguing looking jewellery.

Very little could prepare you for the aural assault this five-piece unleash on the senses. Without warning they immerse the crowd in a wild blast of psychedelic noise. Their music when played at maximum volume is a visceral experience. This adds further dimension to this music which when delivered with such intensity is intended to transport listeners deep into their peculiarly gonzo universe. The Acid Mothers play together super tight and there is plenty of technical expertise to back this mind-melting attack on our eardrums. Tonight’s set is intended to provide us with a trip, sometimes into bizarre alternative realities and at other times into what feels like spiritual transcendence into a higher plane of reality. The intensity of the experience is utterly astonishing.

Higashi Hiroshi’s theremin and synths add cosmic flourish to the mix. Bass player Wolf and drummer Satoshima Nani weave together tight but some of the most relentless and hyperactive rhythms imaginable. Always smiling, a rather eccentric Jyonson Tsu delightfully adds bouzouki to the mix when he is not singing or playing guitar. Kawabata Makoto is a fierce guitarist who totally destroys his guitar in the final few minutes of the set to produce a thunderous squall of noise and feedback signalling to us that there will be no encore.

Worship at the Acid Mothers Temple for long enough and you will find calm and inner peace in among the brutal noise they play.