Acid Mothers Temple
April 21st, 2017
Metro Gallery
Baltimore, MD


Source:
AUD: Roland Edirol R-09 (onboard mics, low-cut on, AGC off) >
SBD: Direct SD card capture >

> Reaper (EQ, slight edits to preserve synchronicity) > WaveLab (Puncher (medium density, 75% effect, 0% output gain)) > CDWAV (tracks split and saved as .FLAC level 8 ) > foobar2000 (ReplayGain + tags)

Location:
House center-right, in front of soundboard


SOUND QUALITY: B/B- (portions of first 30 minutes) / A/A- (thereafter) - it's a really sterile soundboard recording paired with an audience recording with a saturated low-end, it took a lot of tweaking to get this one coming out even remotely balanced. The band didn't soundcheck, so there are some various level fluctuations and mix oddities coming from the soundboard during the first thirty minutes or so (the 13:00-16:00 portion of Anthem is particularly bad, C+-territory), but from the second half of Wizard on things are generally pleasant, even with a bit more bass distortion than I would otherwise prefer)

Soundman: "The" Rob, of Ottobar and Mopar Mountain Daredevils fame.

Taper: ZaPenguin (zappa.penguin(AT)gmail.com or
http://db.etree.org/ZappaPenguin)


THE BAND:
Kawabata Makoto : guitar, synthesizer, speed guru
Higashi Hiroshi : synthesizer, noodle king
Tabata Mitasuru : guitar, guitar-synthesizer, maratab
Satoshima Nani : drums, another dimension
S/T : bass, space & time

NO LONGER WITH THE BAND BUT WE WON'T FORGET THEM:
Shimura Koji : drums, latino cool
Tsuyama Atsushi : monster bass, voice, cosmic joker


TRACK LIST:
01. Entrance of the Mothers [1:08]
02. Anthem of the Inner Space [21:14]
03. The Wizard [12:50]
04. Kawabata solo [1:19]
05. The Flying Teapot [11:46]
06. Pink Lady Lemonade [18:23]
07. Nanique: Another Dimension [10:17]
08. Cometary Orbital Drive > Speed Guru [11:52]

Notes:
Track 02 is also referred to as "Anthem of the Space" on the album of the same name. Possibly intercut with another, vocal, song, or possibly the extra movements are what distinguish this as "Inner Space".
Track 04 is a solo guitar improvisation that doesn't quite extend in length to what this particular tinpot taping tyrant feels is the baseline for "Reflections" status.
Track 07 was previously referred to as "Another Nanique Dimension" but is titled "Nanique Another Dimension" on the recent official live release, "Last Concert of the First Chapter". Whether this is due to idiosyncrasies in Japanese SOV word order versus English SVO is left open to discussion. I have taken the bold liberty of adding a colon, barring direct instruction from Kawabata to the contrary.


MINI BIO:
"Acid Mothers Temple & the Melting Paraiso U.F.O. (and subsequent offshoots) is a Japanese psychedelic band founded in 1995 by members of the Acid Mothers Temple soul-collective. The band is led by guitarist Kawabata Makoto and early in their career featured many musicians but by 2004 the line-up had coalesced with 4 core members and frequent vocal guests.

The band have a reputation for phenomenal live shows, and releasing frequent albums on a number of international record labels, as well as the Acid Mothers Temple family record label which was established in 1998 to document the activities of the whole collective."
- Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia which every 14 year old has edited.


BAND PAGE:
http://www.acidmothers.com


SHOW NOTES:
Wow, last night we get our long-anticipated return to Richmond, and tonight, we see the Acid Mothers make an even longer-anticipated return to the charming confines of Baltimore! If only Tsuyama was around to lead us in a rousing, triumphant chorus of the world-famous hit single, "Baltimore Beer" - but we do get the familiar face of Soundman Rob behind the board, pushing the little sound system to its very limits.

One of the smaller venues the band has performed at (not quite Comet Ping-Pong tiny, but the word "gallery" is not to be taken lightly), this show had a very no-nonsense, by-the-book ma'am flow to it. No lightshow, no weird setlist alterations, no unplanned tomfoolery, just a solid ninety minutes of the 2017 Acid Mothers incarnation. It's not dull by any stretch of the imagination - we get a very entertaining psychedelic theremin-organ freak-out during tonight's Flying Teapot, presented very up-front and in-your-face in this particular recording, and the synthesizer intro to Nanique develops into a free-jazz duet between Kawabata and Satoshima. It's just a solid representation of the band, the setlist, and the tour.

A special shout-out and brief apology goes to the gentleman standing two feet in front of my mics whose conversation I so rudely interrupted during the Pink Lady Lemonade hysterics. I apologize, as it turns out Kawabata's guitar managed to overpower whatever you were talking about - however, I maintain that I was on the side of the angels.


CREDITS:
Metro Galaxians - Merry Gaiety

Torrented by the taper: ZaPenguin

email - zappa.penguin(AT)gmail.com
web - http://db.etree.org/zappapenguin (always woefully out of date)

Band page: http://www.acidmothers.com