Acid Mothers Temple
April 15th, 2011
The Ottobar
Baltimore, MD


Source: 
Roland Edirol R-09HR (SBD patch) > WaveLab (levels normalized to a peak of -0.5dB, Puncher (hard density, 75% effect, 0% output gain) + SL-1 StereoExpander (100%)) > CDWAV (tracks split and saved as .FLAC level 8 ) > foobar2000 (Tags + ReplayGain)

Location: The sounds, once again, are coming from INSIDE THE PA!!

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

SBD man: Brian (the ACTUAL Brian this time - it turns out that the guy whose name I thought was Brian in my info.txt of last year's Ottobar show was in fact named Rob - no idea where I got the name "Brian" from, but at least it's appropriate!)

SOUND QUALITY: A (you want me to nitpick here? The vocals and drums are louder than the guitar. The rhythm guitar is pretty buried. There's some very, very slight distortion coming from the kickdrum mic. There's a bit of AGC weirdness, particularly with the drums in Cometary. Whatever - this is a GREAT-sounding recording, right up there with the Lincoln and Philly SBDs, but a more intense show than the former and without the Psychedelic Freak-Out Reverb of the latter. Play It Loud™!!)


THE BAND:
Tsuyama Atsushi: monster bass, voice, cosmic joker
Higashi Hiroshi: synth, guitar, voice, dancin'king
Shimura Koji: drums, latino cool
Kawabata Makoto: guitar, voice, speed guru

SPECIAL GUEST:
Cotton Casino: vocals, dancin'queen on Dark Stars in the Dazzling Sky


TRACK LIST:
CD1 [37:53]
01. "Space Ritual Jam" [5:33]
02. Tuning [0:43]
03. > "Chinese Jokes" [0:38]
04. > "Have You Seen..." [0:51]
05. > Chinese Flying Saucer [10:51]
06. La Novia [19:16]

CD2 [60:25]
07. "Tsuyama's Flute Interlude" [3:56]
08. > Pink Lady Lemonade (incl. "From Outer Space (What Do You Know?)") [28:45]
09. > Cometary Orbital Drive > Speed Guru [13:10]
10. Audience [1:14]
11. Tuning [2:30]
12. Dark Stars in the Dazzling Sky (with Cotton Casino) [10:52]

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:
I really don't want to mince words here: This show was exactly what you'd expect from an Acid Mothers @ the Ottobar Temple show. Ninety-odd minutes of cosmic intensity, in front of an audience whose chemistry can rival that of the Phanatics at Johnny Brenda's.

What really set this show apart from the other big-city extravaganzas was, naturally, a very special guest star, whose last documented appearance with the Acid Mothers came a whopping eight years ago - of course, I'm referring to the majestic Cotton Casino herself, whose current band (Mopar Mountain Daredevils) just so "happened" to be opening for the Acid Mothers tonight, playing an awesome 30 minute set before the "final openers", Shilpa Ray, took the stage (and just so happened to debut a nearly entirely-new setlist). Fun fact: Rob G., the guitarist for Mopar Mountain, just so "happens" to also work sound at the Ottobar, and it's HIM we have to thank for last year's Acid Mothers Ottobar soundboard - even though for some reason I thought his name was "Brian", which actually makes sense, given that Brian, too, works at the Ottobar - yet it also doesn't make sense, since until this show I had only a vague recognition of Brian's face and absolutely no recollection of having ever talked to him or gotten his name.

And, yes, before you ask, I did in fact just so "happen" to get a recording of MMD, along with the other "one night only" opener, the utterly amazing spacewave-meets-dronemetal Tsarship Enterprise. These guys really kicked - for anyone who remembers my Twin Earth uploads, you owe it to yourselves to check these guys out.

The crowd likely numbered about the same as that of the Johnny Brenda's crowd, but given that the Ottobar is much roomier than Johnny Brenda's, it had the effect of spacing people out, giving everyone nearly enough room to manuever without the "'scuse me shoulder-pat". While this resulted in a less frenetic atmosphere, that's hardly to say the Ottobarbarians were a laid-back bunch - those with any doubts should just take a listen to the spoken introduction to tonight's Chinese Flying Saucer, where the crowd's... passionate encouragements, for lack of a better term, come through loud and clear.

If Cotton's guest appearance is too much of a "no-brainer" to be considered a true highlight, then my vote would be to be tonight's Pink Lady - just fantastic. It may not feature the double-time "echo-plex" section, but it gives us everything else - moody Tsuyama loops, extreme Kawabata, and - maybe the highlight-within-the-highlight - Kawabata's sai-bow solo gives way to an upbeat section into which the Chicago jam I titled "From Outer Space (What Do You Know)" is fully incoporated, and gains even more of a sense of purpose than it already had. Definitely floored me to hear this, especially since it was at this show where I made poor KoShi listen to my recording of the D.C. show to identify this number.

Big props to Brian, the soundguy - the actual soundguy for this show, not Rob, but a guy actually named Brian who is, for all intents and purposes, Brian - for being so accomodating of me and my plugging in. Like Rob last year, he delivered excellent sound - and this time around, as a bonus, the auto-faders weren't quite as perturbed by Kawabata's guitar antics!


REQUESTS & REMINDERS:
Do not sell this recording. Do not buy this recording. Do not sell this recording, then buy it from yourself. Remember that the Ottobar can truly make any and every band sound great.


CREDITS:
Brian - Board ops
The Ottobarbarians - Dancing & Dialogue, Mirth & Mayhem

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

