★★★★★

WITH a discography spanning 20 years and innumerable line-ups and collaborations, the band currently known simply as Acid Mothers Temple have a long-standing reputation as psychrock legends.

The band’s live shows are hailed for being hypnotic and vibrant, showcasing musical expertise while expanding the psychedelic genre into techno, classic rock and prog-rock.

Their back catalogue features more than a hundred albums and their performances are known for improvisations so even the most ardent fans would agree that a live show by Acid Mothers Temple is more about the experience, and watching the creativity unfold, than hearing specific songs.

Before the band took to the stage, the bar was inundated not by people seeking drinks but earplugs. Acid Mothers Temple aren’t recognised for the peacefulness of their sets and, true to form, the band were blisteringly loud from the outset.

In outfits that ranged from casual jeans and a T-shirt through Seventies’ flares and kaftans to a flirty mini-dress with suspenders, the five band members projected a serene assurance in their style and capability as well as in their technical performance.

Whether swooping through cosmic soundscapes, thundering rhythms or building a pulsating wall of sound, Acid Mothers Temple are smoothly confident.

Decades after they formed, they’re still cool, weird and utterly mesmerising.