Live
Psychedelic Porn Crumpets + Crows
Chalk, Brighton
October 29 2019
Words / Pictures : Steve Willcox
With an overwhelming demand for Oz psych-rock gods Psychedelic Porn Crumpets UK tour, excitement is rife for the return of this quite unique band to Brighton with their equally raucous live show showcasing their May released album, 'And Now For The Watchamacallit’.
Support act, London punks, Crows warm up the room of around with 200 people as they launch into the bludgeoning ‘Silver Tongues’, the title cut from their long time coming debut album (finally releaaes earlier this year) that sees enigmatic frontman James Cox taking this crowd by the scruff of the neck - and yanking with full force. ‘Wednesday’s Child’ ("one of the songs that got me into a really strange head space to write") with its low bass and relentless guitars, makes new fans as the crowd start to move in time to its steady beats, before a brief lull with the dystopian ‘Empyrean’ which builds on a guitar line to a thrashing onslaught. The beat driven ‘Chain of Being’ ends their eight-song set, quite worthy of its own headline accolade.
‘Intergalactic’ by The Beastie Boys blasts out, getting the blood pumping for the Aussie day-tripper headliners. And they don't disappoint in their array multi-layered harmonies, and artistic interludes of fuzz-laden riffs combined with more subtle shadowing, that keeps the atmosphere on a high throughout.
They hit the stage running with ‘Surfs Up’, taken from their album 'High Visceral Pt 1'; singer Jack McEwan's calypso driven guitars and the frenetic beats soon gets this young crowd dancing in the mosh-pit as they huddle close to the stage. The curiously titled ‘Found God In A Tomato’, written by a younger McEwan after having experimented with some mushrooms - of the 'magic' variety) with its trippy lyrics ("one day I was transposed / From a simple young man / To a godly tomato that held all existence / And told me that we should expand") with its catchy melody gives the crowd a chill zone breather, until ‘Hymn For A Droid’ breaks loose with the wild guitars of (Skater Boi) Luke Parish against punchy raw drums that makes the mosh-pit even wilder than before.
At one point the frontman takes time to thank local boy, Royal Blood's Ben Thatcher, who’s in the house tonight, for lending them his drum-kit for this tour. The 'ode to Bill', inspired by an heirloom McEwan was given during their last UK tour belonging to his granddad, ‘Bill’s Mandolin’, gets an airing, and us a suitably deserving tribute. New single ‘Mundungus’ and its fast-paced drums of Danny Caddy drives the crowd crazy as the fuzzed-out guitars echo around the room, before fan favourite ‘Gurzle’ has a word of warning about the world we live in today: “These perplexing times need accompanying instructions / To show me how I can build a future / It's delicate / So fragile / I'm not up to much cause it feels like".
‘Cubensis Lenses’ sounds great live and every bit the classic with Luke Reynolds' bass being slowly pummelled to death driving the song along. The set ends but the crowd soon shouts out for more and they’re not disappointed as the Perth boys get back on stage and let the crowd have it, firing on all cylinders through ‘Keen For Kick One?’ which sets the room alight with intensity and becomes one huge jumping mosh-pit, followed by the trippy ‘Cornflake’, an early song from three years ago, to finally end the night. If you like your crumpets topped with some psychedelic-hued porn, this is the band for you. Crazy, wild and spaced out.
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