This photo wasn’t taken at the Hemlock last night but was the closest approximation of the 5 member line-up that I could find elsewhere. Too bad the drummer is cut out of the shot but anyways…they looked something like this, which seemed pretty damn young to be producing such a raw crunching bruising noise just bursting at the seams with garage rock aplomb and seasoned ability screaming from a past they are all too young to know about let alone play with such maniacal skill. They are from Athens, Greece and I’m hard-pressed to tell you of another band from there ever. Their very formidable debut LP and a handful of great singles plus a reputation for tireless touring and wildly frantic live performances firmly vaulted Acid Baby Jesus into the growing ranks of the international garage-rock underground, joining notables like Spain’s Mujeres, Italy’s Sultan Bathery, Berlin’s King Kahn and the Shrines, France’s Magnetix, Australias’ Total Control, San Francisco’s very own Thee Oh Sees, and many more bands who create an old rock and roll sound with a vitality that seems fresh and new yet primal. Bands like these are saving Rock and Roll with prolific recordings distributed indie-style and stringent international touring. They are alive and well and existing in the Underground, bypassing the need for mainstream exposure or major label support. People buzz about these bands anyway.
Acid Baby Jesus very casually took the small stage and quickly set up and the lights were down. I was really surprised by how very young they all seemed considering they play like seasoned veterans. They started in on their first song, the composition bringing each instrument in one at a time building to a powerful multilayered crescendo with tribal drumming low-end frenetic bass and a wall of guitar fuzz with slithering hints of middle-eastern psychedelic meanderings and definite traditional Greek elements that I had not really noticed in their recorded work so much. The keyboard player figured prominently in the overall construction of a very big enveloping sound and three members shared vocal duties which were often more complex arrangements than i expected. This was masterful stuff, showing up right away, supporting my theory that nothing makes a band get really really good better than non-stop touring.
The guitarist introduced their second song saying “This next song is called “Vegetable.” It’s what happens when you tour too long, you become a vegetable”. The band launched into a much louder crunchier assault, and I thought to myself, “Apparently not!” because this song was a monster. The two guitarists and bass player alternately shredded on their instruments furiously, assuming one of my favorite guitar postures, the one where they bend over their instrument as it slinks down almost to the floor. I could tell that eventually one or two of these guys would end up playing while lying down on the stage, another fave of mine. Guitars mangled each other, bantered, joined in intricate powerful patterns or impenetrable walls of distortion and fuzz and even some traditional melodic lead/rhythm guitar stuff. Every path chosen was mesmerizing. These guys played the fuck out of everything, and the drummer and keyboards definitely had some stand-out moments too, never being less than solid and consistent save for spikes of well, fucking brilliance, basically.
Another thing I noticed as they moved through songs that varied in mood from miasmic acid-tinged mind benders to more vocally dominant garage-style burners and again wonderful traditional greek-sounding flourishes (which reminded me that surf style guitar has definite similarities to traditional Greek music when compared) was that unless I’m mistaken, none of the songs in their set were ones i recognized. I found this to be totally gutsy and refreshing, to play what seemed like all new material for a crowd that very well may have song-specific expectations. To pull this off you gotta be pretty fucking good, and they were indeed that. It’s also fair to assume that most musicians are more passionate about playing the songs they wrote recently as opposed to their older material. Acid Baby Jesus knocked it out of the park with new stuff and I’ve seen only one other band do this before, skip all familiar hits and play only new and unfamiliar songs and still satisfy their assembled fans and that was Wire on the Read and Burn Tour. It was so great to finally catch this band and to be so satisfied by the unexpected. I’ll wait for a new record anxiously. It also bears mention that The Hemlock is a great intimate place to see bands and the sound quality was really fantastic, their sound man has it down. If i weren’t working I’d go see Useless Eaters there on the 28th.
Not only was the band good but the guy who wrote about the band has to be a god !!!!!