Even though it’s a Tuesday, quite a few psychedelic and 60s reminiscent band lovers are gathered tonight at the The Old Hairdressers.
At first the venue is almost completely empty, but as soon as Black Cat Revue start their set, the energy and loudness of their music fills the whole room up with people in no time.
Just back from their successful first gig in London, the quartet has that confidence around them and their music, which is full of psychedelic rhythms as much as it’s full of boisterous garage rock.
Black Cat Revue really set the mood for tonight and get everyone excited with their intensity, which is then nicely contrasted with Domiciles and their different angle of psychedelic music.
Even though all three of tonight’s bands are considered psychedelic, they all sound very different due to secondary genres that they chose to explore.
It becomes obvious that Domiciles are going to deliver and entirely different vibe from the two synthesizers that are brought on the stage for their performance.
The music of this band can’t really be labelled – it’s a mix of noisy sounds, with melodies reminiscent of space, some gaze mixed up into it and, of course, psych.
The set leaves quite a crowd now fully mesmerized and serves as a brilliant transition between the raucous Black Cat Revue and the more dreamy and lo-fi Levitation Room.
Tonight’s headliners are the calmest band of the night, but also the ones with the most 60s feeling to them.
Everything from the lyrics about summer and love, to the looks and the groovy vintage-looking guitars just scream 60s.
They start their set of with a tranquil instrumental which is soon followed by an iconic guitar solo from one of their more popular songs ‘Loved’ from the absolutely brilliant debut EP Minds Of Our Ownreleased on everyone’s favourite record label – Burger Records.
Next song is dedicated to all the stoners out there (of course, hippies equals weed), but you don’t need drugs to enjoy the upbeat and exceptionally vigorous ‘Cosmic Flower’, which I guess is another code name for marijuana.
The band play a number of tracks from their 2016 first full length Ethos, including the hits ‘There Are No Words’, ‘Strangers Of Our Time’ and the catchy and dazzling ‘Crystal Ball’, which is the final song of the whole set.
Other highlights of the night include a slow, heartfelt ballad about not wanting to be just friends with someone you have feelings for called ‘Friends’.
A pleasant surprise is an unexpected Bob Dylan cover, which has some parts of it played on a harmonica with a fancy round the neck holder.
Another important tune is ‘Warmth of the Sun’ – released just this year, this sets the tone for the new album, due later in 2018.
It sounds a bit similar to ‘Shelter Song’ by Temples, but there is probably at least another ten songs that sound just the same, both from this decade and the 60s.
In fact, some people can find it quite difficult not to get mixed up between Levitation Room and contemporary bands such as Mystic Braves, Allah-Las or The Babe Rainbow, just to name a few,both in terms of their sound and their looks.
However, even though these bands are not revolutionary or extremely inventive and mostly produce music which fits a general cliché of a certain decade, they give this generation a chance to get a bit of a taste of the groovy, musically brilliant and extremely forward time that was the 60s and most importantly the way they do it is super entertaining and fun.
Words: Goda Bujaviciute
Rave Child 