Live music review: Kikagaku Moyo played unforgettable farewell at Far Out Lounge

When was the last time you cried at a concert? It’s a rarity for most and impossible for some. It’s not unusual to see multiple people in an audience crying at a teen heartthrob or after a sad ballad, but crying while dancing? The happy tears dance has surely been a staple across Kikagaku Moyo’s farewell tour this year as it was last month – and for good reason. The sold out Kikagaku Moyo show September 17 at Austin’s Far Out Lounge was an unforgettable farewell.

The evening at Far Out felt closer to a small music festival than your average concert bill. Artists were playing nonstop from 5pm to midnight. The evening boasted a DJ set from Black Angels’ Jake Garcia, an opening set from Nolan Potter’s Nightmare Band, and a closeout performance featuring Holy Wave, among other acts.

After almost a decade of activity, Tokyo’s Kikagaku Moyo (KM) is calling it quits after their current farewell tour. While the band’s “indefinite hiatus” is bittersweet, it’s refreshing to see an artist go out on top, rather than slogging forward. They’ve been firing on all cylinders, serving up spiritual psych-rock for over five full-length albums. 

The group came together with a myriad of influences – hip-hop, psych rock, metal, meditative ambient music – which led to some musical difficulties at first. Once in sync, their lack of musical inexperience helped them stay carefree, navigating sonic palettes with Kyuss-like bass and sweeping electric sitar riffs.

KM started the set with “Gatherings”, setting the tone with an opening fuzzy riff that would make Ty Segall proud. They slowly morphed into double-time with staccato guitar strums and trippy Eastern scales.

The group’s name translates to geometric patterns, which is what founding member and drummer, Go Kurosawa, saw after a night of too much jamming and too little sleep. Listeners can imagine vivid universes as KM provides some of the most cinematic scores of music over the last several years.

KM graced Far Out’s new-ish big festival-sized stage with drums, two guitars, bass, an electric sitar, and a percussion station that resembled a vaudeville-era American Fotoplayer. The band’s first American tour took place at…where else? …Austin’s Levitation fest in 2014. KM has come a long way from the early gigs of busking outside of train stations to save money.

Songs like “Dancing Blue” and “Smoke and Mirrors” start with a hook, meander into a groovy jam session before descending back into the main groove, sometimes making you feel like you just heard three songs in one wave.

Singing in Japanese doesn’t detract from the live experience for American listeners. The hypnotic chants spell the audience in a trance as much as the instruments. Vocalist and guitarist Tomo Kasturada describes their music backdrop as a playground. “We don’t have many lyrics because we want to give people the space to imagine their own journey with the music. Each album is like a movie,” Kasturada told The Guardian.

“Cardboard Pile” was anchored by Go’s relentless drumming before it turned into a spacey psych jam with sparse drum fills. The highlight of the night came with “Dripping Sun” a microcosm for the band’s versatile range. Every instrument, pedal, and scale is meticulously chosen to fit the song structure and can sound like an entirely different entity from one verse to another. Here, the wah-wah effects dynamically act as a screechy percussive instrument during one section and then punctuate the distorted solos during the next.

The subtle lighting at Far Out provided just enough for a colorful backdrop without distracting from the music. The group’s only audience interaction was light banter to reiterate how thankful they are for the support they received over the years. Most of the band wore casual outfits, except for guitarist Daoud Popal, who sported richly-decorated brocade pants with a multi-patterned psychedelic top. 

Like great jazz ensembles, KM can take turns sharing the spotlight during a longer arrangement, allowing each member to improvise. But they’re at their best when everyone is reacting to each others musical cues. Their chemistry transcends individual virtuosity. It’s easy for a band to simply turn the volume up and down for highs and lows. It’s KM’s precision that allows for seamless transitions between ethereal folk and acid soaked Indian ragas.

The set ended with “Streets of Calcutta” an Ananda Shankar cover that treated the audience to some of the juiciest sitar solos of the night. 

KM’s ten-minute, aural odysseys have to come to an end. They stuck the landing on their own terms – closing out the final  song of the show on a suspended 7th chord instead of the root note you were anticipating. We’ll always have their spectacular performances to live vividly in our memories. Long Live Kikagaku Moyo.

                                 

If you like Kikagaku Moyo, check out: King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard, Sonic Youth, Ravi Shankar, Pink Floyd’s Meddle, John Frusciante, Tame Impala’s Innerspeaker

All photos by Drew Doggett