Kula Shaker have always occupied a curious position in British rock history. They arrived too late for the original psychedelic explosion and too early for the revival currently in full bloom. Outsiders in their own moment, they possessed the songs to coexist with the Britpop boom swirling around them and enough rhythmic lift to satisfy the tail end of the rave rock crossover era. Their debut became an unlikely commercial success, while its follow up, Peasants, Pigs & Astronauts, produced by Bob Ezrin, remains for this reviewer a towering, slightly unhinged classic rock statement.
After disbanding at the turn of the millennium, they regrouped roughly two decades ago and have enjoyed a remarkably fertile second act. The past few years alone have seen a surge of creativity, culminating in the recent Wormslayer, further proof that they are not content to trade solely on past glories. At Café de la Danse, backed by the swirling liquid light projections of The Mad Alchemist, they delivered an eighty minute set that felt like a time and space portal. Echoes of Traffic, early Who, the S.F. Sorrow era of The Pretty Things, Ogden’s period Small Faces, The Doors , Syd Barret-era Pink Floyd and even Ananda Shankar drifted through the room, conjuring San Francisco, Carnaby Street and Kathmandu in equal measure. Much of Wormslayer was played, with only slight nods to Peasants, Pigs & Astronauts, while the more familiar hits were wisely saved for a final stretch that built toward a sustained crescendo.
At the center stood Crispian Mills, whose songs seem engineered to prise open hidden corners of the psyche. Keyboardist Jay Darlington layered the evening with swirling organ lines that felt designed for astral travel, while drummer Paul Winterhart and bassist Alonza Bevan anchored the music with a supple, danceable pulse. This was psychedelia not as museum piece but as living current, vibrant and physical.
After the cosmic voyage had ended, the audience was understandably reluctant to return to a world that felt harsher and less colorful. As always, the coming down is the hardest thing.
