Mainliner!

I'll be rushing through the Radio Hour tonight: I have a vital appointment on the other side of town. Back in the day, when I was still a Latin teacher and wore a suit for twelve hours of the day, I decided that I wanted to see a band called Acid Mothers Temple. Perhaps it was the name that pulled me in - maybe it was just the chance to remind myself that once upon a time, I used to be down with contemporary music.

Although they clearly came from a psychedelic heritage that was far from my own enthusiasms for post-punk austerity, AMT won me over before they even hit one of their massive riffs. The ambient introduction - that would eventually mutate into their 'classical' track Pink Lady Lemonade - was enough to transport me.

When I became a critic, AMT dragged me around the country. I went to see their various incarnations in Dundee, Birmingham, Glasgow: I even saw their Japanese 'new music festival' (which was pretty much them and their mates having fun in a variety of combinations).

Tonight, AMT artistic director Kawabata Makoto is in town, with his old band, Mainliner. Never mind that this band were started in 1995, and Makoto has been a restless soul since (his AMT work is brash, ferocious; his solo work is poetic, spiritual without being insipid): Mainliner make a timeless racket, based around free jazz drumming and Makoto's appetite for raw rock energy.

(For the record, I am delighted to see that support comes from Los Tentakills and a new Lea Cummings action - he is teaming up with Sarah Glass from the Fnords.)