Concert Review: Temples @ Black Cat (6/6/23)

Temples (Photo from FB @templesofficial)

England’s psych rockers, Temples, gloriously returned to DC on June 6th for the first show of their North American tour.

In fact, this concert at the Black Cat was also the first time they’ve played in the US since before the pandemic. Luckily we caught one of those shows (at U Street Music Hall) as well.

Temples is touring for their fourth album, Exotico (via ATO). As you might guess, lead vocalist James Bagshaw let us know that this was the ‘first time playing any Exotico songs in America’. Of the 15 total songs they played, seven came from the new album. To keep us on our toes, every other song they performed in the main set was from Exotico.

They kicked off the set with the super funky “Liquid Air”, the first from Exotico. The music exudes a soothing beginning, giving the Black Cat faithful a solid warm-up to what was in store. The song speaks to questioning whether humanity will be able to save the planet from the impact of climate change.

Later came “Cicada”, an urgent and unrelenting burst of energy that speaks to the raucous noise and motion after emerging from being held down. Much like the cicada, bursting from the earth to take over the world with their chorusing.

Temples first formed in Kettering, England in 2012, and is comprised of James (vocals, guitar), Ton Walmsley (bass), Adam Smith (keyboard, guitar), and Rens Ottink (drums). The stage set-up was simply about delivering the riffs and wobbles of psych rock, with the band conspiring with drums, two synthesizers, and three guitars. The Black Cat show was the third time I’d seen them live, the first time being 10 years ago. While I’ve enjoyed each of those shows, this time was different. This set felt more polished, more psychedelic (in a good way), and was an all encompassing experience you strut away from with that fire of determination in your gut when you know something kicked ass.

Two songs later, the title track from Exotico makes a compelling case to be the theme song for the next James Bond movie. James wanted us to ‘make as much noise as you can’ and the roughly 2/3rd full Black Cat was more than willing to comply. “Exotico” inspires one to float above the mundane and rush head long into the ‘heat of desire’.

One of their best albums so far is still their debut, 2014’s Sun Structures. The first of four songs they performed from that album was the ancient Egyptian sounding and inspired “The Golden Throne”, which to me is peak Temples. As is “Keep In the Dark”, also from Sun Structures and their second ever single, which got a warm reception and a clap along from the audience. This song is one of the best songs they performed on the evening, and brings to mind a swirling, hallucinatory 60’s music video aesthetic. The poem of the lyrics and its ultimate significance defies my ability to unravel, but sometimes you simply need to let the moment be, and simply enjoy it.

At one point James paused between songs to take requests, and someone yelled the magic words that he wanted to hear. He claimed that is was a good thing that person requested that particular song because otherwise they were not planning to play it (I’m skeptical!). The product was “Hot Motion” from 2019’s album of the same name.

The main set ended with the final song they performed from Exotico, “Gamma Rays”. It speaks to escapism and enjoying the rays of the sun, with the hard reality that actually gamma rays are dangerous. The song initially seems musically simple compared other songs, with a medium back and forth beat, but the more you listen to it, the more the simplicity fades away.

With the final notes and gamma rays reverberating through our bones, they exited and returned for two additional songs from Sun Structures, clearly playing to the crowd’s whims. They closed out with two of their best songs, “Mesmerise” and “Shelter Song”.

If you’ve yet to experience Temples live, I’d like to let you off the hook a little in that they sometimes take their time between visits to DC, but they have played here six times so that only goes so far. Now you have the power to add them to your bucket list, and I fully expect you do that immediately.

Setlist