It really is kind of odd to see such a fantastic musical study of 60s psychedelic music, including the sitars, the soft chanting, the Hammond organ, the folk ballads, the trappings of Eastern mythologies and all the rest. Kula Shaker pulls it off tremendously well, with Crispain Mills a very convincing vocalist and personality at the front of the band. They are truly a crate digger’s euphoria incarnate in a band of contemporary musicians.

This visit to Fuji Rock, Kula Shaker enjoyed the benefit of some rather ultimate set timing, playing at 9pm in the Red Marquee. Normally this would be competing with the main headliner on the 30,000 capacity Green Stage, but on this particular day Beck demanded an early start time of 7:30pm (rumor has it he wanted to be back in Tokyo for something at 11pm), so the band started right as Beck finished. The Red Marquee maxes out around 4-5,000, and the crowd was stretched way behind the venue and into the trees. A larger audience was not physically possible.

Chiming in on the “Fuji Rock 20th Anniversary” theme, early in the set, over a sitar jam, Mills started kicking out a Jim Morrison-like poetic ode to Fuji Rock:

“It was 20 years ago
When we first said happy birthday
All the people came together
At the bottom of a mountain

Then a pregnant pause, he added:

“I can feel the spirits”

We could too, well sort of. All that spiritual, utopian, “we’ll take you to a new reality” shit is rather hard to get on board with, and I don’t think they are seriously advocating it anyway, but they certainly do have sound of the music down. Their version of “Hush” is as fun as it was when Billy Joe Royal did it in the late 60s, and so is the rest of their music. In short, it was a trip. And thanks for the birthday wishes! We certainly appreciate it!