METAVERSAL TIME TRAVEL (SATURN) presents

live at mosswood mothers day....

Usually Sunday afternoon’s conjure images of Footballerinas bashing heads and tackling one another in exquisitely choreographed, fiercely competitive dances on stadium astroturf. But not this Sunday afternoon. First of all it’s Mothersday. The IAO Core show on Mothersday was not announced or advertised and came as a complete surprise to those enjoying their Mothers in Oakland’s Mosswood Park. By the Time the second set started just before sunset, the crowd had swelled to at least 800 people, filling the meadow as well as the redwood lined amphitheatre. Of course the first set began with the familiar melody of The Waltzincore, performed on Grand Piano, and the notes seemed to drift into the spring air and become part of the over-all spring ambiance, drawing passers by to the amphitheatre at the back of Mosswood and then…..Boom…the show started with the psychedelic guitar chug of Your Gold Dress, a song the band hadn’t played onstage since 1993, and half way through it, suddenly we are listening to Space Chase, an obscure prog rock Hawkwind song from the 70’s…then flawlessly back into the last two verses of Your Gold Dress. The Intense three part vocal harmony factor was in effect. Repopes repossess souls and bless automobiles. Stratagemologists affect the outcome of wars by the cutting of stones.But the Iao core are like Prostitutors, they give private lessons to students aspiring to a degree in copulation. “All the Animals Lie Down” from the Raven album is next. E-bow guitar from Johannes and when the E-bow emerges from the maestros pocket…boom.. There goes another crocodile!!!!. It’s behind the stove. It will never know the joys of getting a driver’s license or seeing its grandchildren walk the plank. Once again the big, heavenly sound of the Grand Piano, they dragged out to the amphithetre pays back big time and the notes seem to tickle and tease the ear of the deep listener. This time it’s the Legendary Pink Dots song Damien (Johannes has been quoted as saying “It… (Damien) …is in everyway perfect because it has been delivered from the lust of result”) filling the meadow, drifting up into the spring air and becoming (like pollen, or military grade Anthrax) part of the over-all spring thang, drawing passers by on the astral plane to the amphitheatre at the back of Mosswood in Oakland California North America Earth and then…..BoomThe warm distortion of a Stratocasting “Faster than a Shark”…ridiculously fast melodic metal riffage, Germanic like a finely honed four stroke BMW or Porsche engine on the autobahn at 4:30 a.m. High Dee High Dough Indeed. And then…is that Rimi playing Bass., Narchitects design houses in their sleep. Farmermaids plough underwater fields with their tails. Surgeontologist Rimi ghose uses her bass like a scalpel to examine the nature of Being. Whoa it’s back to the late sixties and it’s One, Two, Free, Four. Yes The Floyd classic from Obscured by Clouds. It always puts me in a Chelsea drugstore zero hour nine a.m. my favorite flavor cherry bombs away from here….Wait I’m confusious….are they playing “It Could be Sunshine” from the Bauhaus born Love of Rockets catacomb? Yep. Delightful. What next? Sterling covers of two Bill Nelson Whirling Love dervishes(Illusions of You, Hope for the Heartbeat*) Yep. Sweet. suddenly the voluptuous terror gives way to splendor and we are listening to Brainstorm, a Hawkwind song from the 2270’s flawlessly executed ( blunt force to the back of the head, then back into the Intense three part vocal harmony factor effect. Some more. Derangers are paid to go berserk in national parks. Pachydermatologists examine hides and offer cosmetic tips to elephants, rhinos and the like. Iao Core are automated machines that study plants. The T-Rex chestnut “The slider” is next and this time features drummer Terence Owsley’s spot on Marc Bolan lead vocal. As I listen to this for the umpteenth time, I’m wondering,”do you suppose this song is about sex?” and the I remember hearing Johannes speak of the dseep connection between IAO Core and sexual intercourse.“In the sweaty, passionate, filthy embrace, in all of its delicious and time-dissolving power, in the midst of that embrace there is no difference, no separation between the spiritual and the profane. But it’s reached through the profane rather than through the spiritual, at least in my canon. That is the portal, that is the door into the whole affair. In that moment there is no separation, there is no spirit and flesh, there’s no conflict, there never was. It’s dissolved.” “Death is not the end” finishes the first set. It’s a Bob Dylan song left in the hands of experts. Accidentists remove your teeth by mistake. But Lexiconjurors like Iao Core’s Ayres and Dawn, tap their wands and pull the words right out of your mouth. As the sunsets and Iao core’s first set is ending I feel it incumbent on me to invite you to read my review of the second set, which is scheduled to take place inside the mosswood herring factory and amphitheatewr this evening after dusk. You needn’t dress in any but the most perfunctory manner nor bring any crickets (there will be plenty of those!) as I myself will be wearing but a thin military camisole from the pelvic region upwards and will be toting a gecko or two.