Mild High Club @ MOTH Club, live music review: chilled-out LA psych ‘like pink fluffy candyfloss’

‘Indistinguishable murmurs’: Mild High Club singer Alexander Bretin has a laid-back vocal style. Photograph: Casey Cooper-Fiske

MOTH Club has become the national wah-wah convention for the evening, as Mild High Club jam into opener ‘Undeniable’, with only the words “let’s play an actual song now” breaking the transition. The band’s world tour with garage psych behemoths King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard appears to be paying off for the band, who have managed to sell out three sets in a row in Hackney.

Despite touring and recording a whole album with King Gizzard, the band don’t share their passion for the wacky and wild, instead favouring latter day Flaming Lips’ style of chilled-out psych pop (minus the inflatable stage props).

Chilled-out is certainly the order of the day as the band float through their set on a cloud of guitar effects and wonky keys, only interrupted by band members changing instruments or some indistinguishable murmurs from lead singer Alexander Bretin.

Second song ‘Weeping Willow’ is a set highlight, that shows that while some of Mild High Club’s songs lack the depth of their recorded counterparts when played live, the more stripped-back versions are just as intriguing.

The band has both a keyboard and synth player on stage tonight and the interplay between the two is simply astonishing, and covers up the sometimes dull vocals and guitar work. The assembled are transported through haunted chapels to sun-kissed beaches with just a tinkle of the ivories.

Interplay: the rest of the Club mid-jam. Photograph: Casey Cooper-Fiske

MOTH Club could be the perfect venue for the band – the multicoloured glitter on the backdrop and ceiling reflects the sound emanating from the PA system. I don’t have synesthesia, but I have no doubt that the sound of Bretin and his band tastes just like pink fluffy candyfloss.

As the band finishes ‘The Chat’ from debut album Timeline, the performance begins to feel a little samey, and leaves the crowd requiring an injection of something different. Cue the opening guitar lick of Sketches of Brunswick East (made in collaboration with King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard) cut ‘Rolling Stoned’ which sends the crowd into a chorus of cheers and applause. Sometimes performing a collaborative song live when one half of the collaboration is missing seems empty, but tonight it fits snugly into the set serving as a welcome change in style.

The band have all had a go with each other’s instruments by the time the set drifts towards its end, with the changeover hardly smooth, but somewhat fitting to the relaxed nature of the performance.

The band bring their set to a close with ‘Everybody Loves The Sunshine’ with the help of a friend (Al) whose long hair emerges from the crowd to pick up the mic and sing the song’s call-and-response lyrics back and forth with Bretin.

Mild High Club’s soporific vibes have certainly lightened the day of many attendees to this three-night residency, but tonight the absence of some of the band’s more catchy numbers such as ‘Rollercoaster Baby’ leaves a bit of an empty feeling. Whilst it is clear the band’s main objective is to massage their audience into relaxation, sometimes their presence is a little too relaxed – a bit of showbiz posturing wouldn’t go amiss.