Photos: Jon Angel
Words: Slade Rand
Psychedelic Porn Crumpets took the Gothic Theatre stage to blaring opera music before blasting through an hour-and-a-half set of rapid-fire rock on the tail end of its latest U.S. tour.
Doused in a spotlight, singer and guitarist Jack McEwan wore bright white overalls and threw his arms out above the surging crowd.
McEwan with his hair hanging in front of his face launched the band into ‘Tally Ho’ at breakneck pace. From the first bridge midway through the opening tune, the Denver audience locked into a heavy, synchronized bob.
Guitarist Luke Parish stood to the bandleader’s right in all black, leaning in to make eye contact cross-stage during solos. Behind him, Chris Young cycled between another guitar and synthy keyboard that created a gapless electronic atmosphere through the whole show.
The three guitarists played in a triangle stage right while drummer Danny Caddy and bassist Wayan Biliondana kicked up tight rhythms stage left. Caddy plays what looks like a relatively stripped-down kit onstage, and keeps control within the garage rock approach.
McEwan said the iconic theater on Broadway was the most packed room they’d ever played in the states.
“This was the first show of the whole tour that sold out,” McEwan said. “Alright, we’re gonna do one from an early record.”
The crowd roared back and the guitarists played spacey sounds ahead of the frenzied intro to ‘Surf’s Up.’
The band whipped up energy with effects-heavy vocals and danceable, driving bass on the tune off its 2016 debut ‘High Visceral, Pt. 1.’ Caddy’s stretched-out drum rolls call back to late-60’s beach rock, and the verse beneath the noisy guitar is reminiscent of The Beatles.
‘Lava Lamp Pisco’ off of 2022 release ‘Night Gnomes’ was an early highlight during the impressive Gothic show. Under orange and yellow lights, the band began the more bubbly song while Caddy and McEwan kickstarted the song’s sick central riff.
“Can you take another day of work? Can you take another day of evil living?” McEwan sang.
A big, wavy melody close to The Band’s ‘Chest Fever’ came out of the verse. The lights shone purple, and the three guitarists shredded over the bleeding, fuzzy wail. The Psychedelic Porn Crumpets unleashed a soaring jam out of the crowd favorite.
McEwan first made the music that became Psychedelic Porn Crumpets for a solo project as a university student in Perth, Australia. He says he met Parish while living ‘a bohemian lifestyle,’ and the two hooked up with Caddy and former bassist Luke Reynolds in 2014 to launch the band into orbit.
The group’s sixth studio release ‘Fronzoli’ arrived at the end of 2023, and was heavy in the setlist at Gothic this May. The crowd roared loudly to welcome ‘(I’m A Kadaver) Alakazam,’ which took spacey flight on top of Young’s loud guitar and Biliondana’s fully nasty bass tone.
A take on the new album’s third track ‘Dilemma Us from Evil’ brought out the band’s theatrical 70’s influences with sound effects and an onstage cheer.
Toward the end of the set, the band paired that newer song with ‘Cubensis Lenses,’ another track from 2016’s ‘High Visceral, Pt. 1.’ During that raucous tear through some old school Porn Crumpets, bassist Biliondana stepped back from his perch at the front of the stage to jump and kick on beat.
The Psychedelic Porn Crumpets wrapped its U.S. tour in May, and the band sets out for a monthlong romp through the U.K. and Europe this month.
After Midnight 
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