Australia spoils us again by sending yet another group of incredible psych-rock artists our way, this time through the vessel of the five-piece band, Psychedelic Porn Crumpets. Hemming from the country that has been pumping the genre full of some of its biggest powerhouses over the last couple of decades, they’ve been continuing to take over venues across the country with their explosive sound. Stopping for the night in Philly, Porn Crumpets are finishing up their tour through North America this week, before moving on to Europe and Australia early next year.
Opening for the group is nine-piece big band Ghost Funk Orchestra. An absolute blast to witness and dance to, the band works to cram itself on stage: two singers, three guitars, three brass, and a drummer, all firing at their highest caliber through their all too quick nine-song setlist. The band’s sound can be described as funk-derived experimentation with threads of psych-rock, soul, and any combination of sounds that bandleader Seth Applebaum decides to try next. Their energy is tangible and spills off the stage into the crowd, whose feet are swept up into the lines of music shooting out of their brass horns. Baritone saxophonist Stephen Rodes Chen’s energy is particularly captivating as he lunges his massive metal monolith forward toward the stage before launching back upward with feet off the floor and stomping back to the stage in heavy hits of sound and power.
Lead singers Romi O and Julia Zivic have such incredibly seductive voices. Powerful belting of perfect notes, hair standing duet harmonies, jazzy pinup cadences, and some lightly choreographed moves to hit here and there give such a confident stage presence that allows your insecurity of movement to be suspended while they’re on, and just to get lost with them. All the members are technically astounding and extremely musically gifted. Porn Crumpets would say later in the night that they’ve been touring and giving them praise so often each night that they’ve completely run out of words, and with the utmost respect, now just say “good.” I feel the same; the music is just fun in the most accurate use of the word. "Walk Like a Motherfucker" is a near-perfect track. Frequently doing one-off shows, supporting tours, or tours of their own, you will get a chance to see some combination of the ever-changing group, and you should absolutely take it. If you know even just one song, you’ll know the caliber, and you’ll know it’ll be worth it.
The night’s depravities would be held off by the operatic opening of the Porn Crumpets’ set. All the house lights dimmed to black as a single pillar of light stood tall on the center stage, holding nothing but dust particles, showcasing the intermingling of synthetic smoke from machines and organic smoke from lungs. Giacomo Puccini’s "Nessun Dorma," the opera aria that I can assure you you do in fact know, belted over the speakers into the darkness. Anticipation crescendoing with the music as the five members reveal themselves from the dark’s hold over the side stages. Stepping into the light and picking up their instruments, the men allowed the song to bleed into screams and cheers of the crowd. Usually, I’d imagine the part of the song where walls of red roses are thrown on stage to collect at the feet of the performers, instead gets taken hostage by the squeal of metal strings and the smashing of drum heads. The wooden arch-lined room with gothic fixtures pulling down from the ceiling switches gears on its first instance of noise in the form of the kick-off of their most recently released album, and one of two released this year, Pogo Rodeo, named "Salsa Verde."
Chugging rhythms bring in lead singer, Jack McEwan’s vocals. A raspy, slightly high voice that’s textured and emotive, and blends well with their grungy, heavy electric sound. His hair swallows the mic he sings into and extends his silhouette to thrash as wildly as his music. The clamor of noise that makes up the track is filled with the running of guitar riffs that clang high above the commotion of pumping drum hits and bass string pulls that lie underneath. Halfway through the track, in the midst of its heaviest rhythmic pausing, McEwan shouts lyrics of "Come Together" by The Beatles, “He wear no shoeshine, he got toe jam football…” as the crowd erupts into a chorus of the fifty-year-old lyrics being morphed and stretched to fit over a genre that’s been doing the same since they were first written.
Bringing it back to the 2016 album, High Visceral, Pt. 1 with "Surf’s Up," the band would keep up their energy into "Mundungus." My favorite run of the night, though, had to be "Manny’s Ready to Roll" > "Hymn for a Droid" > "The Real Contra Band" > "Found God in a Tomato". The music animating and bounding off the stage took on a form of its own, expanding with the cheers of the crowd and pushing against the walls of the historic venue. Drummer Danny Caddy, as the heartbeat of this beast, kept a pounding rhythm that rang through the building’s foundations, pushed down by a crowd of jumping beasts giving movement to the sound around them.
At this point, the night had descended into utter debauchery. The crowd now fully morphed into a fluid movement of bodies, with ebbs and flows as small areas opened, and a hodgepodge of arms pushed members through any open spaces. Above the mass, single swimmers float at the surface, showcasing the back-and-forth breathing of the crowd by their movement across the venue, swallowed into pits that have been pushed too thin to support the weight. That or the arms of a lifeguard security member to pluck them from the motion and put them into the safety of dry land behind barriers.
Guitarist and keyboardist Chris Young had a heavy presence on stage. His hair hung low over his face, exaggerating his movement in a flowing, delayed motion that masked his emotion, making him just a vessel for the music. A hard player, his guitar was never steady, and his keyboard, at times, was falling off its stand, rocked back and forth by the landing of opposite hands on ivory. Once, he’d hold the guitar at its neck in one hand, laying into his keyboard with the other, just to swing the guitar back around and fall back into the rest of the song. Luke Parish had the same visible passion as his bandmates, with a slamming strum of his guitar strings that accentuated the music falling from them.
Ending the night with a three-song run from their other 2025 album release, Carpe Diem, Moonman in the form of "Weird World Awoke" > "March On for Pax Ramona" > "Another Reincarnation" left the crowd pleading for more. The closing energy of Reincarnation was full of intensity, like a viscous goodbye, eager to leave an everlasting branding on freshly claimed territory. The group is full of true artists who are attached to this project for the love of the music it yields.
The night would end with a two-song encore comprised of "Gurzle" and "Cornflake." Returning to the stage alongside Porn Crumpets would be Ghost Funk Orchestra’s Stephen Rode Chen on the baritone sax to add some bassy groove to both of them. The crowd roared as his silhouette reared with a triumphant raise of the sax. Whether through videos on social media or prior concert attendees, this joining of the group was teased, but better than expected. The added metal funk to the already intense-sounding grinding electric was the exact combination of old and new conveyance of sound that Chen’s home band is all about.
The psych-rock scene in general seems to house an abnormal amount of experimentation, as fans truly appreciate not just the music, but the delivery of emotion and sound as a basis for the experience. Yeah, you can rip on the guitar, but most of the people in the crowd can, what makes yours so special? Psychedelic Porn Crumpets answer with a fat signature of each of their names. The musicians who hopped on stage that night, both opener and headliner, were…great. It was a night of appreciation for the music on stage, the people producing it, the countries they came from, the crowd dancing, and the city that housed us. They put on a memorable show that is worth the criminally low price of admission for the talent you’re exposed to. Heading out on tour early next year, I’m already selfishly awaiting their return to the States.
Setlist: Salsa Verde / Surf’s Up / Mundungus / Nootmare (K.I.L.L.I.n.G) [Meow!] / Lava Lamp Pisco / Manny’s Ready to Roll / Hymn for a Droid / The Real Contra Band / Found God in a Tomato / Cubensis Lenses / November / Weird World Awoke / March On for Pax Ramona / Another Reincarnation / Gurzle / Cornflake
