Psychedelic bands jam at Bear’s Place

Psychedelic music is a beast with many heads, a fact made clear by the varied acts who played June 18 at Bear’s Place. Making one last tour stop in Bloomington before heading to psych-heaven festival Terrastock, all of the acts shared a penchant for both psychedelic and folk music.\nThe night kicked off with Washington, D.C. drone rock band Kohoutek. Belgian musician Ignatz followed, crafting dreamy landscapes out of echo-drenched guitar, drone and hushed vocals. These two acts, as well as closers United Bible Studies, joined more than 30 other groups on June 19 at Terrastock in Louisville’s Mellwood Arts Center for a four-day celebration of underground psychedelic music.\nBloomington’s own Poisonoak, the solo guitar/vocals act featuring Impossible Shapes member Chris Barth, began his set by telling the audience he would be performing only one piece. He invited everyone to picture the music as “two parallel beams of yellow and green light, one is male and one is female.”\nBarth began with finger-picked guitar, which crescendoed before erupting into heavy chords and then falling back into a delicate melody as he began to sing. As promised, he sang about parallel lights and extraterrestrial imagery before repeating the finger-picking bit. The piece ended with a repeated mantra sung without guitar.\nThe final performance of the night took longer to get off the ground than the previous ones, as the Irish group United Bible Studies prepared the small stage of Bear’s Place to accommodate its seven members and their various instruments, with Kohoutek’s Scott Verrastro \non drums.\nBeginning with a piano piece with harp and gentle female vocals, it was difficult to know what to expect. Alternately traditional and experimental, the group shifted from the near chamber music of the opener to a primordial incantation on top of a blurry wall of psychedelic noise. Female and male singers exchanged caterwauls as jagged guitar stabbed into the wall of sound and schizoid percussion, as well as sounds that resembled the chirping of a cuckoo clock.\n“It was just absolutely jaw-dropping,” attendee Steve Bouton said of United Bible Studies. “It felt like they \nwere channeling some very old vibes.”\nThe evening lacked the music of psychedelic folk singer Sharron Kraus, who, according to event organizer Heath Byers, was stuck in Pittsburgh awaiting repairs on her guitar.\nWith more than 30 people in the audience, Verrastro and Byers were both surprised and impressed with the turnout.\n“We were in Detroit last night, and there were maybe seven people in the audience,” Verrastro said, glad to play for an audience that he believes was less “jaded” than others he’s experienced.\n“I definitely got my five bucks worth,” said IU junior Paul Keck.