TEMPLES @ MUSIC HALL OF WILLIAMSBURG CONCERT REVIEW – 6.08.15
By Stephanie Roush
Nostalgia is one of the stranger human sentiments, especially when we feel it for a time never experienced or a place never visited. Yet, pop culture does a great job of mythologizing certain times and places in recent history, creating a sentimental ripple effect. I was born in 1992 and last night as Temples played at Music Hall of Williamsburg I felt nostalgic for a late 1960s London teeming with the energy of the Beatles’ newly released Revolver.
Temples is a four piece rock band from Kettering, England. They formed in 2012 in the basement of lead singer and guitarist James Bagshaw. Bagshaw and bassist Thomas Walmsley began recording together and uploaded a couple of tracks to YouTube that grabbed the attention of Heavenly Records in London. The band has been on an emotional and musical rollercoaster ever since then.
Temples sold-out a Monday night show at Music Hall of Williamsburg, attracting a crowd of late 20s hipsters who braved a Brooklyn rain storm to see four guys with quintessentially British haircuts play a killer show.
They started their set with “Keep in the Dark” from their only LP, 2014’s Sun Structures. Lead singer Bagshaw’s vocals evoke the high-pitched, accented vocals of some of his British predecessors like The Clash’s Joe Strummer or The Kinks’ Ray Davies. Although the deep psychedelic grooves of Temples’ music harken to the British invasion bands of the early 1970s, there remains a distinctly modern element in their sound. The keyboard adds a shoegazey ambience to “Keep in the Dark” that couldn’t be possible without the grunge-rock of the 1990s.
As they played “The Golden Throne” about halfway through their set a cool confidence emanated from the band. The Eastern-influenced tune had the lead guitarist and rhythm guitarist battling through the song’s catchy hooks. Again, during this number there were glimpses of another era as Bagshaw crooned his vocals in his fringe leather jacket and skinny jeans.
Temples finished their set with “Shelter Song” after Bagshaw quipped to the audience, “I hope you know this one.” They turned the single that made their career into an intense psychedelic jam, reminding me of Tame Impala with their loosey-goosey, pseudo-nerdy stage presence. They gave it their all with their last number, which lasted almost ten minutes.
Temples are a group of talented, young British musicians just gaining traction in the United States. And although they owe much of their success to their musical nods to The Beatles and The Rolling Stones, it is clear that they belong in an elite group of psychedelic revivalists playing music in 2015. Temples, along with bands like Tame Impala and Foxygen, are renovating the sounds of the past and making them distinctly their own, promising an exciting future for psychedelic rock. If you get the chance, see Temples live.