Mills grinds out the same old routine

Kula Shaker ***
Liquid Room

IN August, 1999, Kula Shaker played one of their last shows to coincide with the total eclipse. Now, almost nine years after they split, Crispin Mills and his psychedelic-rock band are awakening to a new dawn.

The reformed quartet, featuring new member Harry Broadbent on keyboards, have done precious little since the height of their fame – way back when TFI Friday was still on the telly, and when The Spice Girls were an unknown girl-band.

But they were received like long-lost friends last night at the Liquid Room, leading off their pulsating live show with MC5's garage-rock classic, Kick Out The Jams. As lead singer and guitarist Mills said prior to Hey Dude, the band's third single released in 1996: "Imagine you're driving a Corvette – with Jeremy Clarkson tied to the roof – heading off a cliff."

And that was pretty much the case, as the band powered their way through a 75-minute set with all the energy of a souped-up hot rod race car.

The high energy of Hey Dude flashed by early on in a midst of dirty, distorted guitar riffs, Mills shaking his floppy, dishwater-blond hair to head-banging effect. And the incense sticks were still burning away on Mills' monitors by the time he paid homage to Jerry Garcia (Grateful When You're Dead/ Jerry Was There), psychedelic images of The Grateful Dead singer beamed across two giant screens either side of the stage.

Amidst the flurry of Cream and Jimi Hendrix-inspired riff-driven rock tunes, the majority of the set became bogged down with songs inspired by Mills' mystic, Eastern influences; renditions of the singles such as Tattva and Govinda (the latter performed during the encore) based on chants used by Hare Krishnas.

The band's new material, however – third album Strangefolk was released last summer – doesn't sound too dissimilar to The Beatles during their flirtation with music and Hindu spiritualism back in the 1960s. Thankfully, things got back to familiar ground with their near-identical cover version of Deep Purple's interpretation of the Joe South song, Hush.

Other than thanking the crowd for their continued support, Mills, who is also the grandson of actor Sir John Mills, said very little onstage. His band's demise began when he made some ill-advised remarks regarding the mystical properties of Swastikas in 1997. Mills, though, kept his politics to a minimum, choosing only to pipe up towards the end of his band's set with a short spiel about the NO2ID campaign ("I know everyone's fascinated with the 80s right now, but it's not 1984 you know") and its raising of awareness against the Government's intention to make identity cards compulsory. But that was before Mills light-heartedly questioned Hilary Clinton's sex prior to finishing off with a air-punching version of Govinda.

Whether or not Kula Shaker will make the kind of impact they did ten years ago remains to be seen. Based on last night's evidence, though, it seems the band are happy to look back at glories that were never that glorious in the first place. Only time will tell.