Kula Shaker Bring Back Those Nostalgic Psychedelic Mysticism Sounds For Opening Night Of US Tour In Chicago

Sep 17, 2025 admin_bitlc Features, Music News, Reviews 0

By: Kelly Clausen

One of the best things I love about live music, is catching the first day of a new tour. Why? Because you get to hear and see everything fresh, raw and ready to go. That was the case last night at the Bottom Lounge as Kula Shaker rolled through town. They’re on a new tour for an upcoming album release, ‘Wormslayer’ due early 2026. In the meantime, Kula Shaker is hitting the road and sampling a few of those songs live to an audience for the first time. Chicago was opening night and we got more than just that. Eastern mysticism meets Britpop swagger, Kula Shaker’s enduring trip.

Kula Shaker took the stage early this night. As a matter of fact, the entire night kicked off earlier than scheduled with the opening act starting at 7:00PM instead of 7:30PM. But that worked for all in attendance as they could get up and close with the band before the main crowd came in behind them or have some listening music while waiting in line to buy Kula merch. Which this time included a newly remastered release of ‘K’ for it’s 30th anniversary. A cool purple edition that was limited in release to just 750 and only available through the band on tour.

The show was originally scheduled for the Metro but moved to Bottom Lounge a couple weeks ago. Assuming to low ticket sales, but this was already rescheduled from a missed tour date a couple years ago that was supposed to be at Lincoln Hall. I personally think this caused some confusion with fans as online chatter about this show was all over the place like the venue choices. And the actual attendance was almost criminal. This should have been much, much bigger. But that didn’t deter the band and they came out and played like it was a United Center show.

The lights dimmed, the music hummed and the band walked out to true fans from way back in the 90’s. And some of those even brought new fans as they brought in their own kids just as pumped to witness their glory.

A song from 1999’s, ‘Peasants, Pigs & Astronauts‘ ‘Great Hosannah’, rings out. We see the original line up on stage with Alonza Bevan on bass, Paul Winterhart behind the drums, the return of Jay Darlington on the keys and Crispian Mills on guitar and lead vocals. Mills, still wildly energetic on stage shows no sign of slowing down in life. He’s truly the visionary voice guiding Kula Shaker’s cosmic journey.

The stage is dark of any spotlights but full of dancing color as an amazing liquid light show took place by Mad Alchemy student @1saac.mp4. Providing a balance of theatrics to match the musics tone.

During the performance, we heard a couple songs from the upcoming Kula release, ‘Wormslayer’ including the new single, ‘Good Money’ which was played for the first time ever live in front of an audience and ‘Day For Night’. I was hoping to hear more, but as the show progressed, it seemed the band was searching for what to play next and even took a audience suggestion of the classic, ‘Mystical Machine Gun’. Again, love seeing how a new tour plays out with what works or not. From the setlist I saw on stage, this was not on the list and other songs were either scrapped or swapped out as well.

Other classics we heard were ‘Grateful When You’re Dead’, ‘Tattva’, ‘Govinda’ and the one that started it all (at least for the US), ‘Hey Dude’.

Mills told the story on how the song, ‘Ophelia’ was recorded. “This is from an album we made in a medieval forest in Belgium and the only big building near us was this monastery of Trappist monks near by that made really powerful beer – (Chimay).” said Mills with a smile before strumming out the tunes chords.

The night ended strong as they played out ‘Hush’ and came back with an encore of ‘Govinda’ before ending their set around 10pm. It was a great setlist and loved that they massaged it to work the room, but would have liked to have heard ‘Broke As Folk’. This is a great show for any Kula Shaker fan new or old. You’ll get a good mix of it all and you’ll get to see and hear the original band back together as Jay Darlington (Gandalf the Grey) is done with his stint in Oasis and solo work and back behind those late 60’s early 70’s organ sounds.