ACID Mothers Temple & The Melting Paraiso U.F.O., Kawabata Makoto's legendary Japanese psychedelic rock five-piece, play The Crescent in York on Tuesday night.

In 1995, the quartet of Kawabata Makoto, Koizumi Hajime, Suhara Keizo and Cotton Casino formed a new group and started to record their improvised jam sessions.

A group of social dropouts of every description – musicians, dancers, artists, farmers, channellers, ex-yakuza, mermaid researchers and professional vagrants – had already begun to coalesce around Kawabata under the name of the Acid Mothers Temple Soul Collective. Then Higashi Hiroshi joined the band.

In January 1996, some local residents got the wrong end of the stick and assumed their house was a hideout for members of Aum Shinrikyo, the cult that had committed the gas attack on the Tokyo subway.

In the end, Kawabata and co were forced to move out of the original Acid Mothers Temple Soul Collective house and their group began to transform from a hippie commune into a true collective of souls. Subsequently, Acid Mothers Temple & The Melting Paraiso U.F.O. was released on cassette tape on the Acid Mothers Temple label.

The group's self-titled debut album, issued in November 1997, was selected as one of the 50 best albums of the year by the British music magazine The Wire. Since then, Acid Mothers Temple have toured the world over, performing and recording in many guises, releasing multiple singles, albums and CD-Rs and playing every psychedelic happening worth its salt.

They will be supported on Tuesday's 7.30pm bill by Mark Peters, from the British shoegazing/dream pop band Engineers. Tickets cost £10 in person from The Crescent in The Crescent, Earworm Records in Goodramgate or Jumbo Records in Leeds or online from pleasepleaseyou.com