“They look like ZZ Top confederates,” a guy I’d never seen before said as Master Musicians of Bukkake’s seven members took the stage at Neumos last night. “I hope they’re as cool as ZZ Top.”

Dude, nobody is as cool as ZZ Top. Still, the Bukkake bros were pretty cool, all in all. Dig it: Shrouded in smoke and wearing red satin capes and beekeeper’s netting over big, bulbous hats of the sort Alejandro Jodorowsky’s character in The Holy Mountain sported, MMOB began the gig with plentiful gong hits and a serious droning bass rumble.

Just when we were growing accustomed to this sonorous dirge, the septet exploded into a glowering guitar and keyboard ejaculation, a sucker-punch satori that woke everyone the fuck up. What sounded like a tamboura drone soon arose (but no tamboura could be seen), and then vocalist Brad Mowen entered in a furry bird costume. MMOB lumbered into “People of the Drifting Houses,” the peak of their new album, Totem One. It seemed slightly sludgier live, but gradually it gathered centrifugal force and became a celebratory, upward-spiraling anthem to Buddha knows what.

Later, Mowen channeled Tibetan monks through deep, guttural chants and it replicated a didgeridoo's cavernous croak. A swarming rock epic swirled out of this, with guest violinist Timba Harris of Secret Chiefs 3 helping to launch things skyward with grace and power. MMOB ended with the sparser, mellower doppelgänger of "Drifting Houses," “Eaglewolf,” breaking it down to fey “la la la”s until the piece became a tender sing-along among the remaining 40 or so die-hards in the audience.

MMOB returned for an encore that chugged like classic early-’70s Hawkwind (I thought it was a cover of something off Space Ritual maybe), but the group’s keyboardist Randall Dunn later informed me that it was an original called "Golden Splendor," MMOB's take on a Can-like motorik groove.

Man, this show was cool—damn near a religious experience—but I dunno if it was cooler than ZZ Top.