& Others--Live (D-F)

& Others--Live (D-F)

Demi Semi Quaver

Tadanoshin/Demi Semi Quaver/Von Lmo/Gerty Farish--Cooler--3/27/98
DEMI SEMI QUAVER set up. The lead singer, Emi, had been walking about in a crazed, transvestite-inspired outfit, consisting of a platinum-blonde wig, topped-off by long, feather boas of red, white, and blue. She also wore lots of glitter make-up; fake-eyelashes; a red and white striped, plastic dress; red pantyhose; and white panties on the outside. When they weren’t making noise, they were rocking, so I enjoyed the music, and her stage antics were strange, and so, fun. Twice she walked out into the audience, asked women their names and then she and the band improvised songs for them using their names. Her keyboard and accordian playing were good, and from the presentation I got the idea that she was the real leader of the band, which impressed me. The rest of the band consisted of the normal bass, guitar and drums, plus THE PUGS’ percussionist (Steve Eto) and an electric violin--all seemingly quite proficient. I bought a three-song CD they were selling.

Déspairs Ray

Déspairs Ray--CBGB--6/17/06
There was a good line outside of CBGBs at 7:30PM, and a wide variety of people standing in it. Most of them were there to see D´ESPAIRS RAY, and many of them were obviously underage. When they eventually let us in, and everyone moved to the front of the stage, I was surprised there weren’t more. Everyone in line got in! It wasn’t long before the lights dimmed, and a dramatic opening number began. The band took the stage and joined in. All four of them were dressed in black. I hadn’t heard them before, and almost expected a visual-kei band, which they aren’t. They rocked, and for most of the show the three in front moved about energetically, and put on a good rock show. Before I had even pulled out my camera I noticed a young woman frantically running about trying to tell everyone with a camera or a camera/phone that photos were not allowed. I think she gave up pretty quickly, because the photos never stopped, but out of respect for the band’s wishes, and a certain amount of not caring much, I decided not to take any pictures, enabling me to move up closer and get a better look at the band. There were obviously going to be enough pictures of this show with no assistance from me. The band plays a kind of gothic metal with a bit of a punk edge. They’re a good band, and play well enough, while their background tapes sprinkle on the magic and add the gothic aura. The bassist mostly stays in one spot, occasionally bouncing up and down to the music, which is a move many of the audience regularly joined in on. His playing was efficient, and he and the drummer were both well represented in the mix. He often seemed to be adding a dance pulse property to the music. The guitarist was a bit more of a showman, sometimes twirling about, and making plenty of rock guitar gestures. Surprisingly, though, he generally seemed to be mixed below the backing tapes, and for the most part stuck to rhythm guitar. Another quirk was that he regularly turned his back on the lead singer. The drummer wore headphones, and was probably playing along with the backing tracks, keeping the band on track, which he did with assurance and style. The lead singer sang with authority. There was often a gravelly gruffness to his affected metal delivery, but he balanced that with emphatic gothic sincerity, and a few punk mannerisms. When he wanted to, he even added an assured tunefulness. Their eye make-up tilted the scales back in the gothic direction, and especially with the emphasis on the tape effects, it’s a new recipe, but it’s still a rock band, and the fresh-faced audience was digging it with an almost religious fervor. When the lead singer took his shirt off, I noticed none of the band had tattoos that I could see. Looking around, none of the audience did either. That felt kind of refreshing, but their parents could have had something to do with that. The band closed with an uptempo number. The guitarist kissed his picks before handing them out to audience members. The bassist showered one lucky audience member with half a bottle of water. It was like a fountain, arcing out of his mouth. The other members settled for shaking hands with those in front. Initially, the audience squeeled their enthusiasm, but quickly the applause turned into excited chatting, and the band had no need to return for an encore. As the crowd drifted away from the stage I did spot a couple of tattoos.

Dip

Dip--CBGB--6/29/04
DIP are a trio. Twice a keyboardist joined them, but was mixed so low it only slightly changed their sound. They opened with an instrumental, and it wasn’t the last. They played well, and when the guitarist sang, the sound was quite captivating. Generally, they kept things simple, and a bit sullen, but the guitarist, sporting a MODERN LOVERS T-shirt, approached each song differently. My favorite song took him into a spacy, surf groove. The rhythm section always supported him well, and the bassist, in multi-colored tie-dyed pants, even did a little dancing. It was as close as this band got to a stage show. Perhaps the small audience was partially responsible for their lack of enthusiasm, but the band, which provided the soundtrack for a post-apocalyptic movie called Pornostar, let their music speak for them. It was an original sound, and I’m glad I got a chance to see this band that I was previously unaware of.

DMBQ

DMBQ/An Albatross/Shellshag--MaxwellÕs--3/31/05
Before AN ALBATROSS’ set, I was able to talk with China, DMBQ’s drummer, whom I’d interviewed after meeting her when she toured with SHONEN KNIFE. I asked her how the DMBQ tour was going, and she replied enthusiastically, “It’s great! It’s an eight week tour. I’m catching America.” and she held up her hands as if they were claws and she was hanging onto something. “America is a fucking rocking place!” she exclaimed happily, with her eyes wide. Shortly after AN ALBATROSS began their set, China came up through the crowd with a floor tom, and stood in front of the stage over on the side. Toward the end of the set, the singer called her up onto the stage and she handed up her floor tom. The singer played that, while she leaned over the drumset, and banged on some of the drummer’s tom toms. The three of them drumming together provided an interesting innovation to the band’s sound, but it was over too soon, and the band didn’t really do much with it. China left the stage, and AN ALBATROSS played a few songs more with the same monotoned, falsetto screaming.
DMBQ were up next. I had no idea what to expect. They began their set up process by adjusting their guitar effects at maximum levels. They had two guitarists, a bassist, and China on drums. The band began their set with some loud, completely over-the-top, heavy metal, with the guitars wailing, and feedback and effects going wild and seemingly out of control, while the bass pounded away at our chests. The bassist, Ryuichi Watanabe, was wearing flashlight glasses, which he continued to wear for most of the show. He also regularly stepped out into the audience, and played his bass out there. Once at an exciting point during the show, when the guitarists were raving up some wild, rocking, screaming feedback, I was paying so much attention to making sure I got China in the photo, that I lost complete track of where the bassist was. I got what I thought was a great picture, and then realized he wasn’t even on the stage. He had stepped out into the audience again, and was standing up on the bleachers surrounded by audience members. Toru Matsui, the non-singer/guitarist, regularly amused himself, while unleashing his guitar fury, by putting one leg up onto the monitor, leaning as far forward as possible, and making faces. I was a bit disappointed that China, whose technique I had admired so much when she played with SHONEN KNIFE, was reduced to pounding so hard that it sometimes pulled her up onto her feet, but later in the set the beat slowed down, and the feedback slowly rolled and twisted in the air. The guitarists were playing with Hendrix-style, psychedelic effects, and China had the time and room to move the beat around. It was a nice contrast to the hard rock assault the rest of the set had been, and it was a nice lengthy section that gave their jam room to grow. Afterwards, it was back to the onslaught as the band surfed raging waves of guitar effects and feedback. Then, they put on what seemed to be gas masks, except that singer/guitarist Shinji Masuko’s seemed to be bondage gear, with a microphone inserted in the mouth hole. He called the remaining audience, those who hadn’t run for safety during the first half of the set, closer to the stage, encouraged them to raise their hands, crawled up onto their outstretched hands, and the audience lifted him up. He stood up on their hands, and they lifted him higher, until the low ceiling forced him down. It was an amazing maneuver, and he stayed upright with the audience supporting his legs for a good amount of time. The band had kept playing throughout, and when he came down, he began running up onto the stage and grabbing pieces of the drumkit, taking them out into the audience and stacking them up on top of each other, motioning the crowd to stand back. He kept stacking the drums until China had only a cymbal left to play on, and her drums were stacked up about eight feet high. Then he topped the pile off with the last cymbal, brought China out into the audience, picked her up, and swung her into position so she could kick over the stack. Some of the stack fell in their direction, and Shinji was hit by something, but mostly everyone seemed to be alright. The audience chanted, applauded, whistled, and hooted, but the show was over. “What just happened?” I heard someone ask, and a minute later, across the room, someone else wondered aloud, “What was that?” I love a good rock ‘n’ roll show!

DMBQ/The Panthers/Titan--Exit Club--4/1/05
Finally, DMBQ came out and began setting up. When Shinji Masuko, singer/guitarist, started up his guitar and effects boxes, it was promising. It wasn’t as loud as it had been last night, but at least you could hear it. Unfortunately the DJ was still playing some crap, but at least it was weird crap, and it almost fit in with the guitar effects until he started scratching with it. Thankfully it wasn’t too long before the band came back and started into their hard rock, and the guitar effects and feedback were milder tonight, but they were there. The vocals seemed more buried than last night, as well, but it was working just fine. The set went just as it had last night. The effects weren’t as overdone as they had been last night, but it was fine. It was good, even in this place that didn’t seem to have figured out how to get a good rock sound yet. The bassist, Ryuichi Watanabe, still had his flashlight glasses on. They got to the slower spacier jam, and though the crowd cooled down quite a bit during the slower psychedelic laden pulsing, it sounded great and Paul especially liked that portion of the set. Then Shinji raised his hand and signaled China to pick up the beat, and the rocking commenced again. The beginning of the next song started up the mosh pit, and China began attacking her drums furiously, then taking a step or two back, as if the power of the beats was pushing her away. Over and over she’d attack, launching another flurry each time. Shinji motioned everyone up to the stage, got the audience to raise their hands, and once again climbed out onto the audience. It didn’t last as long this time, and when he brought out the bass drum with a tom attached he handed it out to the audience, but he couldn’t get them to clear an area to erect the drumkit structure. Instead, the bass drum went crowd surfing until he called it back and began erecting the pile of drums on the front of the stage. While he was busy erecting his drumkit sculpture we got a new surprise. China took a cymbal stand, sent it out into the crowd and then jumped out after it. There she was crowd surfing herself, and whenever she caught up with the cymbal stand she banged on the cymbal with the drumsticks she had brought along with her. It was a great, triumphant moment. The original plan had been thwarted, but to see them come up with this was proof what an inspirationally great live band this was. By the time China and the cymbal stand made it back to the stage, the drum structure had been erected. The cymbal stand was added, and then the entire structure was kicked out into the audience. The audience was theirs, but again all the cheers, applause, whoops and hollers didn’t change the fact that the show was over.

DMBQ--Pianos--4/2/05
Three DMBQ shows in three nights! They’re no doubt now heading off to their Brooklyn show at Club Asterisk later tonight, but I kind of think four shows in three nights might be considered overkill. It’d be fun, though, ‘cause this band certainly has an amazing show. Tonight Paul joined me again, and this time so did Dan and Aimee. Pianos wasn’t crowded, and it was nice to relax while we waited for the room to fill up a bit and the band to begin. The bassist and non-singing guitarist were trying to get the flashlight glasses to work, but apparently weren’t successful, because when they took the stage the bassist wasn’t wearing them. It was another rocking set, and seeing them back in a small place, with a small crowd, was a nice change from last night’s large crowd, though obviously the band might have a different opinion. Tonight’s set was rocking. The whole band, who are all topnotch, was cooking. China was all over her kit, and the guitars were cranking. Both the guitars play lead and rhythm, and with their effects boxes working overtime, they sounded like a demented BLUE CHEER beamed in from the cosmos. They seemed to have reached the long, slow freak-out portion of the show, but they skipped that tonight. The guitar amplifiers were burping out repetitive waves of delay throb, and as they growled, Shinji Masuko, vocals/guitar, lit a cigarette, and passed it around to the rest of the band, each of whom took a hit as the amps hummed their metallic mantras. Then it was back to the rocking. Soon the masks came out, and Shinji motioned as much of the audience up to the stage as he could get, had them raise their hands, and crawled up onto their extended arms, raising himself up as tall as he could get before toppling over where there was no one ready to catch him. He survived, and soon was back up on the stage handing China’s drumset out to the crowd. This time her drums were set up out in the center of the room. Then the final piece of the set, the drummer, China, was passed out to a guy in the crowd who spun her around a few times, before setting her down with her drums. The bassist, Ryuichi Watanabe, and the non-singing guitarist, Toru Matsui, had kept up a simple pulsing rock, and now China joined them and they took it up a notch as Shinji prowled around the stage and through the audience. As they rocked, Shinji began collecting all the hats in the audience and added them, one after another, to the top of his head, till he was wearing every hat in the room. Next he began collecting everyone’s glasses. He had about ten pairs resting on his nose all the way up his forehead before he headed back to the stage where he took everything off and put it in a pile. The band finished up, China began breaking down her set there in the middle of the room, and everyone who had contributed a hat or glasses formed a line on stage to say, "Hi!" to the band and retrieve their possessions. We had all enjoyed the show, and on the walk home Aimee proclaimed that China had worked harder than anyone else in the band. “The drummer always works the hardest.” pointed out Dan, who was most impressed with how different her style had been from when he had seen her with SHONEN KNIFE. The entire band had done a great job every night. They’re well worth seeing!

DMBQ/Aa/The Apes--Above The Auto Parts Store--5/26/07
I got there way too early, and had dozed off by the time THE APES started up some two hours later. THE APES did thank us for being so patient before they started. There was a large crowd of people there, and the place was basically a large second floor concrete room, which at some time had apparently been used as a storage/stock room. It was kind of a neat experience, but the room was very hot with that many people in it, and no cooling system being used. The sound wasn’t very good either, with the concrete walls sending the sound back in on itself. The only way to get around that was to get right up in front of the band. DMBQ was the only band I wanted to get up in front of.
Finally DMBQ began setting up. Once they had set up, they loosened up a bit, one by one, and then together they left the stage. I think it was the lead singer/guitarist who played with some wires, or something, and made, what I think was the P.A., shudder with staticky noise. He paused the sound, and received applause. It sounded like people were applauding the noise, so he did it some more. He stopped again, and received some more applause, so he walked across the stage and did it with the other side of the P.A. He got no applause that time, so he went and joined the rest of the band. They were back soon, and they had made some costume changes. Before they had been dressed in pretty normal street clothes. When they came back, they were wearing somewhat flashier garments, except for the drummer, whose outfit was a bit more ripped up, providing ventilation for the overly hot room. The bass player was also now wearing his light glasses, too. The band launched into a fairly catchy guitar riff, and the lead guitarist placed his guitar in his mouth, and held it with just his mouth, while they started up their rockin’ machine. The band ran through a series of sturdy rockin’ riffs, moving through them slowly, giving each one a full workout. Occasionally, either the bassist, or the lead guitarist would jump up on the stage. Sometimes they would both get up there, and once or twice, all three of the other members joined the drummer up on the stage, but most of the time the other three members of DMBQ stayed down on the floor in front of the stage, using the stage as a drum riser. The lead singer/guitarist had his microphone right up in front of the audience. Now and then he would shout into the microphone, and the reverb would echo it into an absurd repetition of itself. The large crowd didn’t make it easy to see them, but they kept things rocking. At one point they switched into a slow blues groove, which reminded me of a LED ZEPPELIN classic, ‘Dazed And Confused’, or a soporific garage version of it. During that one they even brought out a bow for the lead guitarist. They revved it up a bit later. There was a good amount of variety, as they put their assortment of riffs through their routines, and there was a good amount of dancing, pushing, and shoving in front of the stage, allowing everyone to exuberantly enjoy themselves. The drummer even got a solo late in the set. It was pretty short, and not very impressive, but he was probably exhausted by then, and he got generous applause just the same. When the lead singer attired himself in a bondage mask, we were obviously near the end, but that’s when it gets really fun! The band was cranking away. The singer gestured dramatically, then came out to the audience, and crawled up on their shoulders, raising himself to a standing position for a minute or so. That was not the end, though. The band next began passing the drumset out to the audience. Surprisingly the audience held it up in position above their heads. It included the bass drum, the snare, a cymbal, and the drum stool. Next the drummer crawled up on their shoulders, and for a short time, he was up there, sitting on his stool, and playing along with the band, held aloft by the audience, as the band raved things up for the finale. They are one amazing live band. The audience gave them the hearty applause they deserved, but rather than an encore, they mounted the stage as a band, and took their bows.

Child Abuse/DMBQ/Ponytail--The Tank--5/27/07
The Tank is a small room. DMBQ attracted some attention when they began setting up their equipment. Once they began tuning up and loosening up, a crowd quickly formed around them. I knew they’d be taking a break for a costume change after the set-up, so I wasn’t even watching, but I did hear a roar of static noise. Like last night, it received some cheers, but tonight that one blast was all we got. Soon the band was back up, and away they went, jumping into one of their catchiest numbers. I quickly realized it was the same set they had played last night, but I also realized that they were playing it differently. The long slow jam in the middle of the set went in some totally different directions, and I suspect many of the other songs were done quite differently, too. The jamming appeared to be very democratic. It seemed that any of the four, at any time, were free to take the songs in a different direction. The basic riffs were the same. They just took on some different shapes, as the band turned them inside out and upside down. DMBQ rocked hard. The leads flew in all directions. The bassist regularly churned the action up, once again sporting his glasses frames with tiny flashlights pointing forward. The vocals weren’t as distorted tonight, though they still had plenty of reverb, and the vocals took on a much more normal structure. The drummer kept the beat going, was as likely as any of them to start pounding up a new beat, or new accents if a certain direction seemed to have run its course. Again he got a short solo toward the end of the set, which he played more vigorously tonight to good effect, and my friend Adam, who had a better viewpoint at the time than me, says all the other bandmembers crouched down during the drum solo to give him all the attention. Tonight when the bondage mask came out, not much happened, except that the lead vocals went into a strange, fuzzy sounding distortion. If the singer/guitarist had jumped up onto the crowd, he very easily might of bumped his head on a pipe, or a duct, so he didn’t. Instead, he rallied the crowd, got them excited, raising and shaking their fists along with the pounding riff, which they were blitzing into another dimension. Then he cleared out about half the room, and began stacking the drumset up in the center of the cleared area. Next he ran, jumped, and knocked the towering structure in several directions. Perhaps realizing that this was not the most incredible thing he’d ever done to close a DMBQ set, he restacked his drum tower, and after taking a few practice swings with the drum stool, he knocked it over a second time.

Do Thank Anal

Japan-Smacksdown-NYC: Do Thank Anal/10 Yen Ana Kinoko/Petit Mit/Bossston Cruising Mania/Electric Eel Shock/Techma/ Mong Hang--Continental--10/17/00
This show, apparently presented by Micro Music who handed out a complimentary CD of their artists, was well attended throughout the evening. About half the audience wasn’t Japanese this time, which was nice to see, and Continental was the perfect club for this event.
DO THANK ANAL are two guys. One of them, blonde, operates some combination of samples, tapes and boxes which produce beats and large amounts of noise, and both of them sing and shout. The other guy runs about and behaves like a maniac. Charging into the crowd, he surged through it this way and that, with pounding noises crashing against the walls. They quickly brought a healthy dose of anarchy into the night. I’m not partial to their music, but they sure put on one hell of a show. About three songs into the set, the second guy jumped into the crowd again, and after weaving around through the crowd and climbing up on a ledge, realized he’d busted the microphone cord. It was only a few songs later that another more major piece of equipment gave out under their merciless attack, and they were forced to call it quits.

Drillchop 9

Drillchop 9/Dynamite Club/The Spunks/Peelander-Z/Cock Asian--Meow Mix--8/5/02
Wow! That was certainly a full evening!
It was quite the surprise when, immediately after DYNAMITE CLUB’s set, it was announced that DRILLCHOP 9 from Osaka had heard about the show and wished to do a set. Apparently they’re in town for a show at Knitting Factory on Wednesday. They’re a trio of two Japanese women and one caucasion male. They set up a table full of boxes and a bass guitar, and then retired to the bathrooms, emerging minutes later in their stage costumes. The woman on the boxes, who was responsible for almost all the music seemed not to have changed her attire much, but the woman who was the lead singer/dancer was now wearing a summer dress over black slacks. She topped this off with a furry hat which came equipped with long furry ears dropping down to about her knees. The unshaven man sported a blondish wig and a long, unbelted, Asian-style dress. He played the bass once, several times manipulated what seemed to be a tapedeck, and a few times twiddled knobs, switches, or buttons on the table. The woman seated at the table concentrated on her music, and behaved sedately even when she set her controls to blast out a loud, raucous, dance beat, and picked up the bass, for the only time, to add an active bassline to her repeating sound collage. The guy’s singing tended toward rhythmic shrieking. The woman’s singing was more varied, though occasionally she too would descend to rhythmic shieking. Her singing and dancing always very much worked with and expressed the music, which, though it all emanated from the boxes (except for the two uses of bass guitar), covered a wide variety of sounds and emotions from wispiness, like a soft backwards music box, to the loud raucous dance beats described previously. The woman’s dancing was good and interesting. It was definitely in the modern dance realm, but included aspects of both mime and butoh, when she wasn’t rolling about enacting epileptic seizures on the stage. He was quite capable of joining her in the seizures, a few times interacted with her dancing, most noticeably in a puppet routine, and twice invaded the audience, once caressing and hugging several of the men. Though it did have a suprisingly wide range, the music didn’t do much for me, but the woman’s expressive dancing and the other odd performance aspects, made their show quite intriguing. I only wish I had known earlier that they were going to perform tonight. I would have brought my camera, and I’m convinced I would have gotten some interesting pictures.

The Dudoos

Eastern Youth

The Wrens/Eastern Youth--Bowery Ballroom--9/22/03
It was only a month ago or so that a reader wrote me, telling me about this great Japanese band he liked called EASTERN YOUTH. It’s probably the only reason that I knew they were a Japanese band. I bought a ticket, and they were on stage checking their sound when I arrived at the club. There weren’t many people there to enjoy their set, but they did seem to go over fairly well with those of us who had arrived in time. EASTERN YOUTH are a standard rock trio. The bassist plays a fretless bass, and the rhythm section does a good job backing up the guitarist/singer, who is the frontman and the central focus of the band. Only a small fraction of the audience was Japanese, but mostly he spoke in Japanese. His few lines of English, mostly thanking the audience and CURSIVE (the headliners) for bringing them on this tour, were spoken perfectly, but he seemed surprised when the audience understood him. His guitar playing is the strength of the group. He exhibited a wide variety of styles, ranging from soft, delicate leads that often started things up, to pounding rhythms that he sometimes jumped up into the air to emphasize, to leads that ranged from rocking onslaughts to towering pinnacles that wavered from the top of their almost architectural song structures. Where the songs themselves were structures erected by the band, the vocals are the humanity. They were sung dramatically, sometimes in a whisper, sometimes in a thoaty scream, but nearly always at an emotional pitch that was regularly whipped up into a lather. The music was too structured and controlled to blow me away, but this bandÕs talent and forcefullness are impressive, and the guitarist is a master in his own rite.

Ed Woods

Japunks Panic Jamboree #8: Spunks/Bleach03/Ed Woods/DJ Mammoth & MC Eagle/Peelander-Z/The Dudoos--CBGB--4/23/05
It was still an overcast evening when I made my way over to CBGB for Japunks Panic Jamboree #8. It was drizzling once when I walked outside, and it rained enough that now and then somebody’s coat brushing against me was wet, but by the time the rocking evening, which was like a big party, was over, it was raining no longer. Tonight’s fun seemed to have been sponsored largely by Kaiju Big Battel. Throughout the night they were showing Big Battel movies on the side wall, foks from Kaiju Big Battel announced each of the rounds and which band was playing next, and characters from the Big Battel were walking around CBGB all night and often even joining in the mosh pit.
DJ Mammoth & MC Eagle were certainly energetic, but when ED WOODS took the stage, we got some real rockin’ energy. They certainly picked themselves a cool name, and they probably won’t get sued at this point. They’re a trio, and the bassist plays a stand-up bass. I was talking with Jouji of THE SPUNKS while they were setting up, and asked him if they were rockabilly. “No,” he laughed, “they are trash rock ‘n’ roll.” He meant it in a good way, and he was right, they weren’t rockabilly, and the band themselves called themselves “trash” more than a few times during the set. All three had red stuff on their faces that was designed to look like blood. The guitarist had it around his eyes. The drummer had a few tracks running down his chin, but the bassist, who did most of the lead singing, had it all over his face. It actually looked like he had slit his forehead like the wrestlers, but by the end of the set his forehead was clean, and his bangs seemed to have soaked up the red stuff. Their music was high energy rock with a heavy dose of punk, and a good amount of humor to keep things fun. The mosh pit kept active during their set. The drummer pounded his kit hard. The bassist and guitarist both moved about the stage whenever they weren’t screaming into their respective microphones, and good fun was had by all. During the few times when the music toned down a bit, as if in an effort to fill up the sound, the guitarist dropped in some very tasteful riffs that sounded like surf guitar, which added a nice subtlety to their sound. Toward the end of the set they brought out about ten beers from behind the amps, and handed them out to the crowd, then launched into a song, which, from the lyrics, was probably called either ‘Kampai’, or maybe just ‘Beer’. Then the bassist pulled off his jeans, and played in his undies. I couldn’t see from where I was, but I was told later that he was actually wearing four pairs of underwear, each more revealing than the last. When he was down to the thinnest thong, a male fan jumped up on stage and rewarded him by tucking a dollar into the waistband.

Electric Eel Shock

Electric Eel Shock/Space Combine--Continental--4/23/00
ELECTRIC EEL SHOCK weren’t scheduled to play until the next night, but its members were all there supporting SPACE COMBINE, so when a spot opened up on the bill, they were happy to jump up and bang out a quick set. They’re a trio, and all three of them were jokers from the start. The drummer did psycho rants into the microphone in between many of the songs, and regularly drummed on his head during the songs. The guitarist, who did most of the vocals, behaved like a class clown whenever he wasn’t actually occupied playing the songs. There was a lot of mad-cap cutting-up going on, and it made the set one big ball of rockin’ fun. The songs were good, well-arranged, and varied enough to keep things interesting. They showed off the band’s skills, and gave it a chance to kick a lot of hot fun out into the room.

Japan-Smacksdown-NYC: Do Thank Anal/10 Yen Ana Kinoko/Petit Mit/Bossston Cruising Mania/Electric Eel Shock/Techma/ Mong Hang--Continental--10/17/00
This show, apparently presented by Micro Music who handed out a complimentary CD of their artists, was well attended throughout the evening. About half the audience wasn’t Japanese this time, which was nice to see, and Continental was the perfect club for this event.
ELECTRIC EEL SHOCK were up next. They’re a trio, and were more enthusiastic, and more powerful than last time I saw them. Besides that, and the drummer performing in a sock, they were very much the same band I saw earlier this year. They rocked the house and got a good response from the crowd. Their songs are very much blues-based rock ‘n’ roll, and the guitarist absent-mindedly flipped-off Van-Halen licks like his fingers had a will of their own. He’s a good guitarist, but more important to the band, he’s a natural rockin’ clown, and he’s out for all the wild rockin’ fun he can get. There was also no way he was gonna be upstaged, even by a nearly nude drummer, who opened the set with two drumsticks in each hand, and filled any pause in the show by standing up and ranting into the microphone. The bass guitarist was no slouch either. The band had an active mosh-pit for much of their set, and more stage-divers than any other band that night. I picked up a CD to remember them by.

Suicide King/Electric Eel Shock/Peelander-Z/Gelatine--Meow Mix--9/16/01
Early on, he (PEELANDER-Z’s guitarist) did a couple of twirling jumps (as warm-up?), then convinced ELECTRIC EEL SHOCK's bass guitarist to hold a beer bottle on his head. He did the twirling jump again, and kicked the beer bottle off. Later he pulled a woman up on the stage and gave her his guitar. The bass player played it a bit safer, choosing ELECTRIC EEL SHOCK’s bassist to give his bass to.
ELECTRIC EEL SHOCK were next. Technically these guys get better every time I see them. The guitarist (Akihito Morimoto) is incredible, and never seems to be thinking about what he’s playing at all, but whether riffing, or running through a dexterous lead, he never misses. He makes it seem all second nature. The bassist (Kazuto Maekawa) and drummer (Tomoharu Ito) are good, too, and always right there behind him. With their skills, they could be a hot heavy metal band, but they’re not. They’re a dumb, kind of punkish, rock ‘n’ roll band. They’re out for nothing but fun, and they don’t seem to care much how they get it. They just like being up there on the stage. They’re obviously hard working. In the last few years they’ve played here in New York more regularly than any other Japanese band. Their song-writing could use some work, but they rock up a storm! The drummer appears in only a sock, sporting a Mohawk. Between songs he regularly stands up and rants into the microphone. Morimoto tells him to “Shut up!”, but Ito doesn’t seem to be listening, or existing in the same world as the rest of us. There’s lots of clowning on Morimoto’s part, and a good amount of jumping about, by both him and Maekawa, who moves in more classic rock ways. Morimoto clowns so much, that you might not realize how gifted a guitarist he is, ‘cause he doesn’t take it seriously in the least. The guitarist and bassist sometimes lift the guitars over their heads, and in the last song, they take ‘em off and sling ‘em around. It’s a fun show, and the audience obviously thoroughly enjoyed it.

Spunks/Electric Eel Shock/Sweet J.A.P./Gunshow--Don Hill’s--1/13/03
ELECTRIC EEL SHOCK got up and rocked hard. The muddiness of the sound continued, but its only real affect on this trio was muffling the vocals. The band members are all technically good, and in fact they’ve gotten noticeably better since the last time I saw them. They are also incredibly tight as a band now. They opened with an ‘Iron Man’ intro, and charged into a rockin’ set that bounced about between metal, punk, and classic rock. The drummer, Tomoharu, still wears nothing but a sock, but generally the joking seemed to have mellowed a bit. The outrageousness was still going strong, though, with much fun theatrics. At one point guitarist, Akihito, lead the crowd in a rousing chant of, “Sex, Drugs, and Email!” The most memorable part of the show, though, was probably when Akihito crawled up onto his amp, flipped himself over the back of it, and then reversed the process, while bassist Kazuto stood atop his amp and raised his bass above his head like a trophy, which he did regularly throughout the performance. It was a fun show, and it was good to see this rockin’ band one more time.

The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion/The Flash Express/Low Flying Jets/Electric Eel Shock--Mercury Lounge--9/14/03
ELECTRIC EEL SHOCK started off the night in a hard-rockin’ party mood. They kept it up thoughout the set! I hear they’ve been touring almost constantly for over a year now, and from the looks of their schedule, they have at least a few more months before they take a break from it. They obviously have a great time on stage. Maybe they just don’t wanna stop. They play dumb, fun, rock music, with lots of metal influence, and there was easily more joy in their first two songs than in all the other sets of the evening combined. Akihito Morimoto is the clowning guitarist/singer/front man, who spins off Van Halen licks like finger exercises. “Gian” Ito performs in a sports sock, and when not pounding hell out of the drums, he’s usually blathering inanely into the microphone. Kazuto Maekawa plays the straight man on bass guitar, and sticks to more classic rock poses. Technically, each member of the band is strong, and the band plays as one. Their material is a bit limited, but it’s varied, and their rock every song for all it’s worth approach, always manages to bring the party they’re having on stage to the audience. Really, what more can you ask from a band?

Electric Eel Shock/Peelander-Z/Some Action--Mercury Lounge--3/27/05
ELECTRIC EEL SHOCK were up next, and really, I can’t think of a better band to follow PEELANDER-Z. It’s a different take on the same thing--rock music as humor. ELECTRIC EEL SHOCK is basically making as big a joke as possible out of hard rock/heavy metal, and who better to take the piss out of the music, than a band that can’t seem to play anything but that style of music, and does it seemingly effortlessly. I don’t mean to denigrate the rhythm section, who do a great job, but Akihito Morimoto looks and acts like a good-natured goofball, and flips off incredibly technique-laden riffs as if he’s bored and can’t help himself. It’s a great act, and after a little while, you start to get the idea that it’s not an act at all. They rock, and they rock hard, and at the end of their current U.S. tour, they are as tight as I’ve ever seen them, and probably, technically as good as I’ve ever seen them. At one point, Akihito announced that they would be doing a slow number to prove that they could do it. The next song was a hair slower than the rest of their material, but it still rocked hard and moved at a pretty good pace. The drummer, dressed, as usual, in a sock, occasionally uses two sticks in each hand, apparently to give more of a whomp to his drumming. Both the bassist and guitarist occasionally rest their guitars up on top of their heads, banging them against their skulls for an extra roar of feedback from the amplifiers. Tongue in cheek or not, they rock, and the crowd was digging it. Toward the end of the set, after announcing his bandmates, and the soundman, Akihito announced himself as the most important member of ELECTRIC EEL SHOCK, and then proudly proclaimed, “We are ELECTRICK EEL SHOCK! Who are you?” He repeated this several times before adding, “I know about you. I know who you are. You are ELECTRIC EEL SHOCK, too!” to loud cheers from the crowd. When the band returned for an encore, they started off the same way they had begun the show, with BLACK SABBATH’s ‘Iron Man’, but it was the next song, the very last song of the set, that really started up the mosh pit for the first time. It was a grand way to finish off the set.

Electric Eel Shock/Peelander-Z/Tigers And Monkeys/Dynamite Club--CBGB--7/19/06
ELECTRIC EEL SHOCK were up on the stage and ready to go sooner than I expected. I didn’t recognize Akihito Morimoto, the guitarist, at first, as his afro was gone. His hair is now long, and parted in the middle. It gave him a bit more of a masterful look, which he earned with added stage confidence, gained, I’m sure, by the amount of touring this band has been doing. This is the end of a tour that played through Europe, and crossed the U.S. twice. It’s not surprising they’re feeling pretty comfortable on the stage these days. The band rocked hard, and kept the stage busy. They kept the rock coming, and Akihito’s guitar playing had not only all the speed and dexterity he’s always possessed, and enjoys displaying, but a certain amount of real finesse which made his leads seem more thought out and developed than I remembered. When not rocking, Akihito skillfully revved up the audience and kept them loud and rambunctious. An active mosh-pit only broke out a few times, but when it did, the same group of young guys would just explode and suddenly start pushing each other around in front of the stage, forcing other audience members to make some room. When Akihito had chided the audience for not yelling enough, or encouraged them to express their love for punk rock, only to explain that he didn’t care about punk rock, he loved heavy metal, the rocking would begin again. The bass player, Kazuto Maekawa, whom Akihito encouraged us to call “Mark”, might climb up on the P.A. cabinets, which he did several times, or lift his bass up over his head, which seemed to be the position he was most comfortable with. The drummer, Tomoharu Ito, wearing only a sock, would now and then stand up on his drumseat, or even come out from behind his drums to check his kit from a different perspective. Akihito’s best move, outside of his guitar playing, was holding his Flying-V in his mouth without using his hands. It was not his only odd approach to handling his guitar. During the last song of the set he demonstrated a number of unorthodox approaches to wrestling his guitar about the stage, a couple involving tumbling on the floor. When the band left the stage, the young fans started up a chant of, “Eel Shock, Eel Shock, Eel Shock...” and by the time it started to flag, the band was back, encouraging them to continue, and happily playing another quick number with both enthusiasm and appreciation for the warm reception, which was very much earned.

Elekibass

Of Montreal/Elekibass--Brownies--2/9/01
OF MONTREAL’s frontman came out and introduced ELEKIBASS and suggested they would probably be better than OF MONTREAL that night, because they had been most nights of the tour. It was a very nice gesture on his part, which was apropos for the night. ELEKIBASS, it turned out, were sweet, happy, joyful, nice, polite, sincere, upbeat, and so was their music. In point of fact, their music is such innocent pop music, that I wouldn’t have imagined it possible for anyone to create and play music like it in our time. The lyrics are in English and about normal events. Their songs were sweet, but not the cloying sweetness often associated with Japanese pop. They were just plain, straightforward songs about their lives, about eating steaks, or remembering Paris. The musicians are six young people, who gave the impression that they believed in these songs. There were two guitars, bass, drums, a woman on keyboards who also played some percussion, and another woman who played percussion and switched between trumpet, clarinet, and on the last song kazoo. They were well received by the audience, and were obiously enjoying their first American tour.

Ellegarden

Benten Tokyo Presents Japan Nite: Tsu Shi Ma Mi Re/Pe´z/Ellegarden/Stance Punks/The Rodeo Carburettor/The Emeralds--Knitting Factory--3/20/06
Australian Cattle God Records have started up a side label for Japanese bands, apparently in connection with Benten/Sister Records, called Benten Tokyo Records. This tour is kind of an announcement of that, with TSU SHI MA MI RE, who are already signed to Cattle God Records, headlining the bill. The audience was evenly mixed between Japanese and caucasians, and many of them were much younger than are usually seen at these shows, which is certainly a positive thing. Six Japanese bands in a row! Oh, and almost every band made a point of letting us know that they, “Love New York!” I’m exhausted, and I’ve only just begun writing.
ELLEGARDEN came out to a very attentive crowd. Takeshi Hosomi, lead singer/rhythm guitarist, was charming, and his English is excellent. “I can’t believe you are so nice to us,” he said after a few songs had been well received. “How many people here knew who we were before we played?” A good portion of the audience raised their hands and/or cheered. “I can’t believe it. This is the first time we’ve played here in New York. You are great! We will try to come back real soon.” He closed those remarks by admitting that he, too, loved New York. The band was tight, and once or twice when they started up a strong beat, you could feel the floor shaking beneath you, as the audience bounced along with the band. Their songs were well received, and the audience obviously loved them. It was mutual. At the beginning of the set, several people in the front had raised sheets of paper with what looked like kanji on them. Takeshi asked them to raise them again. The papers were long gone, but they yelled up a song title to him, and the band happily played it. Besides Takeshi, the lead guitarist impressed me the most. He played intricate and beautiful guitar, and did it quite subtly. He and the drummer both shared vocals with Takeshi, as well. They’re a good band, and their pleasing pop music sounds surprisingly familiar to these ears. Though there were definitely fans there for each of the bands, ELLEGARDEN seemed to be the band who had the most people there to see them tonight.

The Emeralds

The Spunks/Gito Gito Hustler/The Emeralds/Trikuti--Lion’s Den--10/1/05
THE EMERALDS were up, so I was on the job. They’re a trio, and I liked their Surfing Baby EP, so I was interested in seeing what they’d be like live. They were slick and professional, and knocked out one catchy pop/rock song after another. The band is tight and technically as slick as their presentation. The only thing that interrupted the smooth flow of their set were the stops and starts of the songs, which the band negotiated with ease and dexterity. At different times in between the songs, mostly while Kazuya, the guitarist/lead vocalist, retuned, each member of the band took turns chatting up the audience, encouraging us to buy some CDs, giving us some background on the band, or getting us revved up for the next song. Introducing ‘Talk About Love’, their last song of the set, Kazuya said, “This is the song that’s gonna take us to the top!” and they rocked through it with style.
Toward the end of the set THE SPUNKS played a song about an especially hot pepper and dedicated it to THE EMERALDS.

Peelander-Z/The Phenomenauts/The Portugal Japan/The Emeralds--Knitting Factory--11/5/05
After a bit of a trial, I was able to get in the door for this late show performance. THE EMERALDS’ drummer, Akio, came out on stage in a karate outfit and demonstrated some of his moves. He was followed first by the bassist, Osuke, and then the guitarist, Kazuya, who both took turns showing off their karate moves. It was as if they had borrowed a page from PEELANDER-Z’s book to liven up their show, and that’s certainly a good book to borrow from. The drummer accented each of their kicks on his drums. Then Halloween was over and they were back in their very fashionable attire. They launched into song after song of spiffy hooks that skipped with artful dexterity through their intricate arrangements. Their songs are very clever pop/rock gems, and playing only a few dates with PEELANDER-Z really seemed to have put a nice comical spin on their stage presentation. Early in the set the bassist offered his bandaged hand, from a broken wrist, as proof of his dedication to rock for us tonight in New York City. One song, which I was told later was an original, I would have sworn was a cover of ‘Everybody Have Fun Tonight’. It was a simpler, more basic dance song than the rest of their material. Toward the end of the set Kazuya pulled at his shirt, cocked his head, and asked, “How ‘bout my shirt?” The other bandmembers followed suit, and afterward the drummer added the comment, “We like flowered shirts!” The rather workmanlike display of their sizeable skills and catchy songwriting, which I saw a month ago, benefitted substantially from the humor and joy they displayed in their performance tonight.
Soon THE EMERALDS (in their karate outfits) were dancing with PEELANDER-Z, and in no time the stage was once again filled with a multitude of satisfied rockers doing various mutations of the PEELANDER-Z dance routine.

Pistol Valve/Go!Go!7188/The Emeralds/50 Kaitenz/Asakusa Jinta--Empty Bottle (Chicago, IL)--3/14/07
I missed Japan Nite in New York. (I was out of town.) So, here I was catching it in Chicago. It was not the easiest journey, but, once again, Audrey Kimura had put together one hell of a show! I sure didn’t want to totally miss it! With help from my friend Paul Yamada, I rode the trains, busses, and taxis, negotiated Chicago’s byways, and eventually entered the Empty Bottle. Paul had referred to it as a dive, but I don’t mind a good dive, and found it quite roomy. The almost completely wooden and brick interior gave it a down-home bar-room feel, and tonight it was the place to be for Japanese rock ‘n’ roll.
THE EMERALDS were up next, and they kept the rocking coming on strong. They are a clean rocking trio that specialize in very well constructed power pop ditties. Kazuya, the guitarist, almost seemed to be posing, like a male model in a fashion advert, but he was also churning out some very tasty guitar. And when you want someone to rat-a-tat-tat out some lyrics, as fast as any rapper I’ve heard, he’s your man. The bassist, besides doing a fine job on the bass, seemed to be the one in charge of communicating, and revving up, the audience, and he did a fine job of that, too. Though he pleaded difficulty, his English was quite good, and he was easily one of the better English speakers of the night. My favorite moment was when he stated plainly that THE EMERALDS had not come all the way from Yokohama to eat deep-dish pizza. They made it obvious, they were there to rock! The drummer was happy to play the clown and plug the merchandise and the band. Whenever a guitar was being tuned, or there was a break in the action, he was happy to entertain the crowd, holding up a “THE EMERALDS” banner, and inciting the audience to repeatedly shout out “THE EMERALDS”, making sure everyone would remember their name. Yes, there’s a crassness to their charm, but this band rocks their clever pop songs with a slickness and a power that are unarguable and welcome. I was most impressed tonight by some of their newer material, which effectively expanded their sound in some interesting and intriguing ways.

photo by John Li

Japan Nite: The Beaches/Detroit7/Ketchup Mania/Petty Booka/The Emeralds/Scandal--Knitting Factory--3/16/08
It was another great night of Japanese rock ‘n’ roll brought to us by Audrey Kimura and Benten/Sister Records. They sold out and Knitting Factory was jam-packed with smiling, happy people who knew they weren’t gonna get another onslaught of Japanese rock like this until Japan Nite rolls around again next year. Oh yes, and, of course, all the bands told us they loved New York.
THE EMERALDS came out, adjusted their sound, played a bit of a test number, and as they were leaving the stage, the bassist, Osuke, leaned into the microphone, waved, and said, “See you tomorrow!” He was joking. An old Elvis love song served as their intro music, and their exit music as they left the stage later. THE EMERALDS kept the energetic pop music rocking hard. They are continuing to expand their sound, and one of their rockers even sounded a bit sluggish tonight. That was probably just to emphasize the uptempo breaks in the song, though. The rhythm section, bassist Osuke, and drummer Akio did a good job of revving up the crowd, getting things hopping, and plugging the merchandise, and Kazuya’s guitar was right there with them, along with his rapid-fire vocals when that was called for, but his overall energy seemed to be toned down tonight for some reason. Still, the band kept things rocking, and I look forward to hearing their first full-length just released on Australian Cattle God Records.

Emulsion

Snuggle-Stencil/Emulsion--Asterisk Art Gallery--12/3/05
EMULSION took a while to set up, and then their soundcheck took even longer. The door to the room was closed and a few of us were waiting. When they did open it up, everyone but the drummer left the room. The small room slowly began to fill up, and soon the band returned. Mika, on bass guitar, thanked us for coming, explained that this was their last show of the tour, and they started into the set. They’re a quartet, and the other members of the band played guitar, and keyboards. They were all women, except the guitarist. They play an instrumental, somewhat psychedelic pop music, allowing the psych aspects to expand the length of the pop structures. The drummer counted down most of the songs, and kept her beat active. The bassist kept things active, as well, and the songs often had at least one abrupt rhythm change. Usually the keyboardist played chords which held the songs together, and allowed the guitar to skip over the surface with notes that rippled along like a stream. Occasionally, some of the upbeat sections would inspire him to let his guitar soar and roar, but largely he kept things very smooth and fluid. He put on the biggest show of the four, as well, waving his guitar neck, and even rolling on the stage at one point. The woman on keyboards often seemed to be waiting for something. It may have been cues from the rhythm section. The drummer always seemed to be wearing a gentle smile, like she was in on a joke that no one else knew about. She was probably just enjoying herself. The bassist was concentrating on her busy basslines, and surprised everyone by singing the very last song of the set. The rocking dynamics had grown as the set continued, and this last song, with the vocals I’d been missing, had both the bassist and the guitarist waving their guitar necks about. Throughout the set, Sally, the house pooch, perhaps inspired by the band’s energy, bounded about through peoples’ legs. I was able to talk with the bassist and keyboardist after the set, and the keyboardist, when asked about their tour, said she had enjoyed the places they’d been, and the people she had met so much, that she didn’t want to leave. Maybe they’ll be back soon.

Crown Point Festival: Emulsion; Magic (film); Candy And Brandy (film); At The Seashore (theater); Puerto Rican Squirrels (film); Hostages (theater)--Abrons Art Center--11/15/07
Finally, EMULSION were up. They’re now a trio, and they are a very different band than the EMULSION I saw a couple of years back. They’ve taken a few steps forward in an odd, but interesting direction. When they first started up, before they got the drum machine connected, they all went into a noise onslaught. One woman played bass, and later she added some vocals and some synthesizer. The other woman played keyboards. So, they started up with some noise, and then went into some psychedelic romps, which fit the previous version of the band I had seen. At first the beats seemed a bit simplistic, and in response the male guitarist launched into psychedelic improv. As they continued I began to notice a kind of classical music aspect to the band. The bassist generally plays simple repetitive things that changed as the drum parts changed. The keyboardist also generally tends to keep things simplistically structured, but adds the depth and breadth of classical pieces, and the guitarist takes off, playing in a multitude of styles. He also was the one person in the band who made use of the large stage, wandering and rocking around from his boxes, to back behind the amps, and later in the set he came out to the front of the stage several times. The bassist’s first vocals happened late in the set, and were limited to shouts. Later she actually did some singing. Her synthesizer playing colored her bandmate’s keyboards with swirling noise effects, while the guitarist played his most classically structured runs and then took it out into noisy psychedelic explorations. It was an impressively wide array of music that they created with their simple set-up, and though their performance, except for the guitarist, was fairly unenthusiastic, concentrating on playing the music, they managed to elicit a good deal of enthusiasm from the balcony, where most of the audience was. The balcony was where, for an extra $1.50, unlimited beer was provided. There were only a few of us left down in the cheap seats.

Envy

Envy/The Panthers--Knitting Factory--1/15/05
I was surprised when ENVY made its first sound in getting ready to play, and the packed room gave them a resounding cheer. Plus, a short lived mosh-pit opened up in the middle of the crowd when they launched into their first song. Most of their songs, as the set went on, elicited the same kind of resounding cheers, along with applause. It was a young, largely white audience, and they were here to see ENVY. Not only that, they obviously were enjoying what they were hearing. At one point, early in the show, someone yelled out from the audience, “Somebody, please say something!” The band had played a few numbers, but no one from the band had even announced that they were ENVY. The lead singer/synthesizer player obediantly pulled the microphone over to his lips and politely said, “Hi!” Other than a few, “Thank you”s after songs, that was the extent of their repartee with the audience. Occasionally, the music was quite soft and beautiful. When the singer was singing he generally faced the audience, and the hardest rock attack usually accompanied his rough vocals. Once though, he turned away from the audience, and while playing his synthesizer, which faced the drummer, he sang a very soft melodic song. When he wasn’t singing, he would turn away from the audience, concentrate on the synthesizer, and the band would tend toward more sombre chord progressions. There was a good amount of variation in their sound, and a good amount of whomp when the band took things up a few notches. The audience’s approval quickly brought them back for a short encore, at the end of which, the guitarists had revved up, and then unplugged and disappeared below the heads of the crowd. Then the bass guitarist took off his guitar, and the three of them and the drummer left the stage. His back to the audience, the singer raised the sound of the synthesizer to a whirring like that of a roaring wave threatening to crash down upon the crowd, and then it too was unplugged. The singer raised his hand and gave a slight nod as he left the stage.

Steve Eto

Steve Eto/Retada/Chimp Beams--Pianos--11/9/03
Tada, the sole member of RETADA, switched between drums and guitar. There was a young man center-stage who sat and played a taishou koto. It’s kind of a koto version of an autoharp. Steve Eto switched between an electronic practice pad which he could adjust to get a wide variety of sounds; small drums set up on stands; a conga drum; and a bullhorn which seemed to have some kind of party blower, or kazoo in the mouthpiece. Most interesting of all was a man with long hair, who, while the equipment was being set up, took a large piece of wood with the bark still attached, and hung it up from the ceiling. Another piece was carved already. It seemed like he had kept the shape of the wood, and chiseled the bark and a layer of the wood off it till it was smooth. The untouched one, now hanging from the ceiling, he wrapped plastic and burlap around, and when the music started, he began chiseling away at it. He continued chiseling while the musicians played. It was obviously an improvisation, and there seemed to be some pre-recorded music they were improvising along with. Though they were switching instruments regularly, and the taishou koto player was finding many different ways to produce sounds out of his instrument, the piece really didn’t seem to develop much. That was OK. The sculptor kept repositioning himself and the wood to chisel away at different parts of it. Meanwhile, the whole thing was being videotaped by a young woman, and regularly the live video she was shooting would appear on the screen behind them, interspersed with other tapes. Though neither the wood, nor the music, took any obvious shape, with the whole thing being videotaped, and the pile of woodchips on the floor growing steadily, it did approach some kind of performance art/happening. It was unique.

Retada/Steve Eto/Chimp Beams--Pianos--3/5/04
Steve Eto set up next, and this time he was all alone. He set up a microphone center stage, His drums were stage left, and his synth drum. conga drum, and effects were stage right. Behind him on a screen played videos of his own creation, one for each of the songs he performed. It was almost as if he was playing his CD, and at each point choosing one instrument, generally percussion or vocals, to perform for us while the track played. Once or twice when he was doing the vocals on a bullhorn, he almost seemed to be miming the vocals rather than actually singing them. His drumming was impressive. His electronic tinkering and vocals were innovative. The last song featured a kind of distorted hip-hop scat. The videos were varied, used a lot of animation, and comic aspects were usually out front, often in the music as well as the videos. An animated dog was featured regularly, and Steve announced before the last song that his own dog had been killed recently in L.A. That was the only moment that even approached sombreness. The music throughout the show was uplifting. His performance, running around between the various instruments, and commenting physically on various aspects of the videos, was humorous, and his performance on the various instruments, including the bullhorn which he often used without the microphone, was all fun. It was quite the improvement over the improvisational show I had seen before, and I was very happy I had decided to come.

Steve Eto/Gelatine/The Cheat--B.P.M.--11/12/05
Steve Eto set up quickly, and somewhat humbly requested all the people who had left the room after GELATINE’s hot set to please return. Most of them did, though THE CHEAT and their fans seemed to have called it a night. Again, he was alone on stage. He played drums, including a conga drum, and a practice-pad which had a number of tone adjustments, and even a kind of theremin type device. He also had a megaphone which produced a tone that could be manipulated. Behind him various styles of videos of his songs were shown, some colorfully animated, some filmed, and many mixed. He played along with his songs on his various instruments, adding his live performance to the mix that accompanied the films. The music, which had a lot of variation and used some interesting lead instruments, was almost always upbeat, computer generated music. I wasn’t knocked out by it, and yet watching him enjoy playing along with his tunes was fun. He was obviously having a great time doing it. Some of the most repeated images in his videos were a white animated dog and mushrooms. There were also clips of him singing, his lone, bald head surrounded by darkness, and another clip of him, in a wild array of footwear, tapping out percussive accents to one of his songs. The crowd enjoyed the fun he was obviously having, and the interestingly multi-layered, multi-media performance.

Falsies On Heat

Japan Girls Nite: Gitogito Hustler/Bleach 03/Noodles/Falsies On Heat/Red Bacteria Vacuum--Bowery Ballroom--10/21/07
Wow! What a night! This special Japan Girls Nite ‘07, brought to us by Audrey Kimura of Sister/Benten Records, is only happening once, right here in New York, and was lots of fun, but then, I knew it would be. The crowd wasn’t that big, but it was OK for a Sunday night, and the crowd was enthusiastically enjoying themselves more and more as the night went on. Interested in getting an OK to photograph the event, I had warned Audrey that Bowery Ballroom was usually very strict about photography, so I found it humorous when I saw a bouncer, who had that night accused me of videotaping, pulling Audrey aside for videotaping her own show. Oh yeah, and I think every band told us that they loved New York, though one of the guitarists of FALSIES ON HEAT may have spit and pretended to heave shortly after telling us how much she loved our city.
FALSIES ON HEAT were up next. They’re a quartet. My friend Roger, who really liked them, told me they reminded him of New York No Wave. To me, they sounded like quirky for kicks pop music. Their music had a cute aspect to it. The drummer and bassist were good, and kept the songs together and rolling. The two guitarists, who both sang, though technically a bit wanting as guitarists, gave each of the songs the peculiar qualities that kept them unique. They often added cute little lead lines that sounded like advertising jingles to songs that otherwise loped along to a comfortable rock beat. Best of all, one of the guitarists, would flirt with the audience, then raise her eyebrows and let us know she was taking the piss out of us. She didn’t really seem to have any more respect for the music they were playing. Several times she got down on the stage on her back, kicking her legs up, and when the drummer had to run off stage to replace the snare, she was happy to keep us entertained. She, apparently, was the comedian of the group. Their songs didn’t always work, but they kept things interesting with their clowning and their sonic curveballs. Oddest of all was the bassist, who played well, but, except when she was singing, kept her back to the audience at all times. I mentioned this to her and some of her friends later, and was told that she was shy and being mysterious. I couldn’t get past it being a bit weird, but that fit perfectly in this band. They were having a good time in their own peculiar way. By the by, RED BACTERIA VACUUM and FALSIES ON HEAT are headed over to the west coast next for four dates. Check ‘em out for yourself!

Fantasy’s Core

Qypthone/Himawari/Creme Blush/Spoozys/Peelander-Z/Condor 44/Fantasy’s Core--New York -- Tokyo Music Festival--5/26/02
This night of the New York -- Tokyo Music Festival was quite the success. Let’s hope it does become an annual event! The pier was a nice place to be. The wide variety of bands was intriguing. The MC regularly mispronounced the bands’ names, when he knew them at all, but that’s a small complaint. The bands set up quickly and kept coming.
FANTASY’S CORE opened up the night. Unfortunately there weren’t many people there yet to enjoy their rockin’ set. It didn’t seem to phase them. The five piece band, with two guitarists and a lead singer with a racing stripe of war-paint down the center of his face are a rockin’ beat band. They’ve got some nice songs, and the singer puts on a show and was obviously having a great time. There was some goofiness with a toy light sabor, and twenty or so plastic balls slapped out into the audience with a racquetball racket, but frankly, this band doesn’t need the goofball schtick. The blues based rock they bash out is tight and mean. Sure, you’ve heard these riffs before, but the rhythm guitarist was dead on, the lead guitarist cranked, and the singer’s vocals outshone any of his stage antics.

Fantasy’s Core--Meow Mix--3/26/04
When Ryota and I arrived, FANTASY’S CORE was setting up, but it was still early and not many people had arrived. Mao Karisu, the singer, was walking around with his racing stripe running down the middle of his face. Unfortunately, only a few more people had joined us when they kicked into their set. This is a rock band, and they do know how to rock. A couple of times during the set Mao announced, “I don’t know how to speak English well, but I know how to speak rock,” and rock they did. With a standard two guitar line-up, they played through a strong set with an above average number of catchy hooks. Many of the songs are composed of standard blues-based rock riffs, but they often found ways to spice those up, by paddling small balls out into the audience, or playing call and response games with the small but enthusiastic crowd. Tonight, because of the small stage, the bassist was placed directly behind one of the guitarists. Maybe, in compensation, he was the loudest one in the band tonight. The last time I saw them I had noticed how good both the guitarists were, but with the bass so loud tonight, it became very apparent what a wonderful addition he is to the band. Aside from the racing stripe and a few odd props they haven’t really added any new ideas to the standard rock equation, but they do a damn good job of using tried and true riffs to rock up a good party, and Mao’s antics keep things entertaining. I believe their material has improved a bit since last time I saw them, too. At the end of the set they received enthusiastic applause and yells from the small audience, and though they obviously hadn’t planned to, they were coaxed back up on stage for two more numbers. It was good to see them again, and a shame that the majority of the crowd didn’t arrive until well after they had packed up their instruments for the night.

Fantasy’s Core/Chris Glover--Sin-é--3/29/05
FANTASY’S CORE had a bit of trouble setting up. Mao Karisu, the lead vocalist with a white stripe down his face, was taking some test jumps to keep his energy level up, but eventually things were straightened out, and he joined the rest of the band on stage. Once they got started, there was no stopping them. They went from one song straight into the next thoughout the set. Even when Mao was talking with the audience, or whacking plastic balls out at us with a small racket, there was usually something like an opening bass line being repeated, and the rest of the band always knew exactly when to kick in. The material has expanded a bit since last time I saw FANTASY’S CORE. Some of the newer songs have slower passages that had a kind of spacy/psychedelic feel, but even those songs had rockin’ portions where the tempo picked up, and those uptempo sections sometimes presented a rockin’ comic edge, especially with Mao’s exaggerated movements. The guitarist in the pin-stripe suit also did a good bit of classic jumping about. The entire band wears suits, making them one of the better dressed bands in the business, and their two-guitar rockin’ attack is formidable. To open the set, Mao had pulled out his light saber and stabbed himself through the head. To close the set, the light saber came out once again, and he stabbed himself in the chest. I was told the band will be playing Boston tomorrow, so don’t worry. The invincible Mao survived both suicide attempts, and will wield his light sabor into the future.

Fantasy’s Core/Kung-Fu Grip/Randy Nerve!--Southpaw--11/8/06
FANTASY’S CORE came out and rocked the small crowd with energy and flash. Mao, the lead singer, was wearing his white racing stripe down the center of his face, and they were there to rock! Mao started off with a light sabor, which he pantomimed stabbing himself in the head with. It was not the last prop, and it was not the last schtick we’ve seen before. “I don’t speak English,” he said, though actually he seems to speak English fairly well, “but I speak rock and roll!” That always gets a good cheer. It didn’t take him long to win over this small crowd. He had them rooting for FANTASY’S CORE in practically no time at all, and they are a band well worth rooting for. They’re a classic rock band. Mao puts on a show, and the band are a tight, disciplined rock band. The drummer is right there. The bassist is subtle, but artful, and either of the two guitarists can lay out a lead that puts just the right edge on a song. Together, they are a strong rockin’ band. Mao moves about the stage constantly, clowning, jumping, dancing, entertaining and inciting the audience, and he’s a good singer, too. The material is fairly standard rock music, with some nice pop touches that give it flash, but I’ve seen this band a number of times now, and they always put on a very enjoyable show. Hey, they rock!

Plushgun/Fantasy’s Core--Southpaw--1/23/08
I arrived just as MOTION TURNS IT ON was breaking down their equipment. Soon, FANTASY’S CORE was setting up, and it wasn’t long before Mao Karisu, FANTASY’S CORE’s leader and lead singer, started a dialogue with the audience by chanting and encouraging the audience to join him. As always, he wore a white racing stripe down the center of his face. Fairly quickly, the band launched into their first song, and the set was underway. They are a very tight band, and went from one song into the next with no noticeable cues. Mao is still using various props, but their importance in the stage show seems to have diminished a bit, as if now they just keep him busy in between his various dancing, jumping, and stalking of the stage. This band can play, and what they play is rock. After a few songs, Derek, of MOTION TURNS IT ON jumped up on stage with them and held up the titles of the songs written out on large pieces of paper. Perhaps that was to make sure the audience could understand, but most of the titles were in English, and Mao’s pronunciation is pretty good these days, even if his English isn’t. Or, as he says, “I don’t speak English, but I speak rock ‘n’ roll!” Mao moves about the stage a good deal in a very theatrical manner, and the rest of the band plays enthusiastically behind him. Only one song slowed down the pace a bit, and in it a classic guitar riff was played by both the guitarists, but they took turns, each playing a bit of the riff, and then allowing the other to play part of it. Then it was back to the rocking. The final song built up to a crescendo, and then they held it there, pumping the finale of the song until it didn’t seem they knew how to stop it. One by one, each member of the band took a solo as the rest of the band stopped, when they stopped, they would jump into the air, and the rest of the band would start in again. When everyone had had their chance, they pumped things up one last time, and then all jumped up into the air, finally finishing the song and their set.

Far East Native

Far East Native/Drag Citizen/Peelander-Z--CBGBs--9/28/03
BoogieWoogieCafe.Com, a New York based internet radio station (in Japanese), presented this, and used it to create and celebrate their 100th show.
FAR EAST NATIVE are a hard rock trio. They started out with a rendition of ‘The Star Spangled Banner’ on harmonica, and after a song, the guitarist/singer did a short speech to the audience in English. Later, there were longer speeches in Japanese by both him and the bassist, but mostly those speeches seemed to be addressed to the video cameras, and radio audience. As the set went on, they very much convinced me what excellent musicians all three of them are. I was especially impressed with the bassist, who regularly laid down very nice runs that brought out a melodious aspect not usually associated with the bass guitar in rock. The material was well written, and diverse. It included beautiful power ballads and hard rockers that showed off the band’s prowess quite well. Unfortunately, their music, though very well done, stays in a standard rock format. It gives us an example of how it can be done well, but doesn’t add to the mix. The most dramatic moment of their show was a tape that played in English about the plane that dropped the bomb on Hiroshima. The band stood still on the stage while the tape played, and the audience responded with silence. Then the band launched into one of their most powerful rockers. They’re a talented band, and if you are looking for an example of how standard hard rock can be done well, they’ll fill the bill.

Flight Of Idea

Flight Of Idea/The Vondells/Crusher/Sweet Machine--Cave Canem--10/18/07
This was a Frank Wood, anti-CMJ party, as he said a number of times. There were nine bands, and it was only $5.00. Unfortunately, some of the bands decided that since there were nine bands, they’d play shorter sets. It was my first visit to Cave Canem. It’s in Lucky Cheng’s basement, and is a standard rock ‘n’ roll dive, but Frank Wood’s razzle-dazzle kept things hoppin’.
FLIGHT OF IDEA are a rock band with a poet out front on vocals and saxophone. The band are a drummer, a bassist, and a guitarist. Technically they’re good. They can play, but tonight they only played about three or four songs. The second song, the singer introduced as an improvisation. It was definitely looser, and more chaotic than the others, but none of the songs seemed to have much structure. The band made a lot of noise, and the drummer kept the pace rocking, but the most interesting things were the bassist’s jumping around, and the squawking of the saxophone when the singer had finished his verbal attack. The bassist bounced out into the audience once, and stayed there for a while. He seemed to be having a good time. The guitarist made a lot of use of his distortion effects, and his guitar seemed to squeal a good deal as the band charged out into the unknown. The singer often appears without the band as a poet. His vocals seemed to be pretty much a poetry rant, which would perhaps have been more interesting to an audience that understood Japanese. I did enjoy his outbursts on the saxophone, but it was all over before I could make it past the chaos.

Fushitsusha

Fushitsusha--Tonic--11/16/02
I’m not sure why I didn’t think about it yesterday (when I saw Keiji Haino alone), but the new Tonic layout is much improved. Getting there early is still a good idea, but it doesn’t feel nearly as cramped. Tonight Fushitsusha was Keiji Haino on guitar and vocal, and Yasushi Ozawa on bass guitar. There seemed to be very little interaction between the two; meaning that Haino led, and Ozawa followed as best he could. Largely Ozawa did a good job, but now and again he would find himself keeping a beat that went against what Haino was doing, and it was always Ozawa who had to change. Keiji Haino is a true spirit. He goes his own way. Take it or leave it. This was a much different show than the one he did on his own the night before, and Ozawa, and the brand name FUSHITSUSHA might well have been the reason. They opened up the set with a sonic roar that lasted about eight minutes. It was the only song of the set with no vocals. Haino’s vocals are all over the map, and tonight he seemed to approach each song from a different vocal perspective. He started off the second song with a strange, slow, loop of beats from his rhythm machine. Some of it was beautiful, with tentative guitar lines, and falsetto vocals, but it became abrasive, and went on too long. The next song was more of a rocker. In a way, it was the most similar to some of the things I had seen Haino do the previous night, but in this situation, standing up, he had a lot more freedom of movement, and as the songs got louder, and his guitar playing became more intense, his body jerked about like electric volts were shooting through it. I’m relatively certain that they did one of the songs Haino had done the night before--the one I had decided was vaguely similar to ‘Little Town of Bethlehem’, but about halfway through Haino adjusted the tones of the single-note run he had looping through his boxes, and the second half of the song sounded like a random series of bells from inside a bell tower. A couple of the songs in the set were real rockers--one of them with changes that Ozawa was obviously familiar with. For me it was probably the highlight of the set. The very last song of the set was another rocker, and it stirred up the very appreciative crowd, who clapped and howled, and successfully brought them back for an encore. It was a very short encore, but I was impressed that they came back out at all. The music was at times powerful, at other times quite delicate--an impressive range.

Fuzzass

Soundscapes/Fuzzass/King Hell--Pianos--12/11/06
FUZZASS took a while setting up, and then had some problems with various aspects of their equipment. FUZZAZZ, it turned out, are three guitarists. They also had a laptop, controlled by a foot pedal. The backing tracks included drums, other effects, and occasionally bass and back-up vocals. The woman sang the lead vocals, and both the men sang back-up vocals occasionally. The beats, though fairly loud in the mix, stuck to slow tempos. The woman’s vocals were gentle and hesitant. Two of the guitars generally played such a determined rhythm it almost made you wonder what they needed the drum tracks for. One of the guitarists occasionally went for some feedback, but otherwise all three of the guitars were played in a surprisingly restrained manner. The songs, which lacked dynamic structure, did meander now and then into a haunting beauty.

& Others--Live (D-F) Demi Semi Quaver