Shonen Knife are basically the musical equivalent of a visit to Camp Snoopy, and being in the audience of a Shonen Knife show is to see through two different sights.
The first scope is your basic human eyesight. Through this, I saw myself simply and dully: the tallest girl in attendance, very likely the heaviest. I clocked the presence of many men. Middle-aged. Almost all without female companions.
The second scope is comparable to peering through a Magnum Power 675X telescope into the late night sky. The images captured are much more precise, unconcerned with the peripheral, focused rather on what truly matters--your reality as one of many, ecstatically immersed.
A Shonen Knife show is like being ensnared in a web formed of strawberry jelly, with three slyly-smiling spiders approaching you, each arachnoid a sickly-sweet amalgamation of sushi, marshmallow and bananas. Far from being the fearful, sweat-stinking victim, you are just one big beautiful candy bar swimming in nougat.
The night didn't start out great. Prior to the drive down to DC, I had taken one-and-a-half Vicodin tablets for nagging back pain. (It had to be pretty damn Marge Simpson for me to acquiesce to such powerful medication.) Dinner was a turkey salad sandwich, chips, dips and two kinds of salad--macaroni and a particularly tangy bowtie pasta. Once Patrick and I began the journey, my usual motion sickness kicked in, but much more intense than normal. The slightest visual stimuli became unbearable, and I spent the majority of the trip slumped in the passengers seat, eyes forced shut, head and gut throbbing, the sounds of Easter by the Patti Smith Group wafting from the CD player. The conversation was thankfully sparse.
"She's saying 'space monkey', right?"
"Yeah. That's the name of the song."
"Thurston Moore probably sings 'Because the Night' in the shower."
I missed the virtually barren blocks of Georgia Avenue that chilly Saturday as I tried the defense of stillness and temporary blindness against the lurching roil in my stomach. Mere blocks from the club, I made Patrick pull over to an empty parking space on a side street so I could admit defeat. Naturally, the release made me feel instantly worlds better. Of course, with every positive comes a negative, namely...puke-breath.
Hanging in the Black Cat's red room is always a comforting experience. Nothing better than to lean back against the couch cushions, relax, read up on the free issue of The Onion you grabbed from the mini-newspaper rack by the entrance ("New Sexual Harassment Policy Masturbated To") and marvel at the arcade game table that simply reads "multi game" on the side. It's also the most immaculate environment imaginable if you want to suddenly stand and have your significant others digital camera fall from your coat pocket onto the wooden floor, causing a thud rather than a clatter as it lands. No damage, but I was mildly berated by Patrick ("I can't take you anywhere").
At 9, the doors opened, and we hopped on up to the mainstage. A sharp right to the merch table revealed the sundry 30 buck import albums one must expect at such a gig. Fun! Fun! Fun! (the very newest SK wreck-hard, of which I have only heard snippets) was among these items, but I only had 30 on me to begin with. Once I saw the sweet black-and-green seahorse shirts for 20 bucks and the mega-rare SK/Thurston Moore "All I Want For Christmas" CD single from 1999 for 10 dollars, I knew where Alex and Andy would go.
Making our way to the front of the stage, I regaled Patrick with the backstory of said holiday non-standard.
"Naoko Yamano wants to do another Shonen Knife Christmas song, but she doesn't wanna write the lyrics. So she e-mails Thurston Moore and asks him to write lyrics. He sends 'em back, she writes the music, there ya go. Must be nice." Only very recently had I even heard this song via download, but I never stopped wanting the physical disc; it also includes a Thurston remix of the Knife classic "Cannibal Papaya", the best song about man-eating fruit since "Rhinestone Cowboy".
Time was passed with "Captain Purple". He's an older man, silver-haired and mustachioed-out, a big fan of the power-pop Shonen Knife traffics in. He's a generally genial sort, and would probably take a bullet for Allison Wolfe, but he kinda confused me when he dismissed Patti Smith as "too mainstream" for his tastes.
There were two openers on this night: Verona Grove and the Juliet Dagger, in that order.
Verona Grove were OK for two songs, after which they ceased to be an entity. Decent power pop chug, but the vocals reeked of mad Fall Out Boy. The drummer wore a shirt emblazoned with the word HAPPY bookended by skull 'n crossbones and made the kind of "fuck dude, I'm so gellin'!" faces that are easily chalked up to youthful exuberance but become intolerable when the band around him is churning out the Diet Rock brand of crap rock that's ruining Modern Rock radio. I began thinking of things that could possibly sound more stilted and half-assed than Verona Grove: Naoko Yamano biting into half of a bean burrito and then, without swallowing, reciting Remembrance of Things Past from the original French manuscript? Yeah, maybe, but at least I like burritos.
Also, their intro music was the theme to "Kill Bill". Hmm. Not a great sign, using a selection from the soundtrack to a film released this century. Say what you will about Metallica and Smashing Pumpkins, they recognize the importance of age in lending gravitas.
I did like their between-song exhortations to "hang out" at the bar and talk post-performance. A proletariat Fall Out Boy, then.
The Juliet Dagger were much better, a quartet fronted by a female singer/guitarist. They had all of the energy that almost salvaged Verona Grove, but were aided and abetted by actual good songs (and quite a few that sounded great).
Awaiting the Knife that is Shonen, I appraised the audience and found, in addition to the expected middle-aged dudes with crazy Asian babe fetish, that there were a refreshing number of young ladies who looked ready to screech and squeal and dance the mess up and down. In all honesty, I will take balding 40-somethings who actually seem to enjoy the music they paid to listen to and express this by dancing and yelling in tongues over the typical Sonic Youth crowd of Buckingham Palace guards-in-training.
The udo of "Mango Juice" took over the PA and the girls appeared not long after, matching outfits and all. Guitarist/vocalist/overall grand poohbah Naoko Yamano and newbie drummer Etsuko Nakanishi even held up football scarves proclaiming SHONEN KNIFE OSAKA in case anyone forgot or didn't know from where these fine ladies hailed. Original Knife Atsuko Yamano is still touring as the bassist, despite actually quitting the recording life after Genki Shock, the album preceding Fun! Fun! Fun! (and the record proudly promoted by a banner behind the drumkit).
Predictably, things blasted off with "Konnichiwa", welcoming us all to the show. This firecracker of a hello was barely extinguished when the choppy Ramones-y "Twist Barbie" assaulted the hearts and souls of the audience. Seeing Shonen Knife play their older material reminds any fan of how far they've come since the fuzzy tenuous guitar playing and clattering percussion of Burning Farm. Naoko is an assured guitarist, fully committed to playing even as she stares age 50 head on, and Etsuko is a much looser, more accomplished drummer than Atsuko was at the same age. Also, every male in the room fell in love with her, Patrick speaking for all when he spake thus: "She's so fucking cute!"
As with the last Shonen show, the setlist was varied and pleasing. In several spots, orgasmic. I mean, "Concrete Animals"? When the fuck do they ever play that? I went insane off the first few seconds when I recognized the riff, but a delayed reaction was in order for a group of Knife-lifers behind me who started screaming and hooting in recognition only when Naoko started singing. As much as the gloss of Rock Animals made the songs hit and miss, "Concrete Animals" has always been a favorite of mine, and in concert it was doubly powerful for the brashness that a live setting--away from the squeaky-clean knob-twiddles of Page Porrazzo--can't help but bring. Nowhere was the band looser with material originally designed to sell them to alterna-America than in Etsuko's playfully tight drumming, which eschewed the uncharacteristic fills Atsuko played in the studio in favor of snare work that let the song breathe.
Atsuko got a turn at the mike for the bouncy "Whatever". Naoko delicately introduced "S.P.A.M." as a song inspired by endless spam emails deluging her inbox, which makes me think Knife fan Lee Ranaldo needs to give props where props is due, kid. 'Cause that track is from '05.
And since I've brought up yet another member of Sonic Youth...I've been to 38 of that legendary band's concerts. With the Internet posting reviews mere hours after the house lights come up and the band's stubborn refusal to make "surefire crowd-pleaser" setlists, it's almost impossible for me to be truly shocked at an SY concert. "Shaking Hell" for the Rather Ripped tour was incredible, but anyone who read the band's forum knew it was being brought back as a "new oldie" for the set, in the tradition of "Skip Tracer" or "White Kross". The expectation for a Sonic Youth show is the quality of the performance of a limited pool of generally outstanding songs. In between, there may be some grade-A banter.
The aforementioned "Concrete Animals" was a shock to the system. Honestly, I didn't think the girls could repeat that effect. But they did.
"In Japan, there are public baths."
Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaatttttttttttttt? THE CAPS LOCK IS ON IN MY SOUL!
"But they are...female and male baths."
Oh nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo! They're gonna do it! They're going to dust off one of their greatest-ever songs, and indisputably the best song ever written about bathing!
Straight from Patrick's camera to your heart:
Unreal...if you had told me beforehand that I would go to see Shonen Knife at the Black Cat and end up with the "All I Want For Christmas" single and see "Concrete Animals" and "Public Bath", well...I may have possibly spat out soy milk on your shoes. How dare you.
Frequently, Naoko would preface songs with explanatory gab (as evidenced above). Hence, "Sushi Bar" encouraged fans to yell out their favorite types of sushi as the girls looked on in obvious delight.
"Beef!" someone yelled.
"We do have beef sushi in Japan", Naoko allowed.
Atsuko then chimed in, "Yes, but it is rare."
HA! Seriously, it took me two seconds longer to catch that quip than it should have. Guess that's the trade-off for recognizing "Concrete Animals" with the quickness. I just stood there wondering why people were laughing and going "aww!" until it finally struck me: "Oh yeah! Rare!"
"Flu" was another Fun! tune, one of those raucous, pseudo-metal tracks that the Black Sabbath lover in Naoko cannot help but attempt. The joke is, the band pulls it off. While "Flu" is not as Luciferically delicious as "Buddha's Face", it was still quite, um...contagious. *coughs* Oh shit, I got the flu!
The show was almost stolen away, however, by another song off the new release.
"This is a song about the Ramones. It is called...'Ramones Forever'."
Huge applause. There is no band more qualified than Shonen Knife, themselves given the blessing years ago by the boys, to write and play a fucking song titled "Ramones Forever". It was, as one would surmise, three chords played real fast in service of the keeping the heart of music pumping.
“One day I heard music from the radio
It was so fun! An amazing discovery
Next day I bought the album and listened again
Then I started my own punk rock band...
At last we got the chance to be their opening band
Like a dream on the same stage as my rock stars
It was their last tour of Japan.”
How guileless and sincere. How I adore them for this. Interesting that they decided to make a tribute song to the Barons of Brevity that's about four minutes long, but that's a minor point.
"Giant Kitty" is the final song on Genki Shock and it was the last song of the evening before the encore break. A number with the refrain of "Big big big big cat!" Yes, it is that incredible. I was a bobbing, popping, headbanging and hair-flopping puddle of delight all night. Throttle into overdrive moment of the eve came when, to conclude this ode to a big ol' feline, Naoko matter-of-factly ceased strumming, removed the mic from its stand, and held it out to the audience. I was almost directly in front of her, so it didn't take long for my eager vibes to attract the microphone to me like a magnet. Under Naoko's wide, expectant grin, I knew exactly what to do.
"Big big big big cat!"
Right into that motherfucker.
Patrick was next up and, despite having just popped his "Giant Kitty" cherry, he proved a great learner. That makes now three times I have had a performer proffer the mic before me to yell their own lyrics back at them (the previous two: Kim Gordon during "Kool Thing" and Mark Mothersbaugh during "Jocko Homo").
Their encore was "Wonder Wine" and, I shit you never, a dependably cheerful cover of "Satisfaction" (with the line "Trying to make some girl" replaced with "Trying to make some money"). I didn't think the second time seeing Osaka's happiest finest could be any more pore-cleansing, any more able to infuse me with the desire to write with an eye towards apotheosis, but I'll be a goddamned black bass if they didn't do it.
Shonen Knife have fun making music. If the idea of having fun listening to music isn't anathema to your mind--if, in other words, you haven't let the cynicism of rockism infest your brain and rot your soul--Shonen Knife should already be in your vocabulary.
Need further convincing? Yeesh, aren't you a tough nut to crack. Well...just stay tuned.
Shonen Knife Black Cat
Predictably, things blasted off with "Konnichiwa", welcoming us all to the show. This firecracker of a hello was barely extinguished when the choppy Ramones-y "Twist Barbie" assaulted the hearts and souls of the audience. Seeing Shonen Knife play their older material reminds any fan of how far they've come since the fuzzy tenuous guitar playing and clattering percussion of Burning Farm. Naoko is an assured guitarist, fully committed to playing even as she stares age 50 head on, and Etsuko is a much looser, more accomplished drummer than Atsuko was at the same age. Also, every male in the room fell in love with her, Patrick speaking for all when he spake thus: "She's so fucking cute!"
As with the last Shonen show, the setlist was varied and pleasing. In several spots, orgasmic. I mean, "Concrete Animals"? When the fuck do they ever play that? I went insane off the first few seconds when I recognized the riff, but a delayed reaction was in order for a group of Knife-lifers behind me who started screaming and hooting in recognition only when Naoko started singing. As much as the gloss of Rock Animals made the songs hit and miss, "Concrete Animals" has always been a favorite of mine, and in concert it was doubly powerful for the brashness that a live setting--away from the squeaky-clean knob-twiddles of Page Porrazzo--can't help but bring. Nowhere was the band looser with material originally designed to sell them to alterna-America than in Etsuko's playfully tight drumming, which eschewed the uncharacteristic fills Atsuko played in the studio in favor of snare work that let the song breathe.
Atsuko got a turn at the mike for the bouncy "Whatever". Naoko delicately introduced "S.P.A.M." as a song inspired by endless spam emails deluging her inbox, which makes me think Knife fan Lee Ranaldo needs to give props where props is due, kid. 'Cause that track is from '05.
And since I've brought up yet another member of Sonic Youth...I've been to 38 of that legendary band's concerts. With the Internet posting reviews mere hours after the house lights come up and the band's stubborn refusal to make "surefire crowd-pleaser" setlists, it's almost impossible for me to be truly shocked at an SY concert. "Shaking Hell" for the Rather Ripped tour was incredible, but anyone who read the band's forum knew it was being brought back as a "new oldie" for the set, in the tradition of "Skip Tracer" or "White Kross". The expectation for a Sonic Youth show is the quality of the performance of a limited pool of generally outstanding songs. In between, there may be some grade-A banter.
The aforementioned "Concrete Animals" was a shock to the system. Honestly, I didn't think the girls could repeat that effect. But they did.
"In Japan, there are public baths."
Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaatttttttttttttt? THE CAPS LOCK IS ON IN MY SOUL!
"But they are...female and male baths."
Oh nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo! They're gonna do it! They're going to dust off one of their greatest-ever songs, and indisputably the best song ever written about bathing!
Straight from Patrick's camera to your heart:
Unreal...if you had told me beforehand that I would go to see Shonen Knife at the Black Cat and end up with the "All I Want For Christmas" single and see "Concrete Animals" and "Public Bath", well...I may have possibly spat out soy milk on your shoes. How dare you.
Frequently, Naoko would preface songs with explanatory gab (as evidenced above). Hence, "Sushi Bar" encouraged fans to yell out their favorite types of sushi as the girls looked on in obvious delight.
"Beef!" someone yelled.
"We do have beef sushi in Japan", Naoko allowed.
Atsuko then chimed in, "Yes, but it is rare."
HA! Seriously, it took me two seconds longer to catch that quip than it should have. Guess that's the trade-off for recognizing "Concrete Animals" with the quickness. I just stood there wondering why people were laughing and going "aww!" until it finally struck me: "Oh yeah! Rare!"
"Flu" was another Fun! tune, one of those raucous, pseudo-metal tracks that the Black Sabbath lover in Naoko cannot help but attempt. The joke is, the band pulls it off. While "Flu" is not as Luciferically delicious as "Buddha's Face", it was still quite, um...contagious. *coughs* Oh shit, I got the flu!
The show was almost stolen away, however, by another song off the new release.
"This is a song about the Ramones. It is called...'Ramones Forever'."
Huge applause. There is no band more qualified than Shonen Knife, themselves given the blessing years ago by the boys, to write and play a fucking song titled "Ramones Forever". It was, as one would surmise, three chords played real fast in service of the keeping the heart of music pumping.
“One day I heard music from the radio
It was so fun! An amazing discovery
Next day I bought the album and listened again
Then I started my own punk rock band...
At last we got the chance to be their opening band
Like a dream on the same stage as my rock stars
It was their last tour of Japan.”
How guileless and sincere. How I adore them for this. Interesting that they decided to make a tribute song to the Barons of Brevity that's about four minutes long, but that's a minor point.
"Giant Kitty" is the final song on Genki Shock and it was the last song of the evening before the encore break. A number with the refrain of "Big big big big cat!" Yes, it is that incredible. I was a bobbing, popping, headbanging and hair-flopping puddle of delight all night. Throttle into overdrive moment of the eve came when, to conclude this ode to a big ol' feline, Naoko matter-of-factly ceased strumming, removed the mic from its stand, and held it out to the audience. I was almost directly in front of her, so it didn't take long for my eager vibes to attract the microphone to me like a magnet. Under Naoko's wide, expectant grin, I knew exactly what to do.
"Big big big big cat!"
Right into that motherfucker.
Patrick was next up and, despite having just popped his "Giant Kitty" cherry, he proved a great learner. That makes now three times I have had a performer proffer the mic before me to yell their own lyrics back at them (the previous two: Kim Gordon during "Kool Thing" and Mark Mothersbaugh during "Jocko Homo").
Their encore was "Wonder Wine" and, I shit you never, a dependably cheerful cover of "Satisfaction" (with the line "Trying to make some girl" replaced with "Trying to make some money"). I didn't think the second time seeing Osaka's happiest finest could be any more pore-cleansing, any more able to infuse me with the desire to write with an eye towards apotheosis, but I'll be a goddamned black bass if they didn't do it.
Shonen Knife have fun making music. If the idea of having fun listening to music isn't anathema to your mind--if, in other words, you haven't let the cynicism of rockism infest your brain and rot your soul--Shonen Knife should already be in your vocabulary.
Need further convincing? Yeesh, aren't you a tough nut to crack. Well...just stay tuned.
Shonen Knife Black Cat
Aloha. Very nice posting on the Shonen Knife show. I also enjoyed the timeline of the band and the reviews of the albums that you posted recently.
ReplyDeleteI got to see the tour last week in Pomona, California. I had to travel 2500 miles to see it since hardly anyone ever puts Hawaii on their US tour.
It was a really small turnout for the show; maybe about 60-80 people tops. That was cool, because I got to hang out and talk story with the bands. Both Verona Grove and the Juliet Dagger put on decent sets and were very personable between sets and after the show. Erin from the Juliet Dagger was especially cool, and I would go to see them play again in a heartbeat. I just wish more people would have been into her set, because she has some really good tunes.
Of course, Shonen Knife were absolutely amazing.
One thing that I think seperates Shonen Knife from other bands is that they are exceedingly generous with their time. They are also genuinely nice.
Naoko took time to talk with us before the show and to complement my girlfriend on her Fun! Fun! Fun! shirt that I bought for her at the Tokyo show this summer.
They also stayed after the show to sign autographs for everyone and to talk story. I just don't know many bands that are that giving back to their fans. It's probably the reason that I'm willing to fly 2500 miles east or west to see them (we are halfway to Japan).
I just hope that they got good turnout on the rest of their stops so that they will come back for another US tour.
How large was the audience at the show that you went to?
P.S. I can make you a copy of Fun! Fun! Fun! if you want to review it.
Thanks for the kind words, Keith. :)
ReplyDeleteHard to really gauge the attendance from up front in DC...150-200, I think. Patrick may come in here and refute that though, he has a much better eye than me.
When I saw SK in '05 at the Black Cat, I stayed after the show and got my tour poster signed. I'm always blown away with the stories of how sweet they are to their fans.
"P.S. I can make you a copy of Fun! Fun! Fun! if you want to review it."
That would be great! Should I send you an email to sort the details?
Sure. You can drop me a line at hkedwards@gmail.com
ReplyDelete