On October 5, 2009, I had the chance to catch Japandroids as they invaded Great Scott in Allston, MA. Great Scott has firmly established itself as the venue to catch creative new bands on the rise. For those not in the know, Japandroids broke into the garage rock scene earlier this year with the release of their debut full-length Post-Nothing. The record is nothing short of impressive and contains nine catchy yet noisy tracks of rock including "Young Hearts Spark Fire" which was included in my article on the 250 Songs You Need to Hear from the 2000s. The two-piece from Vancouver took the opportunity to show attendees that they are just as powerful live as they are on record.
The band started things on an off-note with the crowd settling in and the mix sounding unbalanced. I was beginning to get concerned that it wasn't going to be the performance that I had hoped for after listening to their album so many times. However, the band quickly delivered the energy I had wanted after they got their bearings straight and the crowd started to get energized. In order to really get things kicking, the band announced that they usually save this number for the end of the set but they wanted to do it now and then launched into an amazing cover of McLusky's "To Hell with Good Intentions". The show was going full throttle at this point and they continued strong with "Rockers East Vancouver" and "Young Hearts Spark Fire" which had everyone feverishly screaming along.
Vocalist/guitarist Brian King sang passionately while thrashing his guitar around on stage with a fan blowing his hair back. Paired with David Prowse beating his drumset into submission on the side of him, the two created the illusion that we were not in a small bar but in a giant arena. The duo put on an extraordinary show and created more noise than I thought was possible for two people to make. The only complaint that came from the performance was the mysterious absence of fan favorite "Wet Hair". Playing songs I wasn't expecting such as "Darkeness on the Edge of Gastown" and "I Quit Girls", I still felt fully satisfied with the set. Post-Nothing will probably be in my top 10 albums of the year and should definitely be heard by more people than it has been. Grab it below and get a legit copy if you like what you hear. Also, catch them when they come to your town!
DOWNLOAD
I also want to give a quick shout out to The Coathangers who opened the show and completely won me over. Comprised of four attractive girls completely punishing their instruments, they were quite an appropriate opener. Songs like "Stomp Stomp Stomping" and "Pussywillow" were as fun and noisy as music gets. They also kept things interesting by switching instruments throughout their performance. Definitely a group to keep an eye out for… Below is a video of drummer Stephanie Luke getting a tattoo of her bandmates as ghouls from the show LA Ink.
No comments:
Post a Comment