October 24th, 2009
Seattle, WA
Pay attention to the music your favorite musicians like and take notes! It’s a no-brainer for any fan of any band. If you think highly of Sonic Youth, Nirvana, and Redd Kross, you needn’t look further into their personal record collections for a first-rate pick than the all-girl, J-rock band Shonen Knife. On Saturday, October 24, Osaka’s answer to the Ramones played the Tractor Tavern with Connecticut Four and Visqueen, making it a night of girl-driven power pop.
Connecticut Four are three girls from Bellingham who play their brand of raucous music like the next generation riot girls they are. “We’re hot, oh and our music is good too!” bassist Cristina Bautista repeated onstage after one of the many middle aged, baseball-hatted men who happened to be in front, spilling their beer and sticky-ing up the floor, yelled to her. The audience cheered for their set of crunchy guitars and crashing drums balanced out by almost sultry vocals. Although an awkward hush did fall over the crowd when guitarist Meghan Kessinger announced, “This song is called ‘get off me dad you’re crushing my smokes.’” I really couldn’t tell if she was kidding or not.
Rolling right along, up next was local act Visqueen. With their new album Message to Garcia, Visqueen’s broad appeal truly threatens to take them mainstream, which nowadays too often borders on the generic (cello player notwithstanding). Nonetheless I can’t help but feel that this is the direction music should go in. Loud, strong, edgy, and authentic, with emphasis on song craftsmanship. According to Visqueen’s lead singer and guitarist Rachel Flotard, she intoned from the stage, “We wanna make Seattle proud so bad… we’re gonna represent as far as this little thing will take us.”
Naoko Yamano, guitarist and founding member of Shonen Knife, has kept the band going in some incarnation since 1982, currently with bassist Ritsuko Taneda and drummer Etsuko Nakanishi. Shonen Knife may be pushing thirty years old, but still haven’t moved out the garage (sound) yet. Looking like a Motown girl group in their matching outfits and sounding like the Ramones sucked in helium balloons, Shonen Knife quickly won the crowd’s hearts, minds, and stomachs; to the best of my knowledge, only Weird Al Yankovic is also this inspired by food. Songs from their set included “Banana Chips,” “Sushi Bar,” “I Wanna Eat Chocobars,” and fresh off their lates album Super Group, “BBQ Party.” “Let’s pig out with Shonen Knife!” said Naoko as she smiled to the crowd. “And don’t worry about your diet!”
Shonen Knife setlist:
Konichiwa
Banana Chips
Super Group
A Map Monster
Barnacle
Johnny Johnny Johnny
I Wanna Eat Chocobars
BBQ Party
Ramones Forever
Devil House
Twist Barbie
Antonio Baka Guy
Pyramid Power
E: Sushi Bar
0 comments:
Post a Comment