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It was a short New Blood-letting at Harajuku Astro Hall when Tokyo Police Club played there on Tuesday Night for the 44th installment of the new music series. The band, widely heralded as the next big indie thing and a favorite with the hipper-than-thou bloggerati, drew a balanced mix of two hundred or so fans and the curious to witness their first show in the city they name check. The Canadian outfit has been touring solidly and earning acclaim for the past year off the back of an 8-song EP, A Lesson In Crime. The album is just over 16 minutes long (if you count the bonus track) and a study in succinct garage pop fervor, with most tunes clocking in at about two minutes in length. As brief as it is, A Lesson In Crime has managed to land them gigs on the Coachella Valley Festival, V-Festival, Late Night with David Letterman, the upcoming Lollapalooza Festival followed by a headlining North American club tour―not to mention intense coverage from the shallow end of the online meme-pool. Good work if you can get it. The band came on stage just after 7pm and started things off with a feedback bang that had guitar player Josh Hook dangling his Gibson by the strings in front of his amp. They then literally jumped into their first number, bouncing and worming around for the catchy "Cheer It On", the opening track from their EP. An easy choice, since the self-referencing refrain, "When you're standing there / Tokyo Police Club," had people bobbing their heads, swinging their hips and tapping their feet instantly. From that moment forward the hand clapping, agonized background shouting, check-us-out-we're-alternative writhing, and bad percussion didn't let up. After swiftly moving through their first five numbers, lead singer and bass player David Monks finally spoke to the crowd. The young front man was genuinely endearing as he played with his floppy bangs and giggled humbly that, "We're, umm, from Toronto..." If the Tokyo fans wanted some comment or insight about their moniker and how they were now actually playing here, they never got it. In fact, it was one of the very few times in the show the band stopped to say anything. Instead, they roared right in to their next song with guitar player Hook bashing on an extra snare drum set up in front of the drum kit. The extra percussion was a consistent factor during the show with Hook and keyboard player Graham Wright taking turns at some point during most of the songs to energetically pound out some backing rhythm or syncopation. Either that or they were teaching young drummer Greg Alsop how to keep time. Alsop seemed to be off beat more than once during the show, and unfortunately appeared to be trying to keep up to the pace of the other members rather than setting it. They hand clapped their way through "Be Good", getting most of the people gathered in the front to join them before they officially asked the rest of the audience to help them out on the next song "Citizens of Tomorrow", one of the standout tracks from A Lesson In Crime. The song's futuristic robot lyrical theme combines languid fluidity in Monks vocal delivery interspersed with vigorous pop energy that is just long enough to suck you in, just short enough to always leave you wanting more. As they played it live I decided it was my favorite track off the album, a pure garage pop gem with no extraneous fluff. They rumbled through "La Ferrasie" and others until they finished their first single, "Nature of the Experiment". Then Monks once again humbly thanked the audience for coming out, saying they had one more tune and hoped to be back. They played another two and a half minute song before they disappeared from the stage and the house lights came up. In all it was 13 songs of loose percussion and tight noise that included everything from their short EP and a handful of other tunes I wasn't familiar with, but hope end up on a soon-to-be-released full length disc. It was energetic, entertaining but not altogether engaging for this writer, although judging from the audience's appreciation at the end I'm sure some would argue with me. Tokyo Police club will probably end up back here in the summer playing one of music festivals, or for a club tour. If so, I hope they bring more songs and an opening act or two. I'm sure the band would be astonished to find out that people here shelled out the equivalent of 45 dollars Canadian to witness a 35-minute teaser. Citizens of tomorrow, be forewarned. |
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report by jeff |
 mag files : Tokyo Police Club Clap Your Hands Say Tokyo Police Club : (07/05/01 @ Harajuku Astro Hall) : review by jeff |
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Tokyo Police Club http://www.tokyopoliceclub.net/ www.myspace.com/tokyopoliceclub check him? -->iTunes The latest album  "A Lesson in Crime" (国内盤 / UK import / UK import / US import / iTunes - Japanese Edition) |
previous works
check the albums? |
 2007Juliette Gets Her Licks In : Juliette & The Licks (20th May. @ Liquid Room, Ebisu)Clap Your Hands Say Tokyo Police Club : Tokyo Police Club (1st May. @ Harajuku Astro Hall) |