I Just Read About That…

[ATTENDED: September 20, 2023] Melt-Banana

I’ve known about Melt-Banana for years.  I knew they were loud and fast and were from Japan.  But I didn’t know much beyond that.  Turns out they’ve never had a permanent drummer.  They like the freedom of a drum machine.  For over twenty years they had a bass player (Rika Hamamoto) but when they decided to tour again recently, they decided to go just as as duo Yasuko Onuki – vocals and Ichiro Agata – guitars, effects.

After getting all of their gear set up, Yasuko calmly stood with a colorful videogame controller looking device in her hand.  A wall of amps and a laptop behind her.  Off to her left a few feet was Ichiro, with a guitar, a huge array of pedals and his own wall of amps.

He played fast and he looped his sounds and did a million things most of which I can’t even fathom.  Yasuko had her device and from time to time, she would wave her hand and presumably push a button on the gadget and the drums and bass blasted out of the speakers.  And these drums sounded great–they sounded real and not like a preprogrammed device.  I actually wondered if they were somehow triggering the drumset that was set up behind them (they weren’t).

Yasuko sings very high, very fast and sounds kind of angry.  But she never looked angry.  And she never broke a sweat (while Ichiro was a sweaty mess).

They played a whole bunch of songs, I can’t even imagine how anyone could tell them apart.  But someone did, as the setlist below is from the NY show but I believe it is the same (or roughly so) of ours–comparing my clips to what the songs are, it seems like the setlist was the same each night.

About half way through, Yasuko brought over a mic stand with a piece of paper taped to it.  There were 8 lines in Japanese.  She said they were going to play 8 very sort songs and proceeded to play the 8 songs in less than 3 minutes.

After that they were back to longer songs.   The last three songs of the set are around the 4 minute mark.

It was wild and fun and unpredictable.  And the crowd was totally into it.  In fact, this guy who cut in front of me to be right on the stage said he was going to see them tomorrow as well.  He moved away for the last song so he could join the inevitable pit and did not return for Igorrr.

Melt-Banana haven’t put out a new record in about ten years.  But they tour all the time.  So catch them if you can.

1. Chain-Shot to Have Some Fun ≡
2. The Hive €
3. Vertigo Game €
4. To Raffle or not to Raffle ∇
5. Lie Lied Lies €
6. Case D in the Test Tube ℵ
7. So Unfilial Rule (0:14) (Discordance Axis song) ψ
8. T for Tone (0:16) ß
9. Lock the Head (0:28) ß
10. Scrubber (0:17) §
11. We Love Choco-Pa! (0:16) ©
12. First Defy (0:11) ⊗
13. Screw, Loose (0:24) §
14. His Name Is Mickey (At Last She Got Him…) (0:22) ⇔
15. Killer Garden in the Bottle ∞
16. Sakura Spiral ∞
17. My Missing Link €
18. Infection Defective €
19. Candy Gum €

BOLD songs are part of the “short song” segment

∞ split single with Napalm Death (2016)
€ Fetch (2013)
ß Bambi’s Dilemma (2007)
ψ 13 Hedgehogs (MxBx Singles 1994–1999)
≡ Cell-Scape (2003)
⊗ MxBx 1998 / 13,000 Miles at Light Velocity (1999)
⇔ Scratch or Stitch (1995)
© Cactuses Come in Flocks (1994)
§ Speak Squeak Creak (1994)

∇ Japan is Loud [Adult Swim compilation 2022]
ℵ Noise [Adult Swim compilation 2016]