I Just Read About That…

[ATTENDED: June 6, 2024] 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.

I saw them nine months ago when they opened for Igorrr.  I knew they toured a lot but I didn’t think they’d be back again as a headline act.

This show was really really packed and I was on the side of the stage so I didn’t really see all that much, but since there’s only two of them, it was actually not a bad place to stand.

The set wasn’t radically different from the last time I saw them.  I wrote:

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.

I don’t have any of their albums and their songs are kind of hard to listen to, but boy are they fun live.

I was super surprised when, after a dozen songs they played something i recognized (but not very well).  It turned out to be a Devo song and it was fantastic.  Then they played a few more songs and took a small break.

Ichiro Agata wears  mask on stage.  Last time, I assumed it had something to do with COVID, but I’ve since read that he was prone to nosebleeds. Beneath the mask he has cotton balls plugging his nose and usually removes them along with the mask quickly and privately off stage after the show.  I had read a follow up that he doesn’t really get the nosebleeds anymore, but he now just likes wearing the mask.  Another fun “fact:” Agata claims that he gets the inspiration for his guitar riffs from the moment of euphoria when achieving something on a video game (Tony Hawk’s is a favorite of his) and at that moment sings out the melody pattern and converts it to guitar.

Most of the set was new (to me) songs. Of course, they are all frantic and wild and basically the same, so it doesn’t really matte what they played.  But it’s cool that the songs were largely different from last time.

After the encore break they came back out and played the same very short songs that they played last time.  It was outstanding (the numbers for 2024 are  the same because I don’t have footage this time).

They ended with the same song they ended with last time.  I have no idea if they tend to mix up their setlists or what, but I was happy to hear anything they played.

I would absolutely see them again.  Although this time ‘d like to get there earlier to see them from the front–but their following is pretty dedicated and pretty intense.

** songs are part of the “short song” segment

+ 3+5 (2024)
∞ split single with Napalm Death (2016)
€ Fetch (2013)
ß Bambi’s Dilemma (2007)
ψ 13 Hedgehogs (MxBx Singles 1994–1999)
≡ Cell-Scape (2003)
‰ Teeny Shiny (2000)
⊗ 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]