Feeds:
Posts
Comments

Archive for the ‘Melt-Banana’ Category

Melt-Banana (Underground Arts, Philadelphia, PA, June 6, 2024)

Posted in babybaby_explores, Melt-Banana, Philadelphia, PA, The Flying Luttenbachers, Tomato Flower, Underground Arts on June 9, 2024| Leave a Comment »

[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.

(more…)

Read Full Post »

The Flying Luttenbachers (Underground Arts, Philadelphia, PA, June 6, 2024) [MELT-BANANA]

Posted in babybaby_explores, Melt-Banana, Philadelphia, PA, The Flying Luttenbachers, Tomato Flower, Underground Arts on June 8, 2024| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: June 6, 2024] The Flying Luttenbachers

The Flying Luttenbachers are an American instrumental unit led by multi-instrumentalist, composer, improviser and producer Weasel Walter. They focus on noise and dissonance, but surprisingly composed and controlled, almost like jazz punk.   And I see that they have been around since 1992!

I wish I was in a better place for this band–I was too far off to the side to see Weasel Walter doing his thing and drummer was obscured from time to time.  But I had a great view of bassist who was a maniac seemingly doing his own thing but always perfectly n synch with the other when needed.

They opened the show with a wall of noise.  Thunderous drumming from James Paul Nadien, rumbling bass from Luke Polipnick and screaming guitars. (more…)

Read Full Post »

babybaby_explores (Underground Arts, Philadelphia, PA, June 6, 2024) [MELT-BANANA]

Posted in babybaby_explores, Melt-Banana, Philadelphia, PA, The Flying Luttenbachers, Tomato Flower, Underground Arts on June 7, 2024| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: June 6, 2024] babybaby_explores

TI moved to the other side of the stage which might have been a mistake as I had something of a worse view for the next three bands.

Up next was babybaby_explores a trio from Providence, RI.  The band members are Lids B-day: effected vox & sampler, sam m-h: electric guitar, and Ramona Cano-Daly: drum machines.

So, basically there was a guitar on stage and two people playing with effects boxes.  Experimental barely covers what’s going on here.

Lids B-day was a weird and funny front person, with a kind of I don’t give a shit attitude.  They were just kind of stomping around and flailing and recite/singing the lyrics.  They projected a great fun attitude. (more…)

Read Full Post »

Tomato Flower (Underground Arts, Philadelphia, PA, June 6, 2024) [MELT-BANANA]

Posted in babybaby_explores, Melt-Banana, Philadelphia, PA, The Flying Luttenbachers, Tomato Flower, Underground Arts on June 6, 2024| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: June 6, 2024] Tomato Flower

I was really excited to see Melt-Banana and I had to assume that any bands that opened for them would be interesting.  I had listened to a little bit of Tomato Flower before the show and I was really interested in them.

And they proved to be utterly fantastic.  I loved everything about them.

Their songs were jagged and indie, weird and delightful.  They reminded me of Palm (one of my favorite weirdo bands) for the unexpected shifts in tempo and direction.  They had two singers Jamison Murphy and Austyn Wohlers (who is also a novelist).

I was in front of these two so couldn’t really see bassist Ruby Mars.  And I couldn’t see drummer Mike Alfieri at all.

Austyn sang most of the lead vocals with Jamison adding a lot of second vocals (not really backing vocals but unique melody lines).  Although the opening song “Destroyer” has Jamison screaming the title word between two quiet guitar lines.  It’s catchy but decidedly weird. (more…)

Read Full Post »

Igorrr (Underground Arts, Philadelphia, PA, September 20, 2023)

Posted in Igorrr, Melt-Banana, Otto von Schirach, Philadelphia, PA, Underground Arts on September 22, 2023| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: September 20, 2023] Igorrr

I bought tickets to this show back in December–I was really really looking forward to seeing Igorrr after reading about his live shows.  I thought that I had missed him a few years back–he was supposed to tour with ministry but left the tour before coming to the States.  So I don’t really see any evidence of him having played Philly since like 2018.

But I wasn’t going to miss this opportunity.

Igorrr is the creation of French musician Gautier Serre.  He mashes up genres in a crazy quilt of styles which often changes every few seconds.  He has a base of heavy metal but he throws in hip hot, break beats, classical and opera–it’s thrilling and confusing.  I loved his album Savage Sinusoid which Metal Injection gave a perfect 10/10 score, and named it the “Batshit Crazy Album of the Year.”

The follow up, Spirituality and Distortion focused more on the metal component of his repertoire.  Sinusoid was heavy mostly because it was so erratic and there were heavy components thrown in.  But Spirituality is a heavy metal record–with Igorrrr elements like baroque music, harpsichord and Middle Eastern melodies floating around and between the heaviness.

When Melt Banana cleared off their gear, all that was left was a table and a drumset.   So when Serre came out and started doing some amazing splicing and breaking up of sounds, I thought for a short time that the whole show was going to be this.  And that was cool.  I enjoyed watching him (in the moody light) manipulate sounds and create the wacky composition that is “Paranoid Bulldozer Italiano.”  (more…)

Read Full Post »

Melt-Banana (Underground Arts, Philadelphia, PA, September 20, 2023) [IGORRR]

Posted in Igorrr, Melt-Banana, Otto von Schirach, Philadelphia, PA, Underground Arts on September 21, 2023| Leave a Comment »

[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]

 

Read Full Post »

Otto von Schirach (Underground Arts, Philadelphia, PA, September 20, 2023) [IGORRR]

Posted in Igorrr, Melt-Banana, Otto von Schirach, Philadelphia, PA, Underground Arts on September 20, 2023| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: September 20, 2023] Otto von Schirach

I bought tickets to this show back in December–I was really really looking forward to seeing Igorrr after reading about his live shows.  I thought that I had missed him a few years back, but I don’t really see any evidence of him having played Philly since like 2018.

But I wasn’t missing this show.  I was pretty delighted to see that Melt-Banana were opening, but I didn’t know anything about Otto von Schirach.

So who is he?

Bermuda Triangle born Otto Von Schirach is one of a kind human/alien, His magical presence & energy makes you overwhelming happy. This Miami Native puts out many different types of epic Electronic music and always has new life and sounds to share, hence he is always touring around the earth. His Shows are more of a sonic ear cleanse, aura cleanse and will magnify your pineal gland! You will be extremely happy after his live performance.

Otto is really really into triangles.  He wears a headband with a triangle hanging off of it.  Unless I am mistaken, he has two songs about triangles (one of which “Triangle Pit” has these lyrics: (more…)

Read Full Post »