ARRESTING: TOKYO POLICE CLUB @ BOWERY APRIL 22

On Tuesday evening, my encounter with Tokyo Police Club started far earlier than I had anticipated. I was supposed to go see Forgetting Sarah Marshall before the concert in Union Square, but apparently so was everyone else. And their Grandma. And their dog. We got there twenty minutes early and it was STILL sold out. I was pretty upset, especially because Russell Brand is pretty much my favorite comedian. I would gladly feed his sex addiction problem if given the opportunity. Anyways, I found myself wandering Virgin Megastore, killing time until I met up with my photographer friend, Annie, who was going to try to get a ticket despite them being sold out online. I heard a familiar sound coming from the cafe area and, sure enough, there was TPC playing an in-store. So I wandered over to watch them. They sounded pretty good but as I will tell anyone who will listen, I hate Virgin in-stores. Florescent lighting and live m
usic does not make a good combo for me.

So after wandering aimlessly for a while I went to meet my friend Annie and we walked down (in the insanely beautiful evening weather) to see if we couldn’t finagle a ticket. We got there and there weren’t too many people standing outside and we felt really sketch going up to people and asking for a ticket, and I think they thought we were sketch too. Finally I was like “Well, I guess you could go up to the bouncer and see if they have any extra tickets”, and she asked him and he was like “uh…yeah just go right downstairs”. So basically we embarrassed ourselves by looking like shady fools for no reason.

So we got there just as the second opening band, Smoosh, was about to go on, when they took the stage I literally thought I was seeing things. Were these children of the band members? Two young girls, one at keyboards and behind the drums just looking as cute as cherry lollipops. They launched into their first song and the whole audience (including myself) just sort of stood there with their mouths open. At the risk of sounding like a total tool, I can say without any underlying irony that these girls were rockin’. They just looked like they were having the time of their lives, smiling at each other the whole time, and the little drummers ponytail was whipping about at breakneck speed. Their sound was like indie synth pop, but not the boring kind. It had a fun punky bluesy edge. I thought they were kind of like the The White Stripes, firstly because they were a duo and they looked related, but also because the drummer looked like a little Meg White, drumming in that kind of crazed cavewoman style. In case you didn’t realize, I’m kind of obsessed with the drummer. I kind of want to be her. Turns out that she’s FOURTEEN. Yeah, and it gets better. At the beginning of their third song, their little sister comes on stage to play bass. Their ELEVEN year old sister. I just couldn’t believe my eyes. They were so great. The audience loved them too. Possibly more than they loved TPC, but we’ll get to that later.





So TPC takes the stage and launches into their first song, and the first thing I noticed was that they had a pretty sick stage setup. The stage was totally dark except for about six light rods that kept changing colors in time to the music. That was a bad description, but luckily Annie took amazing photos so you can see it in all its spectral glory. Sadly, this was possibly the only interesting part of their whole show. There seemed to be an invisible wall between the band and the crowd. People just weren’t into it. Except for about four songs (”You’re English is Good”, “Box”, “Cheer It On”, and “Cut Cut Paste”) people weren’t even really dancing. And I was in the front, where you would presume all the people who would want to dance would be. They had the audience clap along to songs several times in an attempt to make people, I dunno, do something, but it only sort of worked. It was really weird actually, because the band was actually pretty energetic. The guitarist was shr
edding the hell out of his guitar with these sick space age riff-solo things, the lead singer’s neck was straining with the Strokes-y vocal delivery, and the keyboardist was playing like his life depended on it, but the crowd just didn’t reciprocating the energy. It was kind of sad. And then there was this guy who kept yelling how shitty the audience was and everyone was getting really mad at him, but secretly I kind of agreed with him. I mean people were barely clapping for an encore. Maybe it was because this was like, their sixth show this week in NYC. In any case, it was a shame because I think that TPC has great songs, and sort of remind me of the first wave of indie “the” bands (like The Stokes), but with a strong dose of Arcade Fire-like synth melody. I just wish all of those good elements would translate into an infectious live performance. But then one interesting thing happened when the guy who was slagging off the crowd jumped up onstage and started dancing and the
n ran backstage. Which was mildly entertaining.

So, sadly, my mind was not blown by this performance, but I guess I have to accept that not every concert I go to will be life changing. Sigh, such is life.

While my mind may not have been blown by TPC, it certainly was by the AMAZING pics that my friend Annie took. Check it: