I’ll confess that I wasn’t very familiar with the Polysics, a hyper, Devo-inspired neo-new wave band from Tokyo — I’d read about them a few times on ZB’s A-Z of J-Music, but that’s about it. But they’re supposed to be great live, so when a buddy wanted to go see them at the Bottom of the Hill in San Francisco last week, I agreed to go along.
We got there early enough to catch the openers, albeit only the last three songs of first band Black Gold’s set. I was actually looking forward to seeing them, because I like some of the songs on their MySpace page, and their bio says member Eric Ronick is from Ambulance Ltd, whose 2004 album I thought was pretty good (subsequent research has shown that he was apparently a touring keyboardist with the group, and didn’t work on the album). I was disappointed with them live, though. While the musicianship was good, the band just wasn’t very interesting to me, with very little stage presence.
Second band Jaguar Love didn’t impress me on MySpace, but I have to guiltily admit that live they amused the hell out of me. Singer Johnny Whitney did such a ridiculously over the top version of 70’s/80’s glam front men — complete with Axl Rose-style shrieking vocals and high pitched, nonsensical between-song banter — that it was hard not to enjoy them. I don’t know if their intention was to make themselves a novelty act (and at 45 minutes, the set was too long by about 20), but I had fun.
Finally, the Polysics came on, and really tore shit up. I don’t think it would be really possible to describe their set, but “hyper” and “spastic” come to mind. Visually the band is amazing: they wear matching orange jumpsuits, and frontman Hiro Hayashi jumps around and shakes his ass while keyboard player Kayo moves robotically and occasionally throws weird salutes synchronized to the music (and when she isn’t playing keyboards, she pulls out golden pom-poms and cheers along the rest of the band — robotically). Hayashi is definitely the focal point, and the guy must have an endless well of energy, because he was on fire the whole show. Every now and then he’d shriek “San Furan-fucking-shisco, we are the Polysics! From Tokyo, Japan! Hello!” in a shrill, cartoonish voice, and the crowd would go nuts. These guys know how to work a crowd.
Anyway, in short, they rocked. Definitely catch them if you get a chance, because this is the most fun I’ve had at a live show in a long time.
p.s. You can read a much more thorough review of their recent Chicago show by hyper-fan ZB here.
Photo by Way Awesome, http://www.flickr.com/photos/ultracore/3037698161/, used without permission
I’ve already written briefly here and here about Tobias S. Buckell’s two previous books, Crystal Rain
in several months when I gave it a few more spins this past week. But man, it sounds pretty good — much better than I gave it credit for 
than 
.
from memory. My music interests eventually drifted off to other things, but listening to the YouTube clips, I’m excited all over again. I hope he likes being back in a band enough to record an album or two.
is a blast, a breezy and unabashed adventure novel set in the 10th Century Khazar khaganate, on the shores of the Caspian Sea.
, the first novel in the series (following the first seven graphic novels). It’s a good novel, though I think Rucka’s story is a little better matched to the comic medium.