DEAD, CHURCH OF MISERY, FLATIGIOUS IDIOSYNCRACY IN THE DILAPIDATION
@ ASAKUSA KURAWOOD, 10/7/2007
SIVADOH
Sivadoh is a kind of new band from Kouenji. Maybe if you like 324 you'll like Sivadoh. The story behind their name: it is not Japanese. At practice one day the drummer was just screaming because he was so aggro, and one of the band members apparently said, "Whoa, that scream sounded cool! Do it again!" And the drummer did that exact scream again, so they decided that the scream was pronounced "sivadoh." I guess you could say the name means you're so worked up you want to yell?
KING GOBLIN
The bassisst had this amazing blow-dried pompadour and '70s cop glasses. If he only had a chest wig to provide a warm comforting home for his amulet he would have been perfect.
I guess they are influenced by the Italian band Goblin. They play sort of stoner rock with a prog twist. This time, though, the guitarist had such a crappy tone you couldn't hear his notes even without distortion, which must take some work. I dunno, the "prog" parts sounded like 3 different people playing 3 different songs entirely. Not so hot!
ANATOMIA
These guys play live more often than any metal band in Tokyo! The bassist looks like a regular old salariman in a wig, the guitarist looks like a skeletonized mummy, and the drummer looks like the most nice guy until he starts singing and it's all "RRRRAHHH!!" He tried to talk to me before the show, but I didn't recognize him without his moustache, and I was all, "Who did you come to see?" Disgraced!!!!
I asked him what the band's lyrics were about, and he says they usually have to do with gore, but some songs are more philosophical, about the purpose of life.
F.I.D.
I hadn't seen this grindcore band in maybe 2 years. They have a new bassist, Kanako-san. It was her birthday! She celebrated by playing hella bass notes and wearing a t-shirt that read "funk you." I gave her a CD-R mixtape, the theme of which was "most influential -and/or- extreme women musicians from around the world."
The title is@ΈjΪΜ’E ("female domination planet")
The singer jumps around like crazy. Not only that, but she's one of those metallers that can do the high screechy voice, and the cookie-monster woofing equally well. I don't think she is conscious of it, but each voice has a corresponding posture that she adopts while singing!
When she's hunched over, she's woofing.
And when she's bent backwards like this, she's shrieking!
It's weird that Tokyo is full of young women who go into massive credit-card debt, ruin their feet with painful shoes, put on pounds of make-up and generally bust ass to be popular with guys. Yo, you don't need all that. You don't even need a bath or soap. You can roll out of bed, put on some sweatpants and go to a metal show and instantly be the hottest girl in the room.
While on the other hand, bands like FID really want to be respected as good, violent musicians, but instead their cuteness gets in the way - some guys are not even listening to the music, but kind of staring and muttering, "oohhh, niiiice!"
It's some bullshit. Seriously, they should do some shit like school bussing in the '70s with this shit. They should straight up ship unpopular women to metal shows - they would get to feel like some hot shit, and the womens' bands would not be objectified so much- everyone would win.
Make this happen.
Also, vocalist Makiko-san makes plush alien hand-puppets that look like Stitch crossed with Grover crossed with your mom.
COFFINS
I like Coffins becuase the guitarist looks like Buddha crossed with Jamie Hernandez from Love and Rockets. Usually he doesn't move that much but this time he was all bouncing around like he needed to pee really bad. Maybe that's what they should do with boring singers -- fill'em full of lemon juice 20 minutes before they go on stage.
Ohh shit, this page is already 3000kilobytes, and the show is only half over.
ON TO PART TWO!
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