Join the Club

High-energy garage rockers Tokyo Police Club could easily have been victims of their own hype, but last night at Chop Suey the kids were more than alright. Their music can best be described as "Strokes nostalgia," as much of it contains the same kinds of nimble guitar licks, arching keyboard lines, and overprocessed megaphoney vocals as everybody's favorite 2001 NYC culture icons (see TPC's call to arms "Cheer It On" [mp3]). While a couple years ago we might have found their sound to be tired or run-of-the-mill, the last Strokes album did sorta suck, and so someone had to pick up where they left off, even if it was four kids from outside Toronto. Seeing Tokyo Police Club perform, we couldn’t help but get a good-natured vibe from them. Like most great bands, lead singer David Monks affects a mild pseudo-British accent, though his voice was rough and scratchy, worn out from all the touring, which hurt his ability to yell when needed. Fortunately for him, keyboardist Graham Wright was there to pick up the yelling slack, as well as beat his tambourine ferociously and engage the crowd in very polite banter. Such nice boys, they even got everyone clapping on a few songs. The band kicked off their brief set by holding up signs to spell out their name before tearing through the entirety of debut EP A Lesson in Crime. As they only have seven songs recorded, and as each of those songs is under three minutes, they had to throw some new material into the mix to fill up their time. Once they get a few more songs, we're sure they'll be back headlining some time soon.

Asobi Sesku was up next. Admittedly, in recorded form we find them kinda boring, and we've never made it through their latest release Citrus all in one listen. But our companion, who had seen them at their previous Seattle engagements, assured us that they were way better live, and boy was he right. While on the album lead singer Yuki Chikudate's vocals are ethereal but detached, last night she was an engaging performer, at the keyboard in a smart black dress, the orange bands around her waist glowing in the blue lights. With their distorted crunchy guitars and dreamy feel, Asobi Seksu doesn't mess around. They know that the crowd isn't there to hear them talk, so they delivered song after song from their two albums---music too melodic and danceable to be shoegaze and too noisy and rough to be pop---before closing with a wall of reverb. So: album nay; live yay.

Photos care of Flickr / user dollar39.