Khruangbin at Zepp Haneda, November 16th 2022

 


To say that Zepp Haneda is far is, in my case, an understatement. I live in West Tokyo and that venue is next to the airport. Felt like it took forever to get there. It’s an area that’s being developed with shopping malls and such, possibly to turn it into a second Odaiba. It’s hip and cool like the audience for the sold out show tonight. The shows I go to don’t usually sell out, the atmosphere at this gig here was unlike the ones I’m used to. If you look at the pictures posted on the band’s Instagram, where they document the vibe at each place they perform with photographs -excellent ones, I might add- of random audience members, you can tell that Tokyo in particular felt more like a fashion show than any other stop of the tour. Me in my hoodie and my old ass haven’t felt this out of place in ages.

It’s weird because it seems like the concept of Khruangbin is to represent every corner of the world, everyone in general. They don’t only have a diverse lineup, their music itself have influences from literally every continent. There’s the South East Asia stuff in their name and sound. There’s Africa in their recent album with Vieux Farka Touré. Country, Soul and R&B all blended together in the EPs with fellow Houstonian Leon Bridges. The Latin sound of some of their best known songs, like Pelota and María También. Disco, psychedelia, hip hop, reggae, you name it, almost every music genre is part of their repertoire. To me they sound like what Prince's favorite band was supposed to sound and on top of that they’re mostly instrumental! The fact that a band like that sells out venues across the globe is proof that quality will always top over mediocrity. You wheel them in with the wigs and they will stay for the music.

The show started on time, around 7:05 and I was surprised by their pick for the opening tune. One of my favorites, Rules. It’s not exactly a banger, its vibe is mellow and sort of meditative. On the album it sounds Middle Eastern, but live they go for an epic build-up that's more as if Mark Speer is channeling 1970’s Steve Hackett with his guitar. It sounded prog like those climatic guitar solos in the early seventies Genesis catalog. I was in Heaven. the song marked a trend that went on throughout the show. An embellishment of their studio recordings that I considered an improvement. On record these tunes are so calming in their nature that they can’t help but to blend in the background at times. Live they’re constantly in the foreground with added stuff, like quotes from Misirlou in María También, or from Sukiyaki in their cover of Kool & The Gang’s Summer Madness. These quotes of classics were especially fun in a medley they played towards the end of their regular set that included, among others, snippets from two of my favorite rap tunes of all time. MF DOOM’s Rapp Snitch Knishes and Ol' Dirty Bastard’s Got Your Money.

After closing their regular set with María También, Mark Speer, guitarist extraordinaire, came back to the stage for an encore. DJ joined him on drums keeping that pocket clean as a whistle with the best snare sound in the game. What can be said about Laura Lee, there’s a picture of her next to the word ‘confidence’ in the dictionary. Her groove, chops and her whole vibe are unmatched. In the second half of the show they showcased more of their vocal songs and the encore was no different. They opted for another slow song to set the mood in, White Gloves from their debut album The Universe Smiles upon You, followed by the tight disco beat of Time (You and I). They then covered YMO’s classic Firecracker, further proof that Sakamoto, Hosono and Takahashi are quite possibly the funkiest people who ever came from Japan. They closed with the extended version of People Everywhere that included the “la da dee, la da day” chants from Crystal Waters’ house classic Gypsy Woman. The climax they reached with the help of the bright lights and the disco ball on top of the stage was overwhelming, pure fire.

In the back of my mind I couldn’t help to think that all these references to the nineties (house music radio staples, early west coast hip hop, Pulp Fiction) must’ve flown over must of this young audience heads. Being one of the tiny fraction of old dudes and gals at the show, this wink from our fellow gen xers on stage reiterated what Khruangbin represents. One Nation Under a Groove…

Thank you for reading. Please follow me on Twitter for updates at @ConcertTokyo. You can also click the Like button and get notifications at The Tokyo Concert Experience on Facebook.




Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Fishbone at The Garden Hall, August 19th 2022

Image
  Less than a year before the pandemic started I saw Angelo Moore walking in Shibuya. I checked, it was May 2019, the last time Fishbone came to Japan. I was on my way to work and saw him in front of Don Quijote. He was wearing a red fez hat just like you will see him wear in a video. I thought about approaching him, asking for a picture, but I was too shy. Not only was I not going to their show that evening, the truth is that I was not at all familiar with his band's output. In the nineties MTV Latin America had their collaboration with Los Fabulosos Cadillacs on heavy rotation. That was the extent of my knowledge of that band’s music. For some reason I wrote them off due to what I felt was an overwhelming hyper expressive frontman. Was I wrong; probably not about the hyper expressive frontman, but about writing them off as a novelty act. I corrected this wrong during the lockdown. First with the self-titled EP and then with the documentary Everyday Sunshine: The Story of Fishbon
Read more

Mr. Bungle at Toyosu Pit, February 28th 2024

Image
  I think I already mentioned that I used to host a couple of radio shows more than twenty years ago when I lived in Los Angeles. They were on KXLU, a station that broadcasts from the campus of Loyola Marymount University, my alma mater. One of them was a jazz show that went on the air on a weekday, I think Wednesday or Thursday. My co-host Joseph came up with the title ’The Gift of Jazz”. It followed an instrumental show that was hosted by DJ Ned. Ned’s show was one of my favorites, he introduced me to a ton of music. Two releases in particular, that he personally recommended while music played between the end of his slot and the beginning of mine, ended up being among my favorite albums of all time. One was the Ethiopiques 4 compilation with music from Mulatu Astatke -we’re talking years before the movie Broken Flower exposed these songs to the world. The other was a new release at the time, the album The Director’s Cut by Fantomas. That album, a four-piece rock band reinterpretat
Read more

Colin Currie Group plays Steve Reich at Tokyo Opera City Concert Hall, April 21st 2023

Image
  Music for 18 Musicians is quite possibly the most accessible avant-garde piece of music ever. That doesn’t diminish its impact nor its complexity. It’s not accessible because it’s simple, it’s accessible because it connects with the listener on a primal level. The comings and goings of the bass clarinets and voices are like breathing, while the rhythmical throbs of the marimbas feel like the pacing of movement. This Pulses , as each of the sections are called, paint a complete and fascinating picture of human movement. It never ceases to engage through its one hour length. The ECM premiere recording, with the participation of the composer Steve Reich himself among the 18 musicians, is a classic. It’s perfect for relaxing, studying, as background music or for deep listening. I’ve been a fan of that recording for many years but I’ve only seen it performed live once. It was as a contemporary dance production. Rain , choreographed by Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker at Palais Garnier in Pari
Read more