Uh oh, are bassists in trouble? The White Stripes, No Age and even Yeah Yeah Yeahs didn’t use one and those are considerably some of the most innovative bands of this generation. It's obvious the bass has been gradually phased out of indie rock songwriting and it seems some new bands want to prove the extent of their ferociousness by ditching it completely to find out where the fire burns the hottest. Such is the state of Japandroids and their want to simply bash out a wall of melodic noise with just a guitar and drums, and it has garnered them international recognition.
When openers Bass Drum of Death couldn’t get across the border, Toronto’s favorite opening act Metz quickly filled in and Sneaky Dee's was rammed to the walls by the time they finished with their screaming noise set. I'll venture that Metz will soon step up from the little brother role to become a headlining act and may eventually be a major player in the Canadian indie music scene.
Moving on. In their short career, Japandroids have managed to produce an audience who know what they want out of a show: to drink themselves into a frenzy, get in front of the stage and toss themselves around without care. And it’s glorious; as Japandroids jumped onstage after taking shots at the bar, they politely welcomed the packed house and announced a brief itinerary: Play new songs first then play the two-year-old classics off of Post-Nothing.
The new songs showcased the band's familiar sound and fans should look forward to more of Brian King’s recognizable guitar lines and tone. It was fast, noisy walls of punkish rock bouncing off the stage with King and drummer David Prowse playing and shouting hard, all with a sideshow of a staple stage fan cooling Brian down by blowing his hair like a swimsuit model in a metal video.
Canuck hats bobbed around showing some love for Japandroids' hometown with the audience tightly pressed against the stage. There would have been no better opportunity to stage dive and have a wall of people break your fall, but no one "jumped" on the chance. The show ended politely enough at around the same time the drunks in the room were only getting slightly out of control. In the end, everyone was amped and leaving with a smile when Japandroids closed with "Young Hearts Spark Fire,” the strongest song from Post-Nothing. The night was perfectly ended when the crowd realized there were still a couple of hours of drinking time left after the set ended at a comfortable 12:30.
Artist:
www.japandroids.com/
www.myspace.com/japandroids
www.facebook.com/japandroids
Album:
The Japandroids' newest album, No Singles, is out now on Polyvinyl Record Co. Buy it here on Amazon .
