Polysics. Just the discordant name conjures up feelings of frenzy and riot.
On a blustery October evening, the Japanese quartet of Polysics brought to this western coast a piece of the east in a splitting battery of synth pop and noise that left the venue reeling in sweat-drenched shock.
Arriving too late to catch any of the opening acts, I climbed to the top mezzanine at the Troubadour and placed myself quietly on the bleachers in anticipation of the harried performance that was to come. Have you ever been to a show and tasted the heat in the air? It's pretty disgusting but true testimony to the fanatic activity that slogs the stage after an out-of-control performance. Good job, opening acts. Sitting atop of the ground floor, the bitter tang of body heat and expectation lifted to the rooftop and I haplessly received its stinkiness as a (very) warm welcome for Polysics' imminent uproar.
After an A-ha sing-along or two in the interim music between acts (everyone who's anyone knows and loves the lyrics to "Take On Me" duuude), Polysics humbly set up their own equipment and got on stage to the backdrop of raucous roars from the wound-up crowd. A number of fans were clad in orange jumpsuits just like the band, illustrating a zealous fidelity, knowledge and investment in being as excited as humanly possible. One guitar chord in, they sprung into action on a ska-derived rhythm that was fixedly bouncy and got the crowd amassed thickly into an amoebically moshing and following the direction of lead singer, Hayashi, as he strode the stage. Even with their unflinchingly speed-driven mania, the band spanned a playful array of sounds, particularly the recorder and the various timbres of the synthesizer. The songs moved forward with a minimal amount of changes, repetitive to the point of drivel, but doggedly energetic. It was a hyperactive and madcap performance to say in the least.
Surprisingly enough, the band was all business even when it came to their nonsense. Although one can easily predict the bizarre larking about of a band that has adopted orange jumpsuits and futuristic black sunglasses as their visual motif, Polysics displayed a stoic silliness when it came to shaking their pompoms on stage and piercing through their guitar solos. Perhaps even more so because of their reticence, the band was hysterical on both accounts of the word, evoking madness and laughter in their wild performance. And all was further solidified by a blaringly prevalent display of the lewd and the comical to thin out any abstruse murkiness that could exist in the erratic music and language barrier between east and west.
Despite all the eccentric funniness about Polysics, there is a trace of something sinister in their humor. Fully welcoming unrestraint, their music is spliced to the urgent alarm of their repetition. Like something breaking down, the ear-splitting and unrelenting bounce of their drum/synth combination uncannily wails like a warning siren splicing through the clatter. How appropriate that they are wearing radioactive bodysuits. The music is like a huge wink between all the people who are trapped and have lost their minds at the nuclear power plant's meltdown. If the world is falling apart, might as well take with it a bit of jokey abandon.
For more on Polysics, including more jams and tour dates, click here: www.myspace.com/polysicsna
