A pregnant woman stood stage left amongst a packed Troubadour crowd for Wednesday night’s sold out Tokyo Police Club show. For a few hundred revelers and the potential hipster in the making, tonight would mark the first audio/visual outing of the young group who hail from Newmarket, Ontario, otherwise known as Canada. Just infants in the big scary world that is indie rock, and really their second time stepping into Los Angeles, it was more than likely that the band had to immediately appease a hump-day crowd of individuals who discovered them via a blog or only knew them by that tremendous opening bass line from their blow-up single “Nature of the Experiment.” And oh yeah, the recent news that the boys were the newest members of Nebraska mega label Saddle Creek—home to the big kahuna Conor Oberst—didn’t help as it only added one more notch to their hype-o-meter.
Luckily the band was given some extra assistance from opening act Dappled Cities. The band from the land down under, otherwise known as Australia, whipped into the crowd in due part by their pop cooing and, quite literally, their bird cawing (“The Birds”). It seemed that all female eyes were clearly focused on the band. Was it because of the uncanny resemblance that lead guitarist/singer Tim Derricourt had to that of Match Point actor Jonathan Rhys Meyers? Sadly…yes.
By the time the lads from up north marched on stage to much-appreciated fan fare, it seemed as if no opening note was needed. Nevertheless, once the riotous opening remark of “Cheer It On” from bassist/singer David Monks bounced from every ear, proclaiming the distress call, “Operator, get me the President of the world. This is an emergency,” it seemed almost clear as day, these kids sure do have talent.
Talent, in fact, that stretched as far as aggressively playing one of rock’s lamest of instruments: the tambourine. They’re really not that cool. Tell that to TPC and they’ll probably think otherwise. Seeing both guitarist Josh Hook and keyboardist Graham Wright engagingly play their very own tambourine, even more so than their respective instruments, did make for an endearing sight though. A true lasting impression that only persisted once the screeching yelp that was frequently used on the band’s EP A Lesson in Crime, kicked in. Spirited renditions of “Citizens of Tomorrow,” and “Box” were given the necessary adolescent sound augmentations needed to uplift an already upbeat crowd.
Oh to be young again. The summer tints of “Your English is Good” induced flashes of barbeques, shooting the proverbial shit with the pals and, to put it quite simply: having a damn good time. This was best illustrated by the reaction from “Nature of the Experiment,” the solid rhythm section of Monks and drummer Greg Alsop really held the foundation for the night and ultimately kept the TPC sound in tune.
Surprisingly “Nature” was not to be the proper send off for the guys, as the show marked for the first time on tour, an encore, a cover encore to put it succinctly, L.A. met Ontario half way, TPC played “Friends of P,” the monster hit from L.A.’s own The Rentals. Given a rather heavy makeover (you guys do have some keyboards!) it still was a fitting end, and sure enough: if you’re friends with TPC, well then you’re friends with me.
More on Tokyo Police Club here: tokyopoliceclub.com
More on Dappled Cities: www.dappledcitiesfly.com
