plus guests; Glatze and Lash Frenzy vs Mort
Review written by - +holl!E

Trying to find the place was hell, as it turned out to be a warehouse at the back of a pub! The venue was amazing and if anyone has the chance to go to a gig there, do! The walls were covered in the most unusual but amazing graffiti and the stage was just laid out at the back of the floor. With a makeshift room, built inside the warehouse to house the bands and act as a ‘back stage area’.

Glatze was the first act of the night; this act consisted of a man with a rabbit mask on his head, not face, some decks and various toys that make sounds. At first I was not impressed but as his set went on I found the songs got better and better. At first it seemed to be just…strange noises, but the songs seemed to become more structured as they went along and also, much more break core/hip-hop so I enjoyed that!

The second act of the night was Lash Frenzy vs Mort. Now this was a 3 piece band. They played one ‘song’, which was more just a man moving his hand up and down the neck of a guitar with horrid amounts of distortion on it that lasted 30-40 minutes, none stop. The ‘band’ was impossible to see as the stage was covered by a white sheet, this was because bright lights were projected from behind the 3 members so that only silhouettes would be seen on the sheets. This was so the crowd could get a full, well blacked out, view of a woman who at first i thought was naked (turned out she had a pair of boots and her pants on only) dancing…and by dancing, i mean the kind of dancing you have to be 18, and male, to view. I was left horrified. The only guys who seemed to enjoy this for the whole set, were 20-30 year old bearded men I think, a lot of guys eventually got bored because although there was a naked woman, the music dragged out waaay too much. Although fair play to the other members in the group who get paid to perv on some woman for 40mins!

During Glatze, Ichirou of Melt-Banana came out to watch, and no one noticed him! I regret not asking for a photo now :/ When Melt took to the stage, it was to set up their own equipment. When they started their set only Yako, Ichirou and the guest drummer were on stage to do the intro~ Rika then joined later and this is when the pace picked up! Rika really blew me away with her bass lines, I was unsure of which side she would stand on but as I was on the barrier on the left side, it meant that when Rika did come on stage, she stood directly in front of me and I was able to see her pro skills perfectly! Not far into the set (if I remember correctly) Yako began to give out only a handful of what appear to be like film negatives, that are completely black with clear letting to spell ‘MELT-BANANA Lite’ and ‘2009.05 UK’ in the corner (I can photograph the one I was given if anyone is interested?)

At first they played without Rika, and in complete pitch black with nothing but those miners torches that you wear on your head. This only lasted a few songs, after which Rika joined in an the strope and backing lights were switched back on.

At first it was difficult to hear Yako, but her mic was turned up eventually~ Other than that the sound was awesome! And the small venue and strobe lights were a perfect combination! Yako took time out every now and then to talk to the audience, at one point she told us (in very broken English) that they would be personally selling merch after the show. I was so happy that they played Cracked Plaster Cast, it lasted much longer than the CD version~ They also played about a verse of the Dog song which is far better funnier live! To my surprise a mosh pit broke out and the secruity guard in front of me told me to stand by him, in utter confusion I ended up being stood between the barrier and the stage!! The cover of Monkey Man was a pleasant surprise, it was great fun and got the crowd really jumping around.

Each member had to try and press as many pedals and buttons as possible on their various equipment to try and create each different sound effect at the same time as playing/singing and generally thrashing around. This meant each song sounded slightly different to it’s CD counterpart, which I personally prefered! Each song sounded so unique and they sounded a lot more ‘live’ friendly- well, heavier, and a lot more fun! Some of the songs were played straight after each other, with no break in between. This was awesome to hear the transition between each song~

The show was amazing and it made an interesting change to Visual Kei: to see how Brits respond to other japanese bands, and to see how they in return differ from the visual kei bands in how they react to a western audience and the show they put on. I’m glad I got to see Melt in the end, and I’m even more sad I missed them last year after. If anyone gets the chance to go, I highly recommend them. They are a great live band even if you’re not too keen on their CD sound~

At the end of the show I came away with Ichirou’s set list which I then got signed by Yako and Rika and got myself some badges and a sticker

Setlist

01 Shield
02 RAG
03 SPiDER
04 BOKE
05 MIND THEIF
06 STICKOUT
07 SCOOP
—–
08 TAPIR
09 HUNTER
10 PLASTER
11 DEVIL
—–
12 IGUANA
13 CALL
14 Monkey Man
15 NEKO BRAIN
—–
16 LOST
17 DREAMER
18 BLANK