Tokyo's Coolest Sound

My first show of the year was Club Aloe, the anti-aging post-punk band featuring 5 ex-members of Modern Choki Chokies. It was their 2nd show in Tokyo, following the one last August, this time held Tuesday January 25th at Shimokitazawa 440. For the band members' introductions, have a look at last time's report.

The set seemed somewhat quite similar to last time's, with a few songs from Nullpyon's "kaminari Marathon" album (most of which can be heard at MySpace), such as "bonbon chonchon" and "tobi to sarashi kubi", and also some covers including Adam Ant's "Ant Music" and The Cure's "The Forest".

Nullpyon was as talkative as usual, this time talking about some darker parts of his life. Anyway it seems like he loves Korea a great deal and has been there some 50 times! This gave reason to drop 3 songs in Hangul that he's nostalgic of singing in Korean karaokes. I love their punkish version of Korean boy idol group UN's "Pyonsen" (original on YouTube).

Of course Nullpyon talks so much that the 2 hour show can't hold much more than 10 songs, with bassist Kajino Hideki having to chain the last 3 songs without leaving any room for more talk. Hideki is the guy who keeps things on tracks. :) Like last time I was amazed at all the musicians' skills, and always intrigued by Inoue Kōichi's original "electric taishō-goto".

In all, a good show, but before seeing them again I might wait for their repertory to build-up some more. I personally wouldn't mind a few Moda-choki songs in there. :) Sorry I'll stop being pushy now. Long live Club Aloe!

Larger sizes and more photos at Flickr

The show from last summer can be viewed in full in 9 parts at YouTube here. Personally I love this song and the part where Nullpyon lets a young boy from the audience "stop the band". :)