Gig report: Saitō Neon Sign, Love & Revolution, Emmy Lee & The Psyzans

Text and photos by Patrick Benny for Tokyo's Coolest Sound

On Sunday January 6, I went to an event at Koenji U.F.O. Club part of a series celebrating the 17th anniversary of the popular GS (Group Sounds)/garage rock oriented venue. I first knew of the show because a friend's band was playing, Saitō Neon Sign, but coincidentally another band I had been wanting to see was also on the bill, bassist Sally Kubota's latest band Love & Revolution.

Because of other plans that day I got there a bit late and unfortunately missed the first two bands, but what I caught was great though. Emmy Lee & The Psyzans had just started playing when I got there. Drummer and vocalist Emmy Lee is also part of Goggle-A (a band on the Sazanami label). They gave a good energetic show, Emmy Lee leading the whole thing from behind her drumset. She sings in a low voice that reminded me of Kinoco Hotel's Marianne. Her band's guitarists and bassist took turns doing solos.

Next on stage was Love & Revolution, a band featuring singer Tabuchi Jun, Sally Kubota (contrabass, of Sally Soul Stew, ex-The Phantom Gift, Les 5-4-3-2-1), Napoleon Yamagishi (guitar, ex-The Phantom Gift), and Kuniyoshi Seiji (flute).

Sally is a long time electric bass player, but he just started practicing contrabass a year or so ago. I was happy to see that he uses his trademark white coiled cord even on the large instrument, and also that he incorporates walking bass lines that are characteristic of his style. The set varied from slow moody songs to danceable upbeat ones. Despite the lack of drums the band sounded really full. I was especially impressed with the singer's great enka-like voice, and Robert Plant curly blond hair.

Last to play was Saitō Neon Sign, a band my friend Char joined last year as a percussionist. I had seen them once before. Saitō Neon Sign has a good rocking GS sound, and the singer sometimes reminds me of Original Love's Tajima Takao. There was an announcement that the band will have a first single titled "0ji no Blues" (Midnight blues) released within a month or two.