Just a quick shout out to Japanther for the show at The Hemlock Tavern (8/24/06). The Brooklyn based duo has sprung a west coast tour on us this month in cahoots with This Bike Is A Pipe Bomb. They played with Two Gallants in a warehouse in Oakland the night before, or at least tried to play, the police showed and shut it down. So when their telephone receiver/ microphones were acting up at the beginning of the set at the Hemlock you could tell they were exasperated and just wanted to play. Finally everything was in proper functioning order and they cranked their samples, complete with additional musical accompaniment throughout the songs, and tore up. Ian Vanek plays the drums like he wants to kill you but laughs pleasantly the whole time. Matt Reily’s bass is fast and on point and when he sings harmonies he looks like a grandmother swooping down to plant a kiss on your forehead. Seriously, it’s quite remarkable, people were holding their fucking guts because he looked so funny, lips puckered out and eyes squinted, almost closed. I played a show with these guys back in New York 2 years ago and since then they’ve added the samples and got a hell of a lot tighter. A fast intense song begins on a sample, and I mean on a sample, there is no intro. They nailed it and 20 seconds later it was over. Another song includes overly long stops that come to an abrupt end when bass and drums thunder in. Their timing didn’t seem that exceptional until I noticed that they weren’t looking in each other’s direction. Ian plays with his back to the audience (perhaps to showcase his drum technique?) while Matt stands up front. At one point during the show they invited a guest vocalist up named Stephanie or something. She added another level to the harmony as well as made some snide jokes. The only thing left to remark on is their completely kick-ass matching costumes. They were all black with what looked like that raised plastic goo people put on clothes sometimes. It was silvery-goldish I think and kinda made a line down the right side of their shirts and then connected and splattered down their pants. It reminded me of Star Trek meets Kid’n’Play.
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