Equals Awesome

In North America, there's not much exposure to Japanese music except through the prism of J-Pop and Idol bands. But like any music scene, there are bands exploring genres outside the mainstream. So on Saturday, I was at Lee's Palace to see Tricot.

To cut to the case, this was the most accomplished band I've ever seen. These 4 women on guitars and bass with loaner Yamaguchi (Detroit7) on drums out-rocked everyone. Given the typical designation of of Tricot as math rock, I was expecting intricate techniques and shifting time signatures. There was plenty of that, but I was blown away by the fiery performance. This explains why they are the only band I've ever seen to do stretches and warm-ups before their set. It was an hour plus sweat-drenched work-out.

They weren't alone though. From the first song, the usually staid Toronto crowd went absolutely bonkers. Every song had enough propulsive passages to fuel delirious mosh pit ramming, arm-raising jumps, crowd-surfing, and spontaneous "hey, hey, hey" stadium chants. The ones in the back may have avoided the frenzy for their own safety but they had plenty of "yeah!" screams for the fancy guitarwork, trippy bass runs, and explosive drums. Singer Nakajima told the crowd: "Do you like dance? Do you like party? Fuck your body!" and they agreed. I've never experienced a show this wild.

There were only 2 minor downsides. One, the venue should have been full instead of 2/3 because Toronto missed out on an electric performance. Two, the merch table was cleaned out. People were standing in line for merchandise from the moment the doors opened. So many of us hoping to score an album or a t-shirt was out-of-luck.

Opener New Design with their tapped riffs had a proggy feel that was a good fit, but Hey Rocco's jokey grunge didn't find many converts.