Oh my days! At the grand old age of 22 it's been a while since I've been in a mosh-pit. I thought my days of punk and bruised ribs were over and then what happens? A band that have been creating a bit of a buzz in the likes of Dazed and Confused magazine, are so damn unexpectedly good that I loose all inhibitions and just jump right on in. Thereby breaking three years vow of self-preservation.
Last night (Tuesday 21st July) Tokyo electropunkers Polysics captivated the full attention of the completely sold out upstairs room at The Social. Dressed in matching red boiler suits they hyped themselves up in the tabled-off corner that passes for a backstage area these days and charged through the crowd to Nintendo sounds on steroids. Once on stage the four-piece, two boys and two girls, let rip into glitch-pop punk that only paused for seconds between the first four songs. Front man Hayashi, drenched in sweat, looked so excited as he faux-martial arts punched the air I half expected him to transform into a city destroying giant rubber dinosaur. It was contagious. A half amused, half enraptured grin soon appeared on the crowd's collective faces.After the blisteringly paced beginning they held back for just a few seconds to let Hayashi rapidly introduce the band, in heavily accented English, as Polysics from Tokyo, Japan!! Then they let fly again. Hayashi's energy juxtaposed the deadpan calmness of Kayo, the synthesiser player and the main female voice that can be heard on the band's five albums to date. Kayo stared through her oblong sunglasses into space, sporadically vigorously shaking pom-poms at the crowd, and punching the air like an emotionless robot. Ah, she was grand...
Drummer, Yano looked to be thoroughly enjoying himself, occasionally sneering rock'n'roll style but mostly grinning his head off. Fumi, on bass, rocked out magnificently while providing harmonies and sometimes taking the lead vocal. The band left stage to thunderous encouragements and calls for more. The band did encore and quite refreshingly for bands these days it looked genuine. The DJ even turned up the music, a sure sign that the band have finished, but the band, after more calls for more, jumped back up on stage.
Then something peculiar happened. A random intoxicated fellow jumped on stage, grabbed the mic and started MCing, drum n bass stylee. The crowd booed but the band cracked up laughing and supplied drums and a bass-line until the unwanted MC was pulled off stage by the crowd and escorted outside by the security. Hayashi then cooly grabbed the mic back looking confused but happy and asked the crowd, 'who he?!' before launching back into what the crowd were hungry for.
Polysics have just released a new album Polysics or Die in the UK which is a compilation of material previously only released in Japan. The band said they'd be back soon!
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