By: Ryan Ruff Smith
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Asobi Seksu - Photo by Ryan Ruff Smith
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Like all subgenre tags, "shoegaze" is kind of a silly term. Applied primarily to British bands of the late eighties and early nineties that followed in the shoe-prints of My Bloody Valentine, the term refers to the way in which performers would just stare at their feet while summoning up massive waves of feedback and distortion from their guitars. There has been a wave of shoegazer revivalists as of late, and New York's Asobi Seksu is the most promising among them. Mixing droning, squalling guitars with straightforward indie rock and Japanese pop influences, they seem to be trying to prove that you can stare at your shoes and dance at the same time.
They are certainly not the first band to mix pop melodies with crushing wall-of-sound guitars. Even on My Bloody Valentine's genre-defining masterpiece Loveless there are airy dream-pop melodies buried beneath the waves of drones and feedback. But Asobi Seksu bring their melodies further to the fore, and lead singer/keyboard player Yuki Chikudate has a sprightly, playful voice that cuts effortlessly above the din.
Unfortunately, they played to a somewhat lackluster crowd at the 400 Bar Sunday night. They were preceded by local experimental rockers White Elephant, whose set proved to be a mixed bag of prog rock, post-grunge melodies, big guitar sounds, and sampler-based eclecticism. Though the band had a few technical difficulties early on and their set lacked focus, there were a number of highlights. I was particularly impressed by a slower, more melodic song called "Holy Smoke" and an inventive instrumental that found lead singer Lance Conrad rocking a trombone. Both of these songs were reminiscent of Radiohead songs; the former recalled "I Will," while the latter echoed "The National Anthem."
After setting up their own equipment, Asobi Seksu took the stage and launched into "New Years" from their latest album Citrus. The sheer sonic power that the four of them were able to produce was stunning. When the song hit its late climax, strobe lights augmented the blinking Christmas lights draped around the band's microphone stands to heighten the already palpable energy in the room. It was a visual effect that they used sparingly enough throughout the night that it remained effective.
Never having seen the band before, I was shocked to see that they only had one guitarist. The waves of sound produced by James Hanna on their albums sound like the work of at least two guitarists, but even in a live setting he was able to produce an overwhelming amount of noise from just one amplifier. Fortunately, for all of the sound and fury, he rarely overpowered the other band members. Bassist Haji provided the rhythmic undertow that held the surging songs together, and Mitch Spivak contributed dynamic drumming that heightened the proceedings at all the right moments.
The band's one misstep was actually the song that closed their main set, "Red Sea." This was the only instance where Hanna's guitar noise hijacked the melody and completely drowned out everything else. Still, the sheer force of the sound that he was able to produce was staggering. After the band reached a droning wall-of-sound climax, Chikudate picked up a percussive shaker and transitioned into a cover of The Crystals' "Then He Kissed Me." Rather than shifting the dynamics, Hanna just continued to drone through the whole thing, and the song was barely recognizable. Given that the band's biggest strength is tension and release, it was frustrating to see them indulge in such constant tension without any pay-off. Perhaps they were trying to prove that shoegaze tendencies could be compatible with simple pop songs, but it was something that they had already proved much more effectively with their original songs.
Still, the band put on an exhilarating and extremely fun performance that made their first trip to the Twin Cities a pleasure to be in on, and made a convincing argument against the dismissal of shoegaze as a passing fad. After all, it really is more of an aesthetic than a genre, and it is one that still has many unexplored possibilities. Asobi Seksu weren’t quite able to get a drowsy Sunday evening crowd shuffling their feet, but maybe that’s just a matter of evolution. Hearing music that fun blanketed in sheets of feedback is still a bit disorienting, and maybe it will just take some time to catch on. Here’s hoping that bouncy citrus shoegaze pop turns out to be the blissed-out dance music of the future.
Location Info:
400 Bar
Artist Info: Asobi Seksu, White Elephant
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