Melt-Banana :: Photo by Nik Christofferson
December 11th, 2009 - Melt-Banana and Tera Melos @ Chop Suey / Pierced Arrows @ Funhouse
One of my favorite new discoveries of 2009 is in fact a record label. Sargent House Records based out of Los Angeles, CA has not only an impressive roster of emerging talent such as PDX’s Red Fang, Native, and Tera Melos but on top of that they’ve released records by Russian Circles, These Ares Are Snakes, and Daughters to name a few.
Sargent House band Tera Melos was in town Friday December 11th playing in support of those crazy Japanese noisemakers Melt-Banana. The three piece was quite amazing not only in the stage energy department but in the pure musical dexterity and chops department as well. These guys can flat out play. Vocalist slash guitarist slash effects guy Nick Reinhart had so much electronics on his side of the stage the man must have a photographic memory to keep track of it all. At times he had to tap dance on his pedals, tweak knobs on his effects processor, play guitar all in one fellow swoop due the complexity of the Tera Melos repertoire and the quick tempo changes involved. You’d think the drawback of writing such insane music would be having to recreate it over and over again. These guys made it look easy though and seemed right at home in their manic musical world.
Tera Melos :: Photo by Nik Christofferson
Heavy handed drummer John Hardy carried Melos with powerful technique, and even threw in a mind blowing drum solo for good measure. Nathan Latona spastically slapped the bass, head butted the side monitor, and jumped around the stage the entire length of the set. He sported some very nimble playing fingers just like that of Nick Reinhart whose finger tap flourishes and tweaked out guitar convulsions were a source of wonder and amusement. Tera Melos was a speed math rock spectacle and a half, and I can’t wait for a new record supposedly due out early 2010.
I was stoked that Melt-Banana was back in Seattle again, the Japanese noise quartet was one of my favorite shows from a couple years ago. There always seems to be concern amongst the banana-ites whether Melt-Banana will spend most of the show playing what is commonly referred to as Banana-lite. This label is mainly in response to their most recent efforts which stray away from the brain slicing electronic grind they are most known for and venture into more accessible yet still experimental punk rock sound that isn’t quite as grating on the senses but still remarkably unique. Melt even poked fun at themselves by releasing a live album back in November entitled “Melt Banana Lite Live Ver 0.0”.
Melt-Banana :: Photo by Nik Christofferson
The band came out to a blackened room sporting head lamps and began a mini set of what would end up being over a half hour of the singe your eyebrows off with a blow torch electronic arrangements ala "Cell-Scape". Onuki pressed buttons on some sort of noise maker while Agata demonstrated an anarchic barrage of effects that sounded like someone was attempting to saw through steel.
After the initial fan pleasing bombardment, the lights came up and Melt tore into their most recent material most prominently from 2007’s “Bambi’s Dilemma”, a record I find to be totally awesome. The band shows some definite pop sensibilities in their newer material, but only reveals them in spurts due the frantic tempo changes and signature crazed chipmunk delivery of Onuki. The packed room gyrated as people pushed and pulled each other; clawing towards the small Chop Suey stage. As it turned out I spent most of the time fending off the attempts at my highly coveted front row spot. Normally energy expulsion at a show of this magnitude would be enough to warrant bedtime but not for me of course…
I high tailed it out of Chop Suey just before the curtain closed in hopes of catching the late night set by Pierced Arrows at the Funhouse. I was in luck as ex-Dead Mooners Fred and Toody were on stage and only about half way done. I got a free pass at the door which was awesome and joined the regulars in appreciation of some seriously loud garage rock by the northwest music icons. The Funhouse sound system seriously starting to crackle under the weight of Fred Cole’s guitar work, it seemed like they were actually going to blow it apart. Pierced Arrows’ sound is basically Dead Moon with a new drummer, but I’m glad they decided to start making music again even if they just basically changed the name of the band.
Pierced Arrows :: Photo by Nik Christofferson
I love the new banner man!
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