(a drawing I did inspired by the show and their new album)On Thursday night, May 17th, 2007 the fantastic band Melt-Banana, from Tokyo, did the second show of their US tour in support of their new album 'Bambi's Dilemma' in the little burgeoning burg known to some as Visalia, California.
Starring:
Yasuko O. (aka Yako) on visionary punk poet vocals and space effects.
Rika mm' on killer bass.
Agata on radical guitar.
And their drummer, not sure of this guy's name, but he was totally killing that night.
This is how close we were. Isn't Yasuko O. the coolest?
People went pretty crazy at the show, even knocking Yako's effects box over at one point, which I would have been pissed about but she handled it with much grace, I thought. There was even a dude in a wheelchair going nuts, moshing, as it were, rougher then most of us active bi-peds would even hope to. Not that I recommend slamdancing with a nutty guy in a wheelchair, that's just such a grey area and those metal parts hurt. Suffice to say, we moved around a lot to avoid the people who had been making fun of Melt-Banana, and I quote, 'They're from Japan, come on, they won't even know English.' These people apparently needed an outlet for their Visailia lives and had come to this show, which was held between two large mill like buildings, to do so. There were some big fans though, a girl who had come with all her Melt-Banana cds to have them signed, a dude with the 'Cellscape' vinyl and a poster, and even a young boy and girl who had come with face masks on in support of Agata.
7 comments:
Hey - this is great! So much fantastic stuff - photos, writing - I love it! I interviewed Yako a few years back and she was brilliant. Cheers!x
Thomas Moronic, thank you! I really appreciate your feedback. That's so rad you interviewed Yasuko! Is that interview available online? After the show I wanted to put together an article to try and sell/publish in 'Giant Robot' on Melt-Banana, with live photos, commentary, an essay on their music, their history, an album guide and so on, but then got carried away with some other project and didn't pursue it, yet. But I was hoping to do some interviews with each member for it. How did you set up the interview? Yako was so friendly after the show, along with everyone else in the band, that I thought one could just strike up a little interview then or at least set something up.
Thanks for the kind words you left on my blog.
No the interview isn't really available. It was for a fanzine I was doing at the time, that kinda just died on its arse and never got released. Although I'm thinking about sticking it on my blog if I can find it out again.
Yeah Yako was totally friendly and sweet. Their show that night was so much fun. They plowed through so many songs, it was great. I can't remember how I set up the interview, but I have a feeling that I just emailed them maybe ...
Thomas Moronic, hey you're very welcome!
I'm sorry to hear about your zine. The sticking it on your blog idea sounds superb though.
And I know, isn't she just the kindest?
Thanks for the info re emailing to set up an interview. I am definitely going to try that if I think the MxBx article is a possiblity,
Der Führer war ein Genie!
Why didn't you post this in Cooper's blog. That IS where the conversation is.
This post is so lonely.
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