Japanther at Bardens Boudoir

Japanther at Bardens Boudoir

21 July, 2008
by: Domzig

Remember when punk was fun? No didn't think so. But way, way back, before everybody wanted to resurrect Sunny Day Real Estate and Bauhaus, kids the world over listened to joyous slices of pop melodies that provided the perfect sound track to getting drunk on Irish Harp.

Anyways, it's after work, and a Friday night, and like everybody in the country, we're looking to party. So we head up to Bardens Boudoir for a night headlined by New York art punks Japanther – a two piece who use bass, drums and an armoury of electronic gizmos to create music that sounds like a combination of TV on The Radio and The Descendants.

First up are Spin Spin The Dogs, a band who I've seen a couple of times before and can't get my head round. I should like the whole art house punk weirdness of their music, but tonight I'm just not feeling it and they come across as a surreal jazz band with Ian Curtis crossed with the Mad Hatter as their singer.

Ryan Jewell is just shit – I just don't get music that sounds like a guy making noise with an electric cheese wire; even after some guy takes great pains to explain the whole 'wall of noise' concept. After about a song (which lasts 8 minutes) we all give up and head over to the Somine for some Turkish stew. It was amazing.

Timing it perfectly, we get back just as Japanther are taking the stage. Hailing from the ever fashionable district of Brooklyn, these guys rip into a set of fuzzy vocal dance punk that sounds like a telephone call from a skate ramp in 1996 diverted through a college art project and interspersed with snippets of old hip hop records.

Despite looking absolutely plastered, the guys work through a set of art punk howlers that induces people to get up on stage, take their shirts off and generally rock out like a bunch of 15 year olds who have just discovered cider.

There are a few interruptions, mainly down to Japanther being too fucked and forgetting the songs and one girl who tried to play Vaneck's drums in the middle of a solo, but they're all shrugged off politely – and played again, with the whole crowd just picking up where they left off like the band.

They end, as all shows should, with a rendition of TLC's 'Waterfalls' sung into their telephone mics – leaving just enough to time to head down to the Old Blue Last, get covered in chocolate milkshake and head home with my faith in pop punk restored.

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Domzig