The thing I was most interested in seeing at the Japandroids show was whether the Vancouver twosome could convey, in a small and dense environment, the heartache within their rock. It’s what hikes them up above your average thrashy goodtime sound and into a place where their lyrics aren’t the bleating of teenage disappointment but real laments and wishes and desires that you can truly feel. The answer was: they did a pretty damn good job.
It really is a stupendous feat that drummer David Prowse can hold his head still enough next to his mic to sing along with (and sometimes take over from) lead vocalist/guitarist Brian King, and his voice held up remarkably well while he killed the super fast punky drumming that so many of the Japandroids’ tracks require. During The Boys Are Leaving Town he pulled his sticks way up high and leaned his head down mean and low like a punk drummer, too. Brian’s ability to get up there with the anthemic woahs was impressive, and the pair were met with an absolute ton of love from the mosh pit and beyond. There was a real feeling that other instruments or voices beyond the drums, guitar and velvety accents would ruin the purity of the thing.
The Nights of Wine and Roses was gorgeous, with the booming floor tom reverberating across the room and the first of the crowd surfers getting his ass up there. The disco ball in The Corner’s roof wasn’t just turning but actually swaying with the movement of the air beneath it. Double vocals worked particularly well from here on out – there were definite harmonies but it’s still all with that half-resigned, spoken word repine in places (which meshed beautifully).
I Quit Girls had apparently never been played live until their Perth show last week when the audience kept shouting requests for it. The weird high sevenths and octaves sounded like a piano, and the continuing fifths across the chord progression gave it the feeling of longing which I’d hoped to hear. After House That Heaven Built there was still 15 minutes to go, but the energy only climbed. King looked like he was being electrocuted, flipping back and forth like Howlin’ Pelle Almqvist.
Only a couple of tracks seemed to devolve into superficial territory (if that isn’t a paradoxical expression), but it wasn’t long before the boys slung us into smart, sweet rock once again.
BY ZOE RADAS
LOVED: I think all the toms were set at odd harmonic levels. Cool and unusual.
HATED: HEY LIGHTS GUY. You’re supposed to do the lights in time with the music.
DRANK: Beer, always beer.
