Crocodiles, not bad, but definitely an off-night!

This was Asobi Seksu‘s big homecoming gig, the last in a long international tour.  Somehow, though, something was missing.  I dunno, it just felt kinda joyless, if I may say so, though the music sounded great and Asobi Seksu (a duo of singer and keyboard player Yuki Chikudate and guitarist and vocalist James Hanna), rounded out with a touring bassist and drummer, were tight.  Or maybe it was just me who felt empty at the end of the night.

First opening band was Crocodiles, two guys, one who sings and the other who plays guitars and handles the drum/bass/keyboard programming.  It wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t so great, either.  They sounded a bit like The Jesus and Mary Chain live — great songs played shittily.  In fact, I think both guys were sick.  The singer was spitting like an old man in Chinatown while the guitarist’s nose visibly leaked at regular intervals.

At one point, the guitar cut out completely, but the pre-programmed drums/bass/keyboards — and the singer — completed the song no problem.

Tyvek, I’m not into you guys.

Up next were Tyvek, from Michigan.  Female bass player and a drummer playing a stand-up kit, what’s not to like?  A lot.  This six piece looked like an intramural softball team that was thrown together with people who didn’t get picked by anybody else.  How did they sound?  It was like bad pop played at Minor Threat speed.  Their songs were frantic and about a minute long each.  And, boy, did they have a lot of songs.  I think they did like 30 of them!

Asobi Seksu, yes!

Before Asobi Seksu came on, the roadies rolled out huge sheets of white paper, either to go with the theme of the cover of their new album, Hush, or to cover up the phlegm that Crocodiles left on stage.

They came galloping out with “Sing Tomorrow’s Praise,” off of Hush, an odd choice for an opener, in my opinion.  Then “New Years” from Citrus (a favorite album of mine) crashed in.  “It’s good to be home!” Yuki exclaimed.  “It’s been a long time!”

The venue was pretty packed at this point.  If it wasn’t sold out, it was pretty darned close.  Whole lotta Asians there, very cool, and an incredibly diverse crowd overall.  The songs seemed evenly split between Citrus and Hush.

After “Strawberries,” someone yelled out, “Yuki, I love you.”  She answered, “I love you, too.”  It just seemed too perfunctory an exchange and that was when I started to worry.

My unease continued throughout the night.  I wasn’t sure what was bothering me.  The Hush songs meshed well with the Citrus songs, even though I’ve read that on the latest album they were trying to get away from the noisy guitar pop (Hanna himself was “sick” of playing guitar) that characterized their earlier work.

Before introducing the closing song of the regular set, Yuki noted that many of the bands’ family members were in the audience but her own parents were in L.A.  “Don’t hate me,” she added.  Then Asobi Seksu launched into “In the Sky,” which then built into a My Bloody Valentine-worthy maelstrom.  Yuki then took off her necklace, hanged it on her microphone and stepped behind the drum kit and slammed it like a madwoman.  John Zorn would have been proud.

The feedback continued as the band walked off and then came back to slip into “Strings.”  Last song of the night: the single “Me and Mary.”

Then it was over.  Over over.  Only one encore.  My unease spread from my stomach up into my slumping shoulders.  Only one encore and no “Nefi and Girly“?  But that’s one of my favorite songs and definitely a signature song of Asobi Seksu!  So much so that it’s on the Live From Soho and Spaceland Presents live EPs.

I think Lemmy said it best in his rambling (in every sense of the word) autobiography, White Line Fever.  Basically, he’s done with “Ace of Spades,” but it wouldn’t be a Motorhead show if he didn’t play it.  And when he goes to see Chuck Berry, he’d better play “Roll Over Beethoven.”

Even if a band is just sick to death of a song or style, they should still play their touchstone pieces.  Asobi Seksu, I will buy (and have bought) all your albums and EPs and all your new music.  But when I go see you play live, I want me some “Nefi and Girly”!

I have the sense that many in the crowd felt the same way.

Kuroma, I wasn’t really into you, to be honest.

I don’t know about you, but I was psyched as hell to see that Scotland’s Primal Scream was coming to play.  I got on the bandwagon late, having been turned off by 1991′s Screamadelica, which I considered trippy hippy crap back in the day.  But I checked back on them for 2000′s XTRMNTR for two huge reasons: awesome bass player Mani (late of the Stone Roses) was now a full-fledged member; and I found a copy on double vinyl (thank you U.S. label Astralwerks!).  I was hooked right from the start with the annihilation funk of the first track, “Kill All Hippies” and loved the album all the way through to closer “Shoot Speed Kill Light,” lyrically inspired by Motorhead’s eponymous track.

Time hasn’t been kind to the Scream.  I’ve heard conflicting information, but this was their first New York show and American tour in years.  Mani said onstage that they haven’t played here in nine years, but singer Bobby Gillespie later said that “five years” has been too long to not play the city.  On top of this, the Scream’s new album Beautiful Future isn’t yet available domestically in the U.S. (not even on iTunes!  C’mon, Steve Jobs, you hippy!)

Opening band Kuroma came out with just two members, one on guitar and one on recorder and vocals.  It was a bit of a head fake, as the rest of the band piled in later, but it was annoying enough so that I kinda tuned them out.  Unlike most of New York, I make it a point to show up on time to catch the opening bands, because you never know what you’re going to see.  I got to see huge upsets, such as Sunny Day Real Estate opening for Velocity Girl at CBGB in 1994, and Nirvana opening for Tad at Maxwell’s in 1989 (with about 25 people in the audience), but tonight wasn’t one of them.

Bobby: “I’m gonna scream and scream again!”

About 9 o’clock the Scream hits the stage.  Bobby is looking stringbean thin, tall with black hair.  Christ, he even looks hapa!  Longtime guitarist Robert Innes has a jaunty hat and western shirt on.  With his graying hair, he seems like Captain Sensible‘s older brother who is just a touch more reserved. Mani, with striped shirt on, is bouncing like a kid coming down the stairs Christmas morning. A nice touch is that he’s hacked out the “Marshall” nameplate on his bass amp and replaced it with “Mani”!  To his right is Barrie Cadogan on guitar, or maybe it’s 70′s Jimmy Page’s doppelganger.  Can’t see the drummer too well and a keyboardist is similarly hidden behind his equipment.

Maybe it’s too obvious to start out with “Kill All Hippies”?  But, whatever, man, it’s great.  “Miss Lucifer” makes an early appearance, as well, and sounds better than the studio version.  Innes riffs like hell all over the place and actually upstages Bobby in terms of providing visual enthusiasm.

You go, Robert Innes!

There were  John Edward (he of “Crossing Over”) moments on the choruses to “Movin’ On Up,” when disembodied background female voices chimed in.  There were some flourishes on the keyboards and someone (a male) back there waved to the crowd.

“Country Girl” on the first encore was great, if coming off as calculated.  The second encore was an extended “Accelerator,” ending with, what else, bass and guitars against the amps, pouring feedback over the crowd.

It’s only 10:30 pm on a Saturday night and the show’s over, but not for me.  Not until I buy my “Kill All Hippies” shirt from the merch table, put it on and head out into the rainy New York night.