Tokyo Police Club: Whelans May 19th 2008
August 23, 2008 by Darragh McCausland
Filed under Anablog, Reviews
It is Tuesday evening and Whelans is positively heaving with bodies. Where did all these people come from? Since when did Tokyo Police Club become so popular? I feel like a fish out of water. Maybe I’m staring over the precipice of a generation gap? As the gig continues, and one non-descript angular anglophilic helping of post-punk rattles into the next, I wonder how so many people can be so excited about this band? Faced with such adulation, all I can say, is “Tokyo Police Club. We have no spark. But it’s not you. It’s obviously me.”
I forget to bring my notebook with me, and instead attempt to review the gig via the medium of text messages delivered to our very own Daniel Gray. Dan texts back the results to me the next morning. Erm, let’s just say they make for interesting reading. Here are my heat of the moment rantings about Tokyo Police Club. Ahem.
“Like getting trapped in a 5 min segment between Steve Jones and Alexa Chung on Channel 4 Sunday. Our own Dan Gray warned me not to go. Then I realized why: he was moonlighting as the band’s lead singer. Gray: you’re rumbled.”
“I am staring across a grandcanyon-size generational gap. And about 1 mile away I see a turd on the horizon….. I feel like I need Nivea Visage, youthful exuberance, and cloth ears”
“I would rather orally remove a piece of chewing gum from a Labrador’s paw in Kells than be at this soulles derivative MTV2 culture vacuum”
“I can’t even believe these derivatives have British accents. This Anglophilia sucks shit. I would find more musical sustenance at Lenny Kravitz. All I can smell is a fruity haze of trans-gender eau d’toilette and hear bleak, meaningless indie repitition in the english tradition. Horrid”
I was tempted to go see what the seemingly big deal with them was - unlike you, I am not surprised to hear that the room was busy. Your review confirms that my gut instinct to stay away was right though!
Tokyo Meh Club.
Out of interest, why did you go? Writing for Analogue, is it a freebie or did you have expectations beforehand?
Hey longman Oz. I went because a few of my mates were there and to see why they liked them. I don’t normally write reviews this off-the-cuff, but from what I saw, I really doubt a more considered review would be more forgiving. Thanks for your comment.