Tonight Birmingham was treated to a guitar fest of epic proportions, as the Japanese, Hawkwind-esque experience that is Bo Ningen hit town. Prior to the main event, we were treated to the boisterous thrash of The Scenes, who finished their set with the flippant yet amusingly named “Anorexia Is Boring”, and the Teenage Fanclub-esque 12-strings of Younghusband. Neither, however, quite prepared the crowd for the ear-lacerating noise and mesmerising groove of the headliners.
Taigen Kawabe and his band of psychedelic renegades arrived on stage amid swirls of dry ice. Dressed like extras from the Seventies television phenomenon that was Monkey, they plunged straight into a groove characterised by loud and fuzzy guitars, jacked up with more effects peddles than you could shake a stick at, a driving bass, yelping vocals and the precise yet jackhammer drums of Mon Chang. Meanwhile, the audience of mainly 30- and 40-somethings went from initially nodding their heads and shuffling their feet politely to going completely bonkers to the four Japanese characters before them, with hair down to their waists and dressed in truly groovy duds.
The band's effects-heavy jams are all about getting lost in the moment
As a non-Japanese speaker, I can’t be sure which tunes Bo Ningen pulled out of the bag. However, “Four Seconds to Ascension” and “Koroshitai Kimochi” from their self-titled 2010 debut album did seem to make an appearance, as did “DaDaDa” and “Slider” from their forth-coming set, III. However, the song titles were largely irrelevant as the band’s effects-heavy jams are all about volume and texture and getting lost in the moment rather than strict song structure. And getting lost in the moment is precisely what happened to the small but packed room of Brummies at the Hare and Hounds, as they reeled before a ful-scale sensory assault. Tune after tune was spun into the atmosphere under the wild soloing of guitarists Kohhei Matsuda and Yuki Tsujii, raising the audience to ever higher levels of ecstasy. Meanwhile, Taigen Kawabe screeched and gurned and played his bass behind his head, Hendrix-style.
The set eventually came to an end after an hour or so, with sweat pouring down the walls and Kawabe reeling around in the audience with his bass guitar and ebony hair thrashing to the beat. There was, however, no need for an encore as the crowd was totally sated, and after much hand-shaking between band and punters, musicians and audience disappeared into the night with big smiles all round. And if that isn’t an invitation to check them out, I don’t know what is.
