re:pre:views: Stereolab: Osaka: Big Cat: 02.13.Y2KLIVE AND IN STEREOLAB
IN THE MILKY NITE
British-French originators of '90s bachelor-pad muzik bring the house down in Osaka on the first date of their Y2K Japan - Australia tour.
I used to think Stereolab was just "pretty cool," but after seeing them live in Osaka on the first night of their Japan tour, I decided that they're more than that.
"F**k!" was the only audible emitting from my lips as the Anglo-French sextet produced a million different sounds from about twenty songs. These were familiar sounds, but sounds to which my ears felt virgin again; sounds to which I was a stranger, but quickly befriended.
It's an ambitious statement, but Stereolab is the greatest thing to happen to "modern" pop-rock music since The Velvet Underground. The secret to Stereolab's sound lies in deriving the complex from the simple, and creating music of unfiltered originality.
This concert introduced me to the sweetest sounds and freshest vibes I've ever heard live. There were times during the band's set that I forgot I was listening to "music." The sound was a powerful, emotional package of textured layers and ass-kicking grooves.
Sunday's show was the first of Stereolab's five-date Japan tour, which wraps up at Tokyo's Club Quattro on Friday, February 18. The concert at Big Cat was sold-out, with 850 of Osaka's Stereolab-faithful packed to the walls.
The club, this being Japan, followed strict bureaucratic regulations for filing folks into the venue. (Each ticket had an entry number, and we were allowed inside in numerical order starting with "1." My ticket read "731.").
Big Cat is a newer venue in Osaka. The stage lighting is impeccable, as is the sound, albeit bass heavy. It's an immaculate space and one of the only non-smoking cubicles in the country. Cost of entry? ¥5,000 ($50 US) a ticket plus the evil ¥500 "one-drink" cover at the door (your choice of Zima, whiskey, and Coors). But the latter charge was a bargain by Japan standards.
After splendid, dark ambient interludes by Osaka-based DJ Shiro Mishima, there was a heavily distorted improvisation by "Child's View" (AKA, Nobukazu Takemura). His set featured calm bangings on computers, which occasionally looped a woman playing the harp and singing tones. Not bad, especially with the bigbeat additions toward the end of his set, but Takemura didn't do much to move the crowd. Everyone was here to see Lab and eagerly waiting for them to begin.
The audience of mildly eccentric Japanese youths supported the often-stated belief by foreign band's that the Japanese know "good music" (when in reality the most popular foreign bands in Japan are pop-metal-rock acts like Mr. BIG!?!). But the crowd waiting for Stereolab do know good music, and they got it when the band launched into the first song of their eighty-minute set.
A svelte version of "Miss Modular" kicked it off with creamy French vocals and dreamy smoothness. The atmosphere now was spry and organic and in complete contrast to the dark, aural ambiance of the opening acts.
Richard Harrison deftly funked the bass work, while Tim Gane displayed his calm, yet psychotic (jazz and electric) guitar, and Andy Ramsay persuasively percussed us. The men were pretty calm and straightforward, "backing" the women up front. Morgane Lhote on her Farfisa, electric piano, and other synths, gave me the feeling she was more at home in a library than on stage in Osaka -- something to do with her emotionless self, pig tails, and sweater.
Then we had Mary Hansen's vocal and guitar gears, with Laetitia Sadier singing out and thumping her bad-assed Korg synthesiser. Neither of the singers took "lead" 'cause they complimented each other so well, and -- Damn! -- Laetitia's keyboard was de groovy! Somehow, both Sadier and Hansen made the tambourine look a lot cooler than it often is in the local karaoke box. Two rich, saucy, ephemeral voices melting the sound of the band into the senses of the Stereolab massive. The crowd was stunned.
You couldn't help but feel that this was not so much a concert as a studio session. The band was so relaxed and flatteringly shy in front of their audience, it was as if they'd just dropped in to play some muzak in your living room. No bullshit. No attitude. Someone in the audience asked Hansen -- in English -- if the band took requests. She bashfully replied, "If it's the next song on the set list, then 'Yes.'" Oh so charming!
However, I was put off by the lengthy pause before the two-song encore. (Hey, why don't bands just announce they're gonna take a break instead of making us hoot and wail for more?) But I'm not complaining. I was thrilled to cheer for more, because Stereolab live is tighter and crisper than on record.
The first half of the set was more smooth-Fi, while the second was more guitar oriented. Some fat and funky bass and drum grooves made an appearance, and the happiest-sounding keys and vocals, mixed with the swirl of noise and feedback, brightened the otherwise dark club.
For a good bit, I was thinking how interesting it was to not hear a guitar solo and then on "Percolator" we got one that was so distortedly wicked it sounded nothing like a guitar. The separation emitted from the speakers blew my mind and forced my eyes wide shut. I thought of the flavor of water from a garden hose. This was not music: This was mental twisting. This was not ordinary sound. This was the eighth sense, something not recognized by most beings de humanite until they see, hear, and experience Stereolab live.
For an hour and twenty minutes we were all exposed to another level of musical consciousness. There was nothing but layered noise, neither harsh, nor weak. Stereolab coagulated a sound that was unlike anything you have ever heard before and will never forget for the way it made you feel: clean, alive, and dripping with the taste of the New Sound.
Stereolab play Club Quattro, Nagoya, Japan Feb. 14; Tokyo Liquid Room, February 16 and 17; and Tokyo Club Quattro, Feb. 18.
The band begins an Australian tour Feb. 21 at Arena,Brisbane; Feb. 22 and 23, Metro, Sydney; Feb. 25 at the Forum, Melbourne; Feb. 27 at Heaven, Adelaide; Feb. 29 at the Globe, Perth.
Tour dates for upcoming shows in New Zealand, the US, and South America are yet to be confirmed.
