Gig — Caribou

When: Unit, Daikanyama
When: Sun., Jan. 13, 2008
Duration: Just over an hour

After the disappointing, jaw-droppingly short (40 mins! $50 down the gurgler! I can get a more satisfying massage for less!) December 2007 performance of Crystal Castles — which has resulted in me flinching and checking to see my wallet is still there every time I hear one of their songs — I was worried that Caribou, another band beginning with C and also from Canada ("c"oincidence?) would also bring a curl to my lip.

Thankfully, I was wrong.

The Caribou gig opened with a Japanese band called Mono. They played a genre of music I would say is similar to Wellington's HDU. No disrespect to HDU, I like some of their stuff, but all Mono generated was noise. Horrible, nasty NOISE. Let's call it mono-groan. Each of their songs started out slow, and eventually built up to a super loud racket. Every song started and ended in a similar fashion, with the lead guitarist getting SOO into his guitar during the last song that I thought he was going to start smashing it.

Anyways, I got irritated. If you're going to make that much noise, you should at least make it so that each instrument can be heard properly.

So, Caribou. I wish I had brought a proper camera, because it is impossible to comprehend the drumming BRILLIANCE of this group without actually seeing it in action. Both Mono and Caribou have "psychedelic" in their genre descriptions, but unlike Mono, Caribou's music does not require one to ACTUALLY be on psychedelic drugs in order to enjoy the music. As you can see, I really, REALLY didn't like Mono.

I was in AWE at the drumming. Drums (two sets of them) were made the main instruments. Simultaneous, complicated sequences of drumming filled the evening and I am still at a loss for words on how to describe it. Magnificent. Clever. Inspiring.

One could say, they have drum shtick.