While the nature of experimental music is supposed to free musicians from a defined genre, ed it often comes with its own limitations and pretensions. How often have you had to sit through a basement show watching someone loop themselves make animal noises while banging on a Casio they found at Goodwill? Fortunately this was not the case for the Melt Banana show at the Sinclair. The Japanese noise rock duo, recipe Brain Tentacles, pill and Neptune each brought their own unique sound to the stage, without falling into the pitfalls of creating something pretentious and boring.
Local avant-garde trio Neptune started the night off with quite an ambitious set. The stage was covered in their signature homemade musical equipment and amplifiers. Most of their handcrafted instruments were completely foreign to me. The band walked on to the stage to a silent, patient, and anticipatory crowd. While their drummer sat down behind his kit, two other members put on harnesses connected to one another by a thick wire. They took out bows, playing the wire like a violin to create a very wonky sound. For the rest of their set, they switched between playing a baritone guitar made of wire and their various electronics on stage. Neptune sounded like a wonderful mix of Devo, early Ministry, and John Cage.
The night’s weirdness continued with one hell of a performance from Brain Tentacles. The band consisted of saxophonist Bruce Lamont and Municipal Waste drummer Dave Witte. Witte being the accomplished thrash metal drummer performed a set of insanely fast, double kick drum jazzy madness. Lamont played his baritone saxophone through a current of various effect pedals. While he was technically proficient with his sax, his effect pedals helped create weird, wonderful noises I had never heard before. While the music Brain Tentacles were producing was great, their greatest asset was their energy and enthusiasm for their music. Watching them perform, you could tell they were having fun, joking with each other and the crowd in the middle of their own songs.
As the crew for Melt Banana began to set up their gear for the night’s final performance, I noticed they were not making any room for a drum set. I knew they recorded their latest album, fetch, with a drum machine, but I was hoping the tour would feature a live drummer. The performances of just singer Yasuko Onuki and guitarist Ichirou Agata have been dubbed as Melt Banana Lite. While I had my doubts about a drum machine, Melt Banana was anything but “lite”. With a colorful midi controller in hand, Onuki pushed buttons to command heavy and loud drum blasts equalling the speed of a machine gun. The contrast of her high pitched vocals with Agata’s grindcore guitar work always make for a perplexing, yet entertaining show. After a set of songs off their newest album, Melt Banana performed a second set of older songs. During this second set, their longest song might have lasted forty seconds, while their shortest song never broke four seconds.
When I last saw Melt Banana a few years back, I walked out nearly deaf, promising myself I would wear earplugs the next time I saw them. Well, not only did I not wear earplugs this time, but I also stood under the PA for their entire set. While my hearing is still recovering, this mild deafness serves as a reminder that experimental noise rock doesn’t have to take it self so seriously. It is much more endearing to watch a band like Melt Banana have fun on stage, genuinely enjoying the music they create.
