Gig Review: Tokyo Police Club, Manchester Night & Day, 28th February 2007

I was surprised to find that last night’s Tokyo Police Club gig at the Night & Day was sold out and, having only heard a couple of their tracks and getting tickets to the gig on a whim, wondered how they had got so popular so quickly. JustHipper was poorly so she never got the chance to find out, and the band themselves were perplexed, asking at one point for members of the audience to raise their hand if they knew why the venue was full. No one obliged, but after their 40 minute set the answer was fairly obvious.

The began with the entirely predictable set opener “Cheer It On”, one of those two songs I’d previously heard and the one that mentions “Tokyo Police Club” a lot and sounds like an agreeable collision between The Strokes and The Replacements. They even had three big cards with the words “Tokyo”, “Police” and “Club” on them which they raised at the right moment. It was a good start.

To be honest I was expecting the whole gig to consist of pretty much more of the same: loud, brash statements, angular guitars and little in the way of subtlety. Thankfully I was way off the mark and I became more and more impressed as the gig wore on. The songs were chock full of restless melodies and were never interested in staying in the same place for too long. When a song had said all it had to say it ended there and then rather than repeat choruses ad nauseum or rely on instrumental breaks for the sake of longevity. This was a refreshing approach and meant that songs rarely hit the three minute mark and that they could cram in plenty of them in their short time on the stage. Their arrangements were excellent, too, and they weren’t afraid to occasionally drop instruments out of the mix entirely and have just drums and bass going while the guitarist and keyboard player clapped hands or crashed tambourines. Though the singer/bassist was the obvious focal point of the band the other members put in excellent contributions; the drummer worked his socks off, often appearing to be playing twice as fast as his relatively laconic band members; the guitarist produced waves of effects-laden, almost shoegazey, noise while the keyboard player built on this to give the band quite an expansive sound, at some points sounding much like fellow Canadians Broken Social Scene, which is no mean feat for a four piece. The keyboard player also provided backing vocals but rarely chose to use his microphone, shouting out at the top of his voice yet still managing to be heard over the din of the instruments.

The other song I’d heard previously was “Citizens Of Tomorrow”, which was obviously a crowd favourite, and it was fantastic, sounding like a cross between Sophtware Slump era Grandaddy and Photo Album era Death Cab For Cutie, which, as far as I’m concerned, is high praise indeed. Death Cab For Cutie comparisons cropped up elsewhere and I think that’s something to do with the juxtaposition of the deft melodies and relentless drumming. Whatever, this was an excellent gig and the fact that the better songs on the night tended to be the ones that the singer said were new shows that Tokyo Police Club could have a very bright future and should be selling out bigger places than the Night & Day next time they come to Manchester.

Tokyo Police Club – Citizens Of Tomorrow (Space Ballad Version)

2 Responses to “Gig Review: Tokyo Police Club, Manchester Night & Day, 28th February 2007”

  • Matthew Says:

    G’Day The Ledge. Just posted a response to your comment on my REM post. Just to let you know that although it may sound a tad hostile, it’s really a good, happy post. I appreciated your contribution.

    And, er, I also rather like the Tokyo Police Club. Well, we Canadians will stick together, eh.

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