Melt Banana - Classic or Dud?

Nitsuh, you answered your own question! ;-)

And I did say they were nice folk.

I've never been to a Knitting Factory show where there has been lots of movement. The Philadelphia crowds are always more fun and exciting. Having said that, Mondays show had the crowd going crazy the whole time. They did 3 encores, and people were still chanting for more.

They were great last night, but better six weeks ago. I told my friend (who'd never seen them before) "they've been on tour for six weeks straight, so they seem a little low-energy." She turned and boggled at me. They did rev up all the way for the encore, though, inc. "My Generation." And I think my friend may be going to see them again in Montclair, NJ tonight.

Well, if you're going to go and compare things to the average enthusiasm of a Knitting Factory show, sure, things got intense. Bigger pit than at the Low show, even! But compared to what I was expecting for a MB show...

Uk please also thx

Saw 'em tonight at Dante's in Portland--as always "RRAGG" was the third song they played--I somehow think that's kind of hilarious. (Maybe it's because they also like looking at the crowd right after it to see who's never seen them before, because they're the people who have expressions on their faces like "did they just do that?") They also pulled out a cover of Devo's "Uncontrollable Urge." If there's a guitarist who uses pedals more expressively these days than Agata, I don't know who it would be. And I am very sure there's not a better English-language lyricist whose native language isn't English than Yasuko Onuki.

I only own Cell-Scape so far & fear I may never see them live :-(

I concur, that solo record is worth picking up. Fun and even pretty in parts. Also reminds you just how unfathomably great & out-there his riffage in the group set-up is.

xpost - I like that outro... more ambience than noise tho?

True... but it's a fine line, I suppose.

Teeny Shiny is like Cell-Scape v0.7. Pretty solid, but still not quite the amicable merge of pop and grindcore it should be.

Nov 6 2005 8:00P
Pavillion Theatre Brighton UK,
Nov 8 2005 8:00P
Fleece and Firkin Bristol United Kindom,
Nov 9 2005 8:00P
Medicine Bar, Custard Factory Birmingham United Kingdom,
Nov 10 2005 8:00P
Garage London United Kingdom,
Nov 11 2005 8:00P
AC2 Manchester, United Kingdom,
Nov 12 2005 8:00P
Oran Mor Glasgow United Kingdom,
Nov 13 2005 8:00P
The Georglan Theatre Teeside/New Castle United Kingdom,
Nov 14 2005 8:00P
Nottingham Trent Uni. Nottingham United Kingdom,
Nov 15 2005 8:00P
Clwb Ifor Bach Cardiff United Kingdom,
Nov 17 2005 8:00P
BBC session London United Kingdom,
Nov 18 2005 8:00P
tba Leeds United Kingdom,
Nov 19 2005 8:00P
The Adelphi Hull United Kingdom,
Nov 20 2005 8:00P
Garage London United Kingdom,
Nov 21 2005 8:00P
tba Southhampton United Kingdom,

bought my ticket for 10th november yesterday. phear me.

It is banana yellow.

(support slot last night was DJ Scotch Egg doing his usual GameBoy Gabba thing. divided the audience somewhat but i loved it)

2014
20/05 Colchester Arts Centre
21/05 Leeds Brudenell Social Club
22/05 Glasgow Mono
23/05 Newcastle Cluny 2
24/05 Manchester Fat Out Festival
25/05 Birmingham Rainbow Warehouse
27/05 Sheffield Queens Social Club
28/05 London Heaven
29/05 Norwich Arts Centre
30/05 Bristol Fleece
31/05 Cambridge Portland Arms
01/06 Southampton Joiners
02/06 Brighton Green Door Store

(from facebook)

Finished listening to the album. It might be the best one I've heard yet (still need 3 or 4 of the early albums) but definitely the most consistent I've heard, quite a bit heavier I'd say. Really brilliant.

Bought a ticket to their upcoming show. It will be my second time.

Does anyone sit and read the lyrics? Really difficult to follow.

"Candy Gun" showed up in my Spotify discover playlist, thank you for introducing me, Spotify.

that may be my least favorite song on fetch but it's still great!

Woot!

Saw melt Banana at the garage with DJ scotch egg. Always meant to catch then again. That was 2005 but tonight is the night.

They are doing their own merch. They scare me, slightly.

are they still playing as a duo?

xp I also saw Melt-Banana at the Garage in 2005 but it was the other night with Narcosis/I'm Being Good/Bullet Union. I saw them a few years ago as a duo around the time Fetch came out. Think that was the 3rd time I saw them? Was thinking of going to see them in Brighton on this tour but timing wasn't good.

it's so hot my banana definitely feels like it's melting today

xp to self in fact this is documented upthread back in 2005

just the two of them, yes. agata with the facemask and guitar and yasuko doing everything else via midi(?) and that controller thing she uses (one-handed) that looks like a playstation portable.

they were loud and bright and pixel perfect again last night but something didn't click for me and i was paying less attention to what they were doing than to how they were doing it. and the obvious hard work they've put in and all the practice (neither put a beat wrong) just detracted somehow. the 300 other people there seemed to be really into it though.

they were on the merch desk until the support band finished and then spent the interval sorting out their own gear. a minute after they finished agata was back on the desk and yasuko was breaking her stuff down. made me wonder whether the entire tour was just the two of them doing everything on their own (and how lonely that would be).

(it's a Numark Orbit - https://www.facebook.com/NumarkOrbit/posts/638933552825050 )

new album 3+5 out in August! first for over 10 years. I wasn't going to bother seeing them on this tour because I saw them in 2022, and Prolapse are playing the same night, argh

oh thank god, our long (inter)national nightmare is over

fetch was _so fucking good_

Oh hell yes. I'm seeing them next month, super pumped

Cell-Scape is still my fav, but I always have time for them

100% agree re:Fetch. album still blows me away

wait there was one after Bambi's Dilemma? omfg I am so old, I bought the Bambi LP from them at a show

wish they were on Bandcamp!

ohmygod they're coming back to Hull so happy

oh fuck they are playing Portland TOMORROW, Hawthorne Theater, no way can I go

This is great news

i on the other hand can totally go, thanks for the heads up sleeve :)

<3

I'm seeing the Denver show in less than a week. Incredibly stoked!

they still got it!

I once saw Melt Banana play in a transvestite bar called the Blue Flamingo in Austin, Texas. The club where they were supposed to play (EMOS) had double booked, so they had to move next door. The club was the size a large kitchen. They set up in the corner of the bar (no stage, just the corner). I got up on a side ledge, with my head pressed up against the ceiling. Let me tell you a little somethin' somethin'......I've seen lots and lots of shows, and that particular show was the most motherfucking incredibly beautiful sonic assault on your senses I've ever experienced. The perfect hybrid of fuck-you punk rock, teeth melting noise, and on-time syncopation. And it was obvious that every person there, who could get in, realized how incredible that event was.

So Melt Banana is great. Really really great. And they're nice people, too.

― Gage-o

big shout-outs and much love to the Blue Flamingo. dungeons and drag bars, people. dungeons and drag bars.

-

i'm just gonna c&p my review of their live show from the "reunion bands" thread because i didn't get around to writing it up until just now

i don't think melt-banana broke up either... they've been touring, they just haven't released a record in 11 years. they're releasing a new one this year. i never saw them live before. they were pretty amazing to watch to be honest. it wasn't all older hipsters like at the deerhoof concert. or at least i don't think so, i look at 40 year olds these days and think they're young. it was pretty great because of how yasuko is using technology. she and agata showed up there and just fucking killed. their last album was their best one yet, but that was over a decade ago... and with them being a duo i wasn't sure how they'd be able to play their songs live. i figured it'd be a lot of playing to backing tracks.

and what they did wound up being way cooler than that. yasuko had her phone out and she was using it to change up the bass and drum patterns on the fly. it's the first time i've ever seen technology used to create something that doesn't sound like singing to a backing track like on _top of the pops_ or some dude sitting behind a laptop. they were full-band songs performed by a duo but had the freedom of interpretation that i'm only used to hearing from rock groups - the songs _didn't_ sound exactly like the albums at all. it was felt like she was using the rhythms to kind of conduct the mosh pit. there was a mosh pit, too! they're a noise-rock duo of people in their like 50s and people were out there moshing. i was out there moshing, even though i regretted it. i'd rather hear melt-banana play "uncontrollable urge" than hear DEVO play "uncontrollable urge". devo are cool and all but i've never seen them and never really wanted to.

turns out yasuko is a guest vocalist on an album by a group called _squid pisser_, on the title track. it sounds great! yasuko sounds amazing!

tbf they've been doing that for ages, their last album was a duo as well, I saw them in 2014 for that and it was the same set up

Been trying to think back and they were doing it in 2010 as well, although I think it was more band structured rather than random squalls.

tbf they've been doing that for ages, their last album was a duo as well, I saw them in 2014 for that and it was the same set up

― Colonel Poo

i'm not necessarily always on the cutting edge, haha, 22 years ago being in the Blue Flamingo would have made me really uncomfortable for reasons i wouldn't have been quite able to articulate

they still had a backing band on the 2010 tour, I saw them then as well

pigeons on my eyes

Theirs remains one of the most amazing shows I've ever seen. There was this palpable ENERGY winding through the crowd that felt like you could've easily been swallowed up by the sea of bodies and would've been utterly menacing if the overall vibes hadn't been super-positive. It was like being in a venue-wide mosh pit comprised entirely of your family and loved ones.

“Backing band” is a bit impersonal; Rika was their bassist for about 20 years before she left, or was dismissed, I don’t actually know what happened there. I hope it wasn’t a Janet Weiss-style shitcanning.

I saw them on that 2010 tour as well, and then again a few years later as a duo, and yeah they were better as a full band to me. I wouldn’t go out of my way to see them again. I am looking forward to the new album, though.