Tokyo Police Club stir NoHo into a frenzyDaily Collegian | April 29, 2008
With a backdrop of sirens and the unified chanting of their name, Tokyo Police Club emerged onto a tranquil, illuminated stage amidst a hue of blue light and much fanfare. What followed was far from a peaceful Saturday night.Translating their frenzied material seamlessly in the live setting, the band powered through the lengths of almost their entire discography before a capacity crowd at the Pearl Street Night Club. Four-piece bands generally don't create the kind of energy and depth of sound that the Canadian quartet mustered, and for that the band deserves their due. Whether rattling tambourines, emphatically clapping, or incorporating crowd interaction, the band not only stretched the limitations of what a relatively simple four-piece arrangement can offer in a live environment, they abandoned them altogether.
The frantic pace of their recorded works took on new life on stage, aided by the band's theatrical flair, engaging material, and the elaborate circle of fluorescent punctuations that accompanied every second of their set. Surrounded by synchronized glowing pillars, every break down was met with an elaborate array of colors, and every lull was met with soothing and still light. This added visual provided a unique dimension to their stage performance, accentuating the insatiable highs and melodic lows of their set list.
Bassist and lead vocalist Dave Monks was front and center and proved to be a stabilizing force to the band's eccentric on-stage persona. His bass lines carried the majority of the night's selections and were accented by Graham Wright's over-the-top keyboard arrangements and the spirited drumming of Greg Alsop.
Guitarist Josh Hook served in a variety of roles, playing his guitar positioned well below his midsection and periodically letting it hang from its strap in favor of inspiring clap-alongs and feverishly providing a supplemental layer of tambourine.
Wright was the true showman of the quartet, owning his corner of the stage with an unparallel flair for the dramatic. Onlookers could see the sweat drip from Wright's hair and collect on the lenses of his black-rimmed glasses and the exhausted expression on his face as he screamed into the microphone, lunging over his synthesizer, desperate to reach the audience.
When he wasn't playing or grinding his hips into the casing of his keyboard, he was violently rattling and slamming a tambourine, using his free hand to punctuate the fourth beats so hard your palms felt sore even from the back of the clubroom.
On this night, one of the biggest criticisms of the band's records turned out to be one of their live shows greatest strengths. With a discography that runs under an hour in length, the band provided a taste of everything, both old and new, and delivered their quick hitting songs with all the necessary dynamism.
Despite their newest album "Elephant Shell" being released just this past Tuesday on Saddle Creek Records, the crowd was familiar with the wide range of the new material performed by the band. Slower selections such as "Juno" and "Listen to the Math" resonated through the clubroom and were met with softly mouthed audience renditions to accompany the relatively calm lightshow.
Upbeat songs like the cheekily titled "Your English is Good" and the clap-along single "Tessellate" caused quite a stir in the crowd, as dancing broke out in patches throughout the packed room while those on the outskirts were likewise helpless to stand motionless.
As is almost always the case, the band's older material garnered the most positive response from the crowd. Tearing through tracks from "A Lesson in Crime," the bands 2006 release, the band managed to supplement their newest material with their established works, maintaining a delicate balance throughout the length of the set.
"Nature of the Experiment" elicited the warmest response of the night. The franticly paced number got people moving in unison with the song's aggressive pace and singing out with a complete lack of restraint in unison with Monks' vocals, which arguably sounded superior in the flesh then they did on the songs digital counterpart.
The band fittingly concluded the night with "Cheer it On," a song that served as the introduction to their first album and the band as a whole. As band and crowd yelled in unison along with the song's chorus "When you're standing near/ Tokyo Police Club/ when you're standing next to me/ Tokyo Police Club," the lyrics developed new meaning. With each emphatic declaration of their namesake it became increasingly obvious that the song was no longer an introduction; rather, it was a statement that they had truly arrived.
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