Jerky Canadian four-piece Tokyo Police Club have toned it down somewhat since their shouty, punky and perfectly brief two EP’s last year. The twenty-one minutes of energy found in A Lesson In Crime was in particular spiky guitar perfection. TCP touch down for the first time in Australia to promote their highly anticipated debut LP, Elephant Shell that was released earlier this year.
Brisbane newcomer rockers Yves Klein Blue supported TCP at the Ding Dong Lounge which was an inspired choice for a warm up act. Similar to TCP they are clearly influenced by ‘The Spiky NY’ sound than consumed the alt music scene a few years ago. YKB delvered exactly as promised some fast and fierce rhythms encased in 3 minute post punk pop songs. Their single Polka being the most accomplished song of their short set.
Without much ado the four bookish boys that make up TCP took the stage. Lead singer Dave Monks’s Julian Casablancas comparisons don’t go unfounded by any stretch of the imagination, but thankfully Elephant Shell steps away from any excessive homage to The Strokes as their sound becomes more honed and individual in their own right. This translates well on stage as the boys step out to an eager sold out Ding Dong crowd, The live sound isn’t as ‘NYC scene’ as the early EPs suggest it could have been, which is a blessing in disguise, as like any scene it can soon become saturated with the quagmire of copy cat bands and the scene inevitably explodes into the mainstream. Monks’ vocal have softened, the riffs have slowed and they’ve spread themselves out a bit. It’s still post-punk and the guitars are still spiky and they’re still tight with short punchy songs and the love of a guitar pedal is more than omnipresent. It’s reminiscent of Bloc Party on the electronics and its also dwells in Interpol territory with a dark wit. They plough through a mixture of songs from both EP’s and pull out most of the songs from their LP. The Baskervilles is monstrously good, with guitars that build and dip throughout. Their greatest asset is their ability to write these emotionally laden flawlessly driven stories as lyrics. This is found in no better example than Citizens of Tomorrow which sounds like it could have been penned by Isaac Asimov with its almost apocalyptical warning of robots ruling the planet.
Despite their tender age their sound on stage betrays expectations of even veteran bands. The performance is flawless achieved from relentless touring, not the sort of sterile impeccability you could expect from a perfectly pitched popstar, but a perfection in timing. For such a fast paced and complex sounding four piece the live timing never failed to amaze, each member as tight as each other that only arduous touring can deliver. After what seemed like a impossibly short interval, the boys bounced back out to deliver an encore that took it up a notch from what was already an amazing set. They finished on a song from the Lesson in Crime EP, Cheer it On which has become almost like an anthem for them as the chorus contains the repeated chants of… “Tokyo Police Club!” happily sung back to them with vigor from a crowd that more than got their money’s worth from the Jerky Canadian four-piece.
