The Zoobombs @ AnnandaleHotel, Sydney (18/5/06)

Mon 22nd May, 2006 in Gig Reviews

The Zoobombs first made waves in Australia rocking at the 2001 Big Day Out and opening for Regurgitator on their tour in the same year. They’re back in Oz for the third time, promoting their new album Way In/Way Out with Aussie bands Jump 2 Light Speed and Sekiden. Thursday night’s Zoobombs gig saw the Annandale Hotel moderately full at best, drawing a mixture of curious Japanophiles and ultra-enthusiastic followers.

I only caught the last two songs from space-pop band Jump 2 Light Speed, but they sounded alright if not particularly magnetising. Next up, Sekiden. The peppy Brisbane trio are, quite admirably keeping short, fast, loud pop music and indie haircuts alive. They weren’t really my bag but there’s no denying the band had plenty of energy and good humour to share around. Drummer Mirko convincingly demonstrated that drummers can never have too much fun, rallying the audience to the front of the stage for a spot of good clean crowd participation.

Now, the Zoobombs. Singer/guitarist Don Matsuo is a scrawny Japanese guy with a tangly mop of hair and a pair of tight jeans. He smiles a lot and thanks his audience profusely. His English is limited but he loves to chat to the crowd, and if he can’t come up with the right words, he just beams. He’s also the world’s biggest Rolling Stones fan. When Don hits the stage, you remember what rock ‘n’ roll is all about. You suddenly feel despair at the fact that you’d forgotten, and then, a surge of elation as the Zoobombs bring it all back with a slamming black-eyed soul riff, a rumbling bass line, an explosion of drums, funky funky keys with the overdrive ramped up, and a get-down-on-your-needs-and-howl-at-the-moon vocal like James Brown on juice.

Throughout the night, Don leapt about with wild abandon, dancing, flailing, scissor kicking, while Moostop (who looks like a cross between Michael Jackson and a yakuza thug) laid down some very dirty bass grooves, and volunteered for a few Mick-and-Keith rock moves with Don. New drummer Pocky pounded away, often with Don drumming by his side as he dropped his guitar, grabbed a spare set of sticks and jumped up and down as he slammed the cymbals, while keyboardist Matta humbly and faithfully kept the funk-soul sound alive through the tearing distortion of Don’s guitar.

Don took two stacks near the front of the stage, which he recovered from nicely each time, and also whacked his head against a light fixture, a consequence of 1. the Annandale stage being a little too cramped and 2. him just being a spaz. He slashed away at his Gibson SG and broke a string a few songs into the set. No back-ups, no sound techs for these Japanese road warriors, so Don promptly snatched up Simon from Sekiden’s guitar and started carving away. After a few songs he admitted he was finding it too hard to play and exited stage right to fix his own guitar. The rest of the band seemed momentarily uncomfortable, then Pocky started up a rhythm and everyone got into it, already rocking hard by the time Don came hurtling back on stage.

The band segued into ‘Tighten Rap’ (the famous song) and it was an almost unidentifiable barrage of noise with Don’s psycho rapping and Moostop’s ridiculously funky bass line struggling to be heard over a wall of white fuzz. Nevertheless, the audience loved it. If only we knew what the hell he was saying. The band stayed away from their funkiest, most keyboard-heavy songs for the most part, which was a bit of a shame, but given the low-fi setup of the venue, their thrashy garage numbers turned out to be more appropriate.

At the end of the show, Sekiden were invited back on to the stage for a “space jam”. Also joining them was a little boy who I think was Don’s son. I’m not sure that Sekiden were quite up to the challenge of grooving with the Bombs, but everyone on stage looked like they were having a helluva time, including Don Jnr. who kept almost perfect time bashing the skins next to Pocky.

The Zoobombs perform with the kind of reckless joy and fervent energy you rarely see in bands today. They channel the kind of deep, naïve but genuine love you have as a teenager for your favourite rock star. The Zoobombs songs are sung in a high-octane blend of Japanese and Engrish. I have a bit of an issue with bands singing in a language foreign to their own (just look at Eurovision!) but the Zoobombs are different. You know that the first time Don Matsuo heard the Stones something deep within his soul went “hell yeah!” When he belts out growling, gurgling, howling vocals, however indecipherable they may be, he’s harnessing that hell yeah, he’s pouring out that obsession, that love. It never ceases to delight lovers of Japanese culture that the Japanese, traditionally a completely homogenous, dutifully conformist, polite and businesslike society, are almost given permission to find release from the straight-and-narrow in pretty extreme ways. If the Zoobombs had been an Aussie band, in this conservative era of musical expression, Don’s flailing and falling might have made audiences uncomfortable. We shouldn’t see the Zoobombs as being outrageous because they’re Japanese… they’re outrageous because they’re a rock band, and THAT ladies and gentleman, is what rock ‘n’ roll is all about.