Japandroids @ Turf Club

Vancouver’s Japandroids headlined a great triple bill at the Turf Club in St. Paul late Sunday night (and early into Monday morning), with local band Gospel Gossip kicking things off with an exuberant start, while Seattle’s Mt. St. Helens Vietnam Band kept things boisterous with their strong middle set. Unfortunately, copious amounts of booze lead to the end of Japandroids set dissolving into a bit of a train wreck, marring what until then had been a great night of music.

Minneapolis three-piece Gospel Gossip kicked the night off with a rousing, tightly wound set that really won me over. It had been over a year since I had last seen the band live, and they were much more focused and intense this time around, with front woman Sarah Nienaber really settling comfortably into the role as band leader, letting her vocals and piercing guitar work propel the songs forward. Bassist Justin Plank and drummer M. Oliver Moltaji provided a driving rhythm section that stayed perfectly in time with Nienaber’s unabashed guitar freak-outs, giving the songs a potency that is lacking a bit on their recorded output. The band played a bunch of songs from their recent Dreamland EP, including a killer version of “Nashville” that really won over the small crowd that was starting to filter in for the end of the weekend show. I’m sure the band made some new fans during their spirited set (including the Mt. St. Helens Vietnam Band, who made a special point to say that we were lucky to have a band as good as Gospel Gossip in our town). Hopefully the band with bring the fiery intensity of their live show into the studio with them when they get around to recording their next full length.

Seattle’s Mt. St. Helens Vietnam Band were up next, and the five-piece’s eclectic, textured sound certainly went over well with the slowly growing audience. They have a bit of a Modest Mouse/Fugazi sound to their live set that isn’t really all that present in their studio work, and front man Benjamin Verdoes truly loses himself in the music, delivering his vocals with a passion and ferocity that was refreshing, and made me forget how truly tired I was after the long weekend. Their songs are propelled by a lot of percussion (it seemed almost every member of the band beat on a drum at some point during their set), led by 14 (!) year old drummer Marshall Verdoes, who relentlessly beat on the skins as if his life depended on it. Every member of the band seemed to totally give themselves up to the energy of the songs, and that enthusiasm easily transferred to the crowd which seemed to be growing with each successive song. Standouts from the lively set include “Albatross, Albatross, Albatross,” “Cheer For Fate” and an intense performance of “En Fuego” which found keyboardist Traci Eggleston pulling out huge wooden poles upon which cymbals were attached, banging them on the ground in time with the beat. It was pure spectacle (and caused me to wonder how much space these instruments took up in the band’s van), but certainly meshed well with their animated live show. I had never heard the Mt. St. Helens Vietnam Band prior to this performance, but certainly look forward to hearing more from them in the future and catching another one of their compelling live shows the next time they come through the Cities.

Japandroids’ set started strong enough, after a rapid fire, breathless introduction of the band by guitarist Brian King, (“He’s David and I’m Brian and we’re the Japandroids from Vancouver, and this is the first time we’ve ever played Minnesota and we’re so happy to be here”) the band kicked things off with a propulsive version of “No Allegiance To The Queen” from their Lullaby Death Jams EP. After tearing through that number, the first of what turned out to be many shots were brought on stage, and unfortunately, the first of the night’s many sound problems began plaguing King’s guitar. A tool kit was brought on stage as King struggled to rectify his cord and amp problem, which killed the momentum of the start of the show a bit, but allowed drummer David Prowse to not only take his shot, but regale the audience with funny stories about how the tour was going so far. After rectifying his guitar issue, King told the crowd that what just happened was like “finishing too quickly with a girl, and now having to tell her that that kind of thing never happens and he’s really embarrassed.” But the audience forgave the band very quickly as they proceeded to rip into a raucous version of “The Boys Are Leaving Town.” The wild energy of this song was exactly the reason why the Turf Club remained mostly filled for the band’s set, despite not starting until well past midnight Monday morning.

King continued by telling us that if the band just played their debut record from start to finish, their set would just be eight songs and a half an hour long, so they were going to play some old songs. They played a killer song from their very first 7″, which I haven’t been able to track down the name of (but the chorus features the lines “here’s your money back, here’s your money right back”), before going right into an animated version of “Rockers East Vancouver” which found King playing most of the set standing on Prowse’s drums while he pounded away the beat. The band really hit their stride on the next batch of tunes, going right from the powerful “Heart Sweats” directly into “Darkness On The Edge Of Gastown,” which is also from Lullaby Death Jams. And “Young Hearts Spark Fire” absolutely shredded live, with the band barely able to keep up with the sped up rhythm that they set for the song. King was a dynamo, bounding about the tiny Turf Club stage with abandon.

He joked about how he used to wear a North Stars jersey all the time when he was younger, and would’ve worn the jersey that night, but he wasn’t sure if there was a rival team in the area, and didn’t want to get killed for wearing the wrong jersey. When he was assured he wouldn’t get killed, he promised “to tell Dallas to fuck off for stealing the North Stars” when the band played there later in the tour. There were also shoes and socks jokingly thrown up at the band between songs, causing King to wonder how big of a band they would have to be before the audience would start throwing panties at them on stage like Tom Jones. And apparently the shoe thrower felt bad, and bought the band more shots. Bad idea, as proven later in the show.

King then dedicated the next song to all of the boys in the house, as the band played a terrific cover of Big Black’s “Racer X” with Prowse on vocals and King going crazy on guitar. It was definitely one of the highlights of the set, and unfortunately represented the highpoint as the rest of the performance quickly went downhill from there. “Crazy/Forever” was dedicated to all of the girls in the house, and was good, but it was obvious that the booze was starting to affect King, who also had another issue with his guitar, eventually having to switch to his backup guitar before playing a really sloppy version of “Sovereignty.” With their tour manager urging them to pull the plug on a set that was quickly spiraling out of control, King demanded that the band couldn’t end their first Minnesota show like that, “and these good people deserve better.” By now it was past 1:30 in the morning, and what this good person deserved was to go home to bed, but like any train wreck, it was hard to look away.

After some more technical issues King got his wish and the band played Post-Nothing‘s final track “I Quit Girls” for the first time ever in the United States. “Dallas isn’t going to get this song, Chicago isn’t going to get this song. Fucking New York won’t get this song. Just you guys,” King slurred. So, the 75 people that were left in the club at this time probably felt special, until they heard the horrendous version of the song the band preformed. It was dreadful, and while Prowse obviously looked like he wanted it to be over, King kept on going, despite a false start at the beginning, and the song painfully had to be started over. If King wouldn’t have been so earnest and genuine about wanting to give us a good show, it would’ve been hard to watch. But when I look back on Japandroids’ first show in Minnesota, I will try to focus on the excellent start to the show, and not the booze-soaked, shambolic finish to their set. Plus, based on the strength of their debut album and their brilliant set at the Pitchfork Music Festival, the band has built up some credit to burn with me. While I’ll forgive them for the train wreck end to their set, I only hope that the next time through the Cities, the band holds it together better and really sets the place on fire with their live show.

[Review by Erik Thompson, videos by Josh Keller]

Japandroids Setlist:
No Allegiance To The Queen
The Boys Are Leaving Town
?
Rockers East Vancouver
Heart Sweats
Darkness On The Edge Of Gastown
Young Hearts Spark Fire
Racer X (Big Black Cover)
Crazy/Forever
Sovereignty
I Quit Girls

Japandroids: Purchase | Official | MySpace | Wikipedia
Mt. St. Helens Vietnam Band: Purchase | MySpace
Gospel Gossip: Purchase | Twitter | MySpace

Also: Japandroids “Post-Nothing” Review