SHONEN KNIFE + THE KUT – THE CON CLUB, LEWES 16.4.23
We were all set to head on out to The Con Club in Lewes on Sunday 3rd October 2021 as local promoters Love Thy Neighbour had secured a booking with the famed Japanese pop-punk band Shonen Knife but sadly the pandemic had other ideas. Thus the date was rolled over to Sunday 17th April 2022 and we were all geared up for the new concert date, but no covid was still rife and travel from Japan was obviously limited. We patiently waited for a new date…..It arrived Sunday 16th April 2023 and all systems were go!
Thus 560 days later than planned the Brighton & Hove News Team made our way to the excellent venue located just south (ie up the hill) from Lewes Castle. Not surprising, tonight’s concert was a sell-out and the punters were drawn from all walks of life and the variation of those young and old gathered here tonight was I guess an indicator of Shonen Knife’s general appeal.
The all-girl trio was formed in Osaka in Japan way back in December 1981 by sisters Naoko Yamano (vocals and guitar) and Atsuko Yamano (drums) along with their friend Michie Nakatani (bass).
When Shonen Knife initially started, the band was something of an anomaly as they were coming in at a time when all-female bands were scarce. They totally ignored the then-rising, early J-Pop movement and instead began crafting their own blend of energetic rock songs rooted in rough instrumentation and do-it-yourself ethos.
The trio emphasize positivity using catchy, upbeat melodies and frivolous, carefree lyrics that often are about the things that they like such as food and tennis. The group describe their music as “oo-oo-ultra-eccentric-super-cult-punk-pop-band-shonen-knife!”
It was in 1991 that Nirvana’s Kurt Cobain famously stated after seeing Shonen Knife live that “When I finally got to see them live, I was transformed into a hysterical nine-year-old girl at a Beatles concert.”
Shonen Knife’s positivity and bouncy demeanour means that they win fans wherever they play. If they could bottle their feel-good factor they would all be immensely rich. You can’t help smiling all the way through a Shonen Knife set, especially when the ladies try to converse with us in English, it’s so endearing. They speak and folks’ hearts are warmed by them and tonight is no exception.
Their 68 minute commenced at the allotted 8:30pm slot and they left us all feeling much better for wear at 9:38pm and in plenty of time to grab our transport back home.
I found myself absorbed into their sugar candy coated world so much so that I kept forgetting to make some notes. Not all of the songs were introduced and although we have a photograph of their setlist, it is actually in Japanese, so anyone that can assist with the correct setlist for this evening would be greatly appreciated.
They took to the stage to an instrumental track and then they were off. All three of them share vocal harmonies, with lead vocals switching between the two sisters, but they do let drummer Risa have the spotlight on one of the numbers. Tonight, we are told is a celebration of their 40 years as a band and the songs that they selected are a reflection of this.
The band currently still consists of:
59 year old Atsuko Yamano is on our left (stage right) and she proudly informs us that she created the band’s red, yellow and blue outfits this evening and hoped that we liked them. Everyone approved, but that’s not surprising as Atsuko is also a fashion designer. Interestingly, when the band first started, she was their drummer, but made the switch to bass when the third founding member Michie Nakatani departed back in 1999. Michie has now retired from music. Atsuko’s birthday is on 22nd February and she likes The Beatles, Kiss and the Ramones and also plays tennis and enjoys drawing and shopping and eating spicy food.
62 year old Naoko Yamano is on the opposite side of the stage (our right) and she, like her sister, both look much younger than they actually are, it’s incredible really. Surely it can’t be their diet of all the food that they write songs about? Naoko is the primary songwriter and is the only member of the band to have remained throughout its entire history. Her sister had been on drums from 1981 to 2005 and then bass from 1999 to 2006, and then again from2016 to the present, as well as the occasional touring bassist between 2007 and 2016.
Naoko informed us that the ladies had a swift walk around the town during the support’s soundcheck and that they loved the castle and would love to return to Lewes and see the castle and no doubt play for us all again. Naoko’s birthday is on 18th December and she likes 70s hard rock and plays tennis and enjoys drawing and shopping and eating sweets.
Completing the trio at the back of the stage is Risa Kawano who has been on drums since 2015. Her birthday is on 22nd March and she likes the Ramones and System Of A Down and enjoys reading and playing games and eating sweets.
The Lewes crowd were treated to a career spanning set made up of mainly fast toe-tapping numbers that lasted around three minutes each. The band had a vast amount of options when choosing songs to play as they have released more than twenty albums. It seemed that these ladies just really love to play to their adoring fans as they were continually smiling virtually all the way through their set, especially the younger drummer Risa. If I had smiled that much, my cheek bones would have been aching by the end of the night.
Throughout the band’s history, they have always been on the case, with a string of albums having been released. The latest of these, ‘Our Best Place’ dropped on 15th February and my choice track of the night can be found on it, its title being ‘MUJINTO Rock’. I found this most encouraging as after all this time, maybe their best material is coming from them right now! They explained that this new release was on CD, which we could purchase tonight as it had extra tracks not found on the download. They said there wasn’t any vinyl though.
In a nutshell, if the Ramones or the Barracudas (remember them?) were all female and came from Japan, then Shonen Knife would be the result. Sadly, they didn’t perform their rendition of the Ramones ‘Blitzkrieg Bop’ as they had last night in London, but we instead were given their cover of The Carpenters ‘Top Of The World’.
The band this evening were very well received and the crowd all really had a great time watching the band and many of them queued up afterwards to purchase some merch, which included the new 40th anniversary ones that the girls sported during the encore as well as the one when they supported Nirvana.
Shonen Knife:
Naoko Yamano – guitar and vocals
Atsuko Yamano – bass and vocals
Risa Kawano – drums and vocals
Probable Shonen Knife setlist:
(Intro tape) ‘Mango Juice’ (Instrumental) (from 2002 ‘Heavy Songs’ album)
‘Konnichiwa’ (from 1998 ‘Happy Hour’ album)
‘Banana Chips’ (from 1998 ‘Happy Hour’ album)
‘Twist Barbie’ (from 1983 ‘Burning Farm’ album + 1992 ‘Let’s Knife’ album)
‘Pop Tune’ (from 2012 ‘Pop Tune’ album)
‘Jump Into The New World’ (from 2016 ‘Adventure’ album)
‘Green Tea’ (from 2014 ‘Overdrive’ album)
‘Lazybone’ (from 1991 ‘712’ album)
‘Wasabi’ (from 2016 ‘Adventure’ album)
‘MUJINTO Rock’ (from 2023 ‘Our Best Place’ album)
‘Nice Day’ (from 2023 ‘Our Best Place’ album)
‘Sweet Candy Power’ (from 2019 ‘Sweet Candy Power’ album)
‘Concrete Animals’ (from 1993 ‘Rock Animals’ album)
‘I Am A Cat’ (from 1992 ‘Let’s Knife’ album)
‘Devil House’ (from 1992 ‘Let’s Knife’ album)
‘Riding On The Rocket’ (from 1986 ‘Pretty Little Baka Guy’ album + 1992 ‘Let’s Knife’ album)
‘Buttercup (I’m A Super Girl)’ (from 2000 ‘The Powerpuff Girls’ TV show)
‘Ramen Rock’ (from 2014 ‘Overdrive’ album)
‘Cobra Versus Mongoose’ (from 1993 ‘Rock Animals’ album)
(encore)
‘Sushi Bar Song’ (from 1998 ‘Happy Hour’ album)
‘Top Of The World’ (The Carpenters cover) (from 1994 ‘If I Were a Carpenter’ tribute compilation album)
The official Shonen Knife website is www.shonenknife.net, but you might need to put your translate on:
Support this evening came from The Kut who I had previously witnessed performing live at ‘Glastonwick’ back in 2019, although they were a different lineup that day when I recorded this:
“This London based spikey female trio were playing Glastonwick for the very first time. They performed the irony filled ‘I am Vain’ and ‘If Looks Could Kill’ amongst several others. Their debut album ‘Valley Of Thorns’ was released last year and dented the Top 10 of the Rock Charts by crashing in at number seven. The Kut is the alter-ego of blue haired multi-instrumentalist and PhD Graduate, Princess Maha who has brought along Stella Vie (on bass/vocals) and Diana Bartmann (on drums) along for the ride. Think along the lines of The Runaways, Hole and L7 and you will be in the right grunge ballpark”.
The Kut is thus a fluid collective with Princess Maha at the helm. In fact last night’s gig was also a different trio, as bassist Daisy Pepper was playing another gig in Norwich, but drummer Violet Stow aka Violet The Cannibal played both gigs.
This evening Princess, Daisy and Violet performed a 10 track, 36 minute set that commenced at 7:31pm and concluded at 8:07pm. I’m sure that the trio were overjoyed as the venue was packed from the start of their set. In fact I even met a few folk that had specifically come along this evening on account of The Kut being on the bill. This wasn’t as surprising as I had initially thought as during their set, Princess informed us that The Kut’s latest record ‘Grit’ had got to No.1 in the Rock Chart. It was pleasing to also find out that the recording of the album was funded by Arts Council England.
The Kut began with a tune each from their old EP’s, namely ‘I Don’t Need Therapy’ (on 2015 ‘Rock Paper Scissors’) and ‘DMA’ (on 2014 ‘Make Up’), before playing the first of a handful of tracks from their 2022 ‘Grit’ album, which was ‘If Looks Could Kill’. Tune four ‘On My Own’ was “dedicated to all the women in the room”.
Despite the change in personnel, The Kut were a tight unit who were offering up traditional rock with more than a large slice of punk thrown in for good measure. Violet’s drumming was on the ball, especially so on ‘Hollywood Rock’n’Roll’, which was culled from their 2018 ‘Valley Of Thorns’ album. ‘I Want You Maniac’ from the same album was up next and I think that Princess said that it was the first song that she wrote.
We were encouraged to sing a chorus of “the bad man’s gone bad” for their penultimate number ‘Bad Man’ (from 2018 ‘Valley Of Thorns’ album) and at previous gigs, fans have also been encouraged to get on stage and sing along, tonight, however, it was only punter Nick Perryman, who was brave enough to go solo and pogo throughout the tune whilst adding occasional vocals.
They played us out with ‘And 1 More…’ from ‘Grit’, which featured some fancy basswork from Daisy. The audience gave them a loud roar on completion, which led to the girls giving a bow of honour, just as the headliners would do. Clearly I am going against the grain here as I personally feel the punters were possibly over gracious as I couldn’t really see anything that special about the band, although they are clearly all very nice people.
The Kut:
Princess Maha – lead vocals and guitar
Daisy Pepper – vocals and bass
Violet Stow aka Violet The Cannibal – drums
The Kut setlist:
‘I Don’t Need Therapy’ (from 2015 ‘Rock Paper Scissors’ EP)
‘DMA’ (from 2014 ‘Make Up’ EP)
‘If Looks Could Kill’ (from 2022 ‘Grit’ album)
‘On My Own’ (from 2022 ‘Grit’ album)
‘Fun When You’re Winning’ (from 2022 ‘Grit’ album)
‘ANIMO’ (from 2022 ‘Grit’ album)
‘Hollywood Rock’n’Roll’ (from 2018 ‘Valley Of Thorns’ album)
‘I Want You Maniac’ (from 2018 ‘Valley Of Thorns’ album)
‘Bad Man’ (from 2018 ‘Valley Of Thorns’ album)
‘And 1 More…’ (from 2022 ‘Grit’ album)
