The Japanese pop-punk band that’s been making music for 42 years ended their brief tour of New Zealand with a sweaty show at Auckland’s Whammy Bar on Saturday night. Here’s how it went.
Three Japanese women checked and tuned their instruments wearing black Shonen Knife T-shirts. Covering their legs were colourful flared pants, decorated with black and white squiggles, which we’d later learn were made by bassist and singer Atsuko Yamano. On the glittery pink guitar and also singing was Atsuko’s older sister Naoko Yamano. The newest and youngest member of the band, Risa Kawano, sat behind the drums and never stopped smiling.
Shonen Knife formed in Osaka in 1981, when two office workers, Naoko and her friend Michie Nakatani, started a band inspired by the Beatles, the Jam and the Ramones. Naoko’s younger sister Atsuko, 17 at the time, was enlisted to play the drums. It was rare at the time for a punk-rock band to have all women members, but they found that the “boy bands” were keen to have them perform at their gigs. Resistance came from the Yamano’s mum, and so the sisters would hide their instruments when leaving for gigs. Nakatani left in 1999, Atsuko took her place on the bass, and there was a revolving cast of drummers until Risa Kawano joined in 2015.
Once they were ready, the T-shirts came off, revealing sleeveless tops matching the flares. The costumes are perhaps the first clue that through Shonen Knife you won’t be receiving the typical “pop-punk” offering. There’s something much happier, much more earnest and carefree – but it’s mixed with music and stage antics usually left for heavy, dark music. The Yamano sisters headbang, flinging their hair over their face – technically like Black Sabbath, but not like that at all, since they’re doing it in unison and smiling. When Kawano holds her drum sticks in an X I wondered if she meant it like a kiss. Atsuko and Naoko don’t hold back in throwing the devil horns out to the crowd, who are quick to return them.
I’m not sure if the innocent joyousness is a parody, or if the horns are. Is it all too sweet to be earnest? Behind me, someone said, “they’re so cute”.
When I bought my ticket to see a band who became cult legends when they toured with Nirvana in 1991, I was surprised to see the venue – the sticky underground pit that is Whammy. Surely this basement on Karangahape Road was too small, too dingy, too underwhelming to host a band that’s been touring around the world for over 40 years? On the same night, P!nk was performing to around 50,000 people in a stadium up the road. Sure, that’s certainly not the type of success Shonen Knife is aiming for, but… Whammy? The bar where many messy local bands book their first gigs, where you can wander in for free sometimes and get your ear-drums blasted, or where you end up hanging around outside because it’s too hot and sweaty and gross in there?
In an ideal world, I think Shonen Knife would have performed at the King’s Arms, where they played when they came here back in 2015 – but, alas, RIP. Still, when they began, the choice of venue made sense. This was an intimate show – none of the audience were further than about 8 metres from the band, and from where I was I could see the imperfect stitching on the costumes, beads of sweat forming on Atsuko Yamano’s neck, and Naoko Yamano’s ruffled hair. It was a proximity that didn’t require a “giant metal diaper” to bring them close. A big stadium show is not necessarily better than a show at a little dive bar.
As their set progressed, the heaviness of the music built, to the point where Naoko was screaming for an impossibly long time and Kawano was thrashing the drums. But it’s odd because the subject matter is usually candy. The lyrics vary from “yum yum yum”, to “it’s a nice day”, to “afternoon snack time is three o’clock”. The crowd jumped up and down, smiling and silly.
It’s easy to begin wondering if it’s bad for punk or punk-derivative music to be totally empty of politics. Talking on RNZ’s Music 101 before the tour, Naoko Yamano said “I don’t want to write about social problems or sad things”. Instead the aim of her songwriting is to “make people happy”. Perhaps there’s a nobility in this. Perhaps she’s subverting the subversive. Perhaps I’m reading too much into it and I should just enjoy it.
At the end, Kawano tied up her hair, got up and joined hands with the other two. They bowed. Many “arigato”s were exchanged between the band and the excited audience. When they disappeared behind the curtain at the side of the stage, people began clapping and chanting for an encore. I’d forgotten about this strange ritual – I reckon it hasn’t happened at Whammy for a while. The three returned to the stage, looking sweaty and dishevelled. They thanked that audience for being so polite, and played two more songs. Afterwards, the ritual was repeated. Naoko Yamano returned to the stage first, breathless. She held up her index finger. They were tired, but they happily played one last song – their famous cover of The Carpenters’ ‘Top of the World’ – to finish their New Zealand tour.