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Japan Nite (sxsw-asia.com)—a multi-act tour that shows off the awesome sounds and crazy antics of Japanese rock, pop, punk, and electronic bands—charged through its 2009 tour with a 10-day, eight-city schedule. And of course, Shojo Beat was there. Jordan Heimer wrote his account from opening night at the South by Southwest music festival in Austin, Texas. Jade Hughes and Rosie McNeel shot the live-action photos two nights later at The Bowery Ballroom in New York City.
The evening in Austin started quietly with Masaaki Yoshida's electropop solo project Anchorsong (myspace.com/anchorsong), followed by all-girl teen band Flip (flip-4.com). The Elysium, where Japan Nite took place, normally books goth and industrial-metal bands, and a few tattooed couples in leather pants and jackboots blinked confusedly at the third act, Dirty Old Men (dirtyoldmen.jp), as they made their way through a quick set of Gin Blossoms-styled power pop.
After another all-girl pop group called Honey Sac (honeysac.jp), the crowd got riled up over Sparta Locals' (spartalocals.net) eclectic set. Combining fuzzed-out garage rock, angular prog-riffs, and head-bobbing Jamaican funk, Sparta Locals blasted through their music with consistent high energy and injected well-received attempts at bilingual banter between songs.
Grapevine (myspace.com/grapevinefromtokyo) seemed awkwardly positioned between the energy of Sparta Locals' set and the expectation of Detroit7's (detroitseven.com) headlining finale. Grapevine's songs effortlessly combined shimmering guitars and big blocky beats, but the crowd seemed to regard the downshift in energy as a break in the action.
Detroit7—which is comprised of Tomomi Nabana on vocals and guitar, Nobuaki Kotajima on bass, and Miyoko Yamaguchi on drums—just released their self-titled US album, which Kotajima describes as "danceable garage rock." During their set, Kotajima pounded out thick bass riffs while Yamaguchi held the band together with a blistering performance on her small kit. Strutting around barefoot, hair nearly brushing the stage as she hunched over her guitar on some of the more intricate licks, Nabana had the kind of unmistakable rock star presence and charisma that no one else on the evening's bill could match.
The highlight of the Detroit7 set was a cover of The Kingsmen's "Louie Louie," played the way it's meant to be played: raucous, sloppy, and loud. The final chorus saw the front rows of the Elysium crowd pressing towards the stage, hooting and throwing up the universal thumb-to-curled-middle-fingers "rock on" gesture. This being Austin, they may have just been encouraging Detroit7 to "Hook 'Em Horns," a University of Texas slogan. Either way, the show rocked.
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