Kyoto, Japan’s Otoboke Beaver and Daegu, South Korea’s Drinking Boys and Girls Choir played to a sold out Opera House on the Toronto stop of their Canada-US tour this weekend. The fact that these two east Asian underground punk bands can fill theaters across North America is an indication of the online fandom both bands have been growing in the last few years. Watching multiple live recordings of raucus Otoboke Beaver sets had set my expectations high, and neither me or the rest of the fervent crowd left disappointed.
Catchy, frenetic punk trio Drinking Boys and Girls Choir opened the show with the riffy, gang vocal-heavy “I’m a Fucking MacDonalds”, off their debut album Keep Drinking. The already packed crowd was perhaps unfamiliar with the opening band but DBGC are clearly masters of winning over an audience. When singer-bassist Meena Bae addressed the crowd to ask if they were ready for “Linda Linda” (their cover of The Blue Hearts’ 1987 song) everyone went wild and proceeded to sing along with the Japanese rock classic, only to go ever crazier when she stopped the song midway to hand her microphone to a girl in the front, who then finished singing the song while crowd surfing.
[Note: since publishing I discovered the “girl in the front” is actually Yoyoyoshie, guitarist for Otoboke Beaver]
A brief scuffle between an older man in the front of the crowd who reacted to getting pushed by the bouncing, joyful mosh pit by trying to throw a kid to the ground (bad form - if you don’t want to get pushed don’t stand in the front) was broken up by security. Meena Bae was visibly upset by this and reminded everyone that she is the singer, and we should be focusing on her. She brilliantly squashed the bad vibe by walking into the crowd with her bass for the next song, hyping everyone up to an energy level that would continue for the rest of the set.
Otoboke Beaver, capitalizing on the well-primed audience, began their set almost immediately after DBGC left the stage. A gleefully noisy and erratic four piece formed in 2009, guitarist Yoyoyoshie is their hype man character, introducing the band by screaming “Are you ready for Otoboke Beaver?!?” over and over again until she was satisfied with the response. It was half pro wrestling-style theatrics, with Yoyoyoshie putting her hand to her ear like a tiny Hulk Hogan, and half actual warning to the crowd, because we really did need to be prepared. Beginning with “Yakitori” and not pausing for another five songs or so, except for a quick, polite “thank you” from singer Accorinrin at the end of each one, the band didn’t give anyone a chance to chill out.
As the ceaseless blasts of mayhem gave way to longer breaks between songs where the band would freeze in place and wait for the crowd to completely quiet down before jumping into another two minute freakout, it was hard not to notice the security guards stationed in front of the stage taking looks back to see what the hell was happening behind them and holding their hands up to shield their ears from the noise. Security looked even more bewildered when Yoyoyoshie got the crowd to sing O Canada (Or “Go Canada” as she put it), which they did, to her initial delight and eventual annoyance after she realized they were intent on completing the whole song, which they did.
Each member of Otoboke Beaver brings an important presence to the stage. Yoyoyoshie looks positively thrilled to be on stage, toying with the audience and producing ungodly levels of noise from her guitar. Accorinrin is playfully hostile toward the crowd, cooly telling anyone daring to “woop” during the randomly silent moments between songs to “shut the fuck up”. Bassist Hirochan is laid back and chill while her left hand does runs all over the fretboard, bare feet planted on a large, plush rug. Drummer Kahokiss is truly amazing to watch, a complete monster on the kit with an ever present grin on her face, the breakneck rhythms and quick changes of Otoboke Beaver are manifest in her flailing limbs.
When returning for an encore, Yoyoyoshie had a giant beaver pool float and jumped into the crowd with it, surfing around before returning to the stage to take a band selfie with everyone. They did play one last song - the 16 second-long “Let’s Shopping After Show” - then swiftly left the stage and the house lights turned on. It was over, just like that.
The only word that really captures this set is “chaos”. As much as I knew I had to see Otoboke Beaver live I have to admit that I don’t think I’ve ever listened to them for over an hour straight before this because it really is too much to handle for most moods I actually experience in a given day. I was worried that a full headlining set would be way too many start-stop blasts of guitar noise, screeching, and blast beats for my aging eardrums. To be real it actually kind of was too much for me, as I left the Opera House in a bit of a shaken daze once it was all over, with my ears ringing and a big dumb grin on my face. I would go see them again in a heartbeat.
I was there! Amazing show!
Excellent, well-written review. I had a lot of fun at the show as well.