A little while ago there was some debate on our forums about whether Melt-Banana’s live show was completely amazing or just plain confusing. I can see how the band’s live show would be off-putting if you weren’t intimately familiar with the band’s records or if their brand of noise-punk-grind-experimentalism is simply not your bag. It might not even be all that great if you’re standing more than 15 feet away from the stage.

But hooooo-boy! If you love this kind of music, there is simply nothing more exhilarating and jaw-dropping than a Melt-Banana live performance. I’d seen them do a show with Fantômas way back in my high-school days but the one last night was far superior for one reason: the audience was completely in love with them! Back at the first show, it was at a larger venue and sure people were into it and all but it was nothing like the moshing, screaming masses that greeted them on the Fourth of July at Dante’s. Almost made me feel proud that my fellow countrymen could show them the love they deserve!

So when I first got there two hours after the alleged start time (they still didn’t go on till forty-five minutes after that), I dreaded the worst. The show was part of an almost theme night with gogo dancers on suspended mini-stages hanging over the bars and some populist dark electronic thumpa-thumpa music. And by gogo dancers they meant strippers without the taking off of the bikinis. How the hell was the club going to reconcile the sexxxed up theme with the far out weirdness of the band playing? The DJ that played right before the band was semi in the mood putting in a lot of weirdo electronics which confused the hell out of the dancers but prepared the audience for their minds to be melted like a gross yellow fruit.

Turns out there were no transition pains and the packed crowd was in it from the first moment. They rocked, we responded. Lots of fist pumps, dudes screaming “yasuko-chan!,” and jaws agape at the sight of Agata’s magic awesome party guitar. I remember the first time I saw Melt-Banana, I started off near the front (always a no-brainer for this band, your eardrums can heal) near Mika the bassist but I eventually gravitated toward the main show which is always Agata’s lightning hands and endless pedal stomps. Now that’s no knock to Mika, without her the band wouldn’t be able to rock quite as hard as they do. She’s a completely excellent bassist but anyone can tell you that the main feature of the live show is Yasuko’s presence and Agata’s spectacle. This time I made no mistake and stood almost in the mosh pit right in front of the masked wonder, just watching him go and go and go and go. And go! Dude’s nuts.

The sound system was perfect and all of Yasuko’s vocals came in riding on top of the bass while Agata’s noises were clear and dominant, just the way it should be. They played lots of stuff off of new album Bambi’s Dilemma like “Blank Page of the Blind,” “Spider Snipe,” and even “Type: Ecco System.” There were plenty of old favorites like “Lost Parts Stinging Me So Cold” and others from Cell-Scape and beyond. The set-list was really concise and included a few real oldies with a suite of five songs under thirty seconds each near the end of the set. Yasuko and co were showing the love to all their fans and the reception was just as insane for every piece. So insane, in fact, that the band was forced back on stage for two and a half encores. According to reports from my immediate family, the show the night before in Seattle only got one (and they had sound difficulties). Portland: you are officially awesome.

In the end, everyone that went to the show left with a happy, sweaty smile on their face. Maybe it was the fact that this show was 21+ that gave the necessary lubrication for swallowing the Melt-Banana pill? A subject for debate! Whatever it was, all I can say is that minds were blown, fists were pumped, and merch was sold.

Hell, even the gogo dancers stayed on their platforms and tried to shake it to the evillest beats. God bless their bare bottoms.

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Photo credits go to user “wendypants” from flickr. Totally random and totally awesome!

Graeme, I can’t wait to hear what visual descriptions you have in store to describe Yasuko’s vocals. I hope you can top “a chihuahua being churned through the blades of a combine harvester!”

I can’t think of anything else other than the one my girlfriend came up with the night we first saw Melt-Banana - it’s like listening to Alvin and The Chipmunks go through mardy adolescence. Anything else would just involve more references to small animals being sliced and diced in some particularly horrible way. I will just never like this band.

As TMO’s immediate family reporting from the show the night before in Seattle, I feel that I must rectify any injustices given over by the interpretation of my comments. Yes there were sound difficulties and only one encore, but let it be said that synapses were blown nonetheless. I brought with me that night a melt banana virgin to the festivities and after being solidly entrenched at the front of the stage for the entirety of the show we had to ring the sweat out of our shirts on the way home. that is all.

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