We caught J-Rock sensations MUCC at a rare UK appearance!
[date]18th May 2015[/date]
[venue]o2 Academy Islington[/venue]
[city]London, UK[/city]
MUCC are an absoute phenomenon in Japan, but you certainly wouldn’t know it by the attendance levels at the o2 Academy tonight. It’s barely half full – but what it is full of are die hard J-Rock fans just a bit excited to see one of the longer running bands take over the evening for a very rare UK performance. I have been a fan of MUCC since the release of ‘Shion‘ in 2008, that contained some of the heaviest material they have ever released – but their experimental style with other genres has always been of great interest to me, and I’ve always been curious to see how that comes out on stage. Finally tonight is a chance to see it!
MUCC are on their own tonight, as so many Japanese bands that come to Europe are, but that leaves them the opportunity to play a slightly more extended set and a more diverse tracklist that fans who have never seen the band have been craving.
The band kick off with a the title track from their recent release ‘The End of the World‘, a slower-tempo rock track that does seem a particularly peculiar choice to open with – but then MUCC have never really done anything by the books. Somehow the energy comes alive almost instantly, probably the sheer excitement of fans seeing one of Japan’s finest in the flesh, but also that the stage theatrics of frontman Tatsurou are quite intriguing and captivating to watch – a man that you can tell is very passionate about his music, and the element which proves to be the foundation of the evening for this successful performance.
The band bring the heavy back as they quickly move on to ‘Suiren‘ and get every single patron jumping – drinks were being spilt everywhere and you could cut through glass with some of the sharpness of the smiles in the front row. The next track of ‘Ender Ender‘ was in a similar vein, but introduced speed metal, dance and dubstub into a piece of music that very much represents MUCC and their career.
Though the band do make a lot of use of backing tracks, the musicians deserve the utmost commendation for the way they perform this evening. Tatsurou’s diverse vocals of indie rock hipster to the grunts of George Fisher are a particular highlight in tracks like ‘Ageha‘, the flying bass skill of Yukke on the jazz-infused track ‘Pure Black’, the perfect working of Miya’s guitar effects on ‘Nirvana‘ and the battery of Satoshi’s drums on the heavy ‘Mr. Liar‘.
MUCC have their sound right throughout the entire show, a very difficult feat considering the diversity of genres that the band play around with – and even manage to mix a perfect sounding harmonica into the PA in the funky ‘FUZZ‘. It was something to be very impressed by, and MUCC were visibly enjoying themselves with the odd break between songs with some very decent English being spoken to the crowd by the band members.
Many Japanese bands I have seen sometimes go a bit overkill with their alter-ego’s on stage, and some I have seen have even had the audacity to complain about the stage size or attendance levels to an audience that is hard to captivate outside their native country, but MUCC have embraced the evening appropriately wrapping up with the classic ‘Tonight‘. MUCC rarely do tour overseas, but when you do it is definitely worth seeing something like this. In Japan they have the added bonus of playing on big stages with lots of pyro, lighting and stage effects, but they have proven they are perfectly adaptable to playing on a small stage and still enjoy themselves – no matter what the language barrier may be. Sayonara MUCC! Hopefully we shall see you again!
