Last Minute Plans: Melt-Banana At Bottom Lounge

By Tankboy in Arts & Entertainment on Nov 30, 2009 6:20PM

Photo from the Band's Facebook

Special to Chicagoist from Sarah Cobarrubias

Melt-Banana, a noise-punk-grind outfit straight from the Tokyo underground, has been pretty busy lately. This month the band released a new album, Melt-Banana Lite Live Ver 0.0, and is in the middle of a 41-stop tour squeezed into a 47-day schedule. It’s no surprise, because this group has an unstoppable vigor - the kind of super-adrenaline energy you only find in pre-Ritalin toddlers hopped up on Pixy Stix and soda pop.

The new album is actually a product of Melt-Banana Lite, an off-shoot of the old band. But don’t let the name fool you, because the “lite” version still offers the same eccentric, grindcore staccato of the original Melt-Banana, except they've traded in their guitars for synths and samplers. The album begins with “Feedback Deficiency,” a short track composed of an eerie mechanical hum followed by frenetic drumming, otherworldly oscillations, and the electronically altered vocals of Yasuko Onuki. The album whizzes by with short, rapid songs, and before you know it you’re on the last track, “Humming Jackalope, Waiting for the Storm,” which opens with tranquil organs and twinkling noises but ends with a long, deafening sound that you might expect to hear during the apocalypse. In all, we miss Ishirou Agata’s mind-warping guitar squeals, but the added electronics give the band a whole new medium for creating their signature maelstrom of convulsive noise.

If you’re not into this type of grindy, spastic punk, then you probably shouldn’t run out and buy their discography. But at least give them a listen, because if nothing else their music is a cathartic experience. And if they bring just a fraction of the uncontainable energy of their album to their live performance, you can expect this to show to blow your mind. Both Melt-Banana and Melt-Banana Lite will be headlining tonight at the Bottom Lounge with opening bands Triclops!, 97-Shiki, and Jewsus. That’s a whole lot of loud. The Bottom Lounge may not be known for dangerously wild gigs, but you can still expect an explosive show that’s sure to get the audience in a frenzy. Don’t worry if you’re not a fan of thrash-dancing crowds common at grindcore shows, because chances are you’ll find yourself flailing uncontrollably to the spastic hyper-rhythm along with everyone else.

Melt-Banana plays tonight, November 30, at Bottom Lounge, 3175 W Lake, 8 p.m., $12, 17+