Electric Eel Shock
Sold out show proclaims we quit our day jobs and lay down our souls to the gods rock and roll
Cut the workin' man some slack, will ya? Our pulse is set to the punching in and out of the clock Monday through til Friday, our determination for that pay check just to tide us over as unrelenting as the march of time, our hunger for just a little more in life all but starved by wasted years keeping the gears of an increasingly hostile system lubricated until we become chewed up carcasses of our former selves. We need a little RnR to keep our souls fed and to let loose the troubles of a long gruelling week. I'm not talking rest and relaxation of course: I'm talking rock and roll. And the only thing better than breaking the chains with a beer and a slice and good tunes at your regular haunt? Pure live rock and roll catharsis - precisely what Electric Eel Shock delivers by the (new) tour-busfull.
For more than thirty years now, Japan's Electric Eel Shock (alongside countrymen Guitar Wolf and Teengenerate) have been the epitome to that ol' adage "Rock and Roll Can Save the World"; their ecstatic love for 80s heavy metal, puerile tongue-in-cheek humour and fishing (a motif guitarist and vocalist Aki Morimoto brings to the stage from his other love in life) strips the glamour and excess of their heroes right back to bare skin and bones. There is nothing flashy on display... at least as far as the music itself is concerned! The emphasis, instead, has always been playing as raw, loud, and lean as possible, the kind of music that desecrated bedroom and garage walls, much to the bemusement of mum and dad, with nothing more than a good time. It's one thing turning your speakers up to 11 jamming to their DIY brand of anarchic fury with a stupid grin on your face, but it's another thing entirely to bear witness to their cheeky shenanigans in person, for their live shows are the stuff of legends and arguably a rite of passage for any discerning heavy music enthusiast – even if it means sneaking out at night.
The night kicks off with sardonic fury from local noise-mongers Clown Smash Everything, who wryly summon to the stage the energy to tear down a small building. Brandishing the kind of punk from the desert generator parties of yore, only with a darker sense of humour, Clown Smash Everything might be marking their third time supporting tonight's main attraction but the audience cautiously keep their distance and don't quite match the enthusiasm seen on stage; this is too bad and not a reflection of furious bangers 'Flat-Earthers Must Die', 'First One Last Ten', and the outrageous 'Eat All of the Drugs and Run Screaming', all of which bounced off the walls with sheer glee and had no business being the reason for an early bangover*! Quips about the day's Outlook outage and jokes about super-injunctions land harder with this audience and even catch guitarist Jay Freeman off guard for a moment before closing their set with 'Rebecca's Angry' and frankly this captures the spirit of their opening slot, for there is no denying how much fun the band have had devastating our ears.
Before Clown Smash Everything can even get their gear off the stage the once tentative crowd swells ravenously to the stage; eventually, from this impenetrable see of bodies, our star attraction emerge, rig up travel-worn gear, undress (in the case of drummer Gian Ito all that remains is one precariously placed long sock) and, much like V-Cinema goofballs, transform into the crazed lunatics your overly cautious grandma warned you about. By this point the boundary between performance and audience disintegrates and submerges as the trio gesture and parade across everything on stage including the drum set before opening with 'Nice Guy of the Year'. Such spectacle lights up the room with pure dumbfounded glee unashamedly rising from the depths and painted on our faces like gawky teenagers; as this elation rises Electric Eel Shock are all smiles and unbridled energy as the crack into the sing-along list 'My Favourite No. 9' and there isn't a soul down here not joining in! To my left, what anyone would guess to be an Electric Eel Shock fan club party harder with each passing moment.
Aki may proclaim that after two songs he is already feeling tired but nothing before and after such a statement would have you believe his words for he, Gian, and "stand-in" bassist Joji Iwamoto continue to bounce around the stage as they unleash hits from their storied career – including crude romp 'I Can Hear the Sex Noise' and the iconic 'Rock and Roll Can Save the World' - alongside offerings from their latest effort Heavy Metal Black Belt. Their effortless chaos never lets up, and the uproarious room heaves in response, our voices raw by the time we come to lament our work-life in the ever catchy 'Quit Your Day Job', to which Aki confesses he must return to by tours-end - we are having none of this nonsense and continue giving this hard-working epitome of DIY rock and roll everything we have to give them the same good time they give us. Encoring with 'Suicide Rock and Roll' and 'Bastard', high spirits ultimately prevail as the room ignites for one final farewell roar.
A literal balls-to-the-wall extravaganza, the infectious rampage of joyous chaos and chaotic joy emanating from the stage would put many younger bands to shame; Electric Eel Shock showed us all that sometimes the only message required in our music is to simply live in the moment without a care in our minds – even if it means beating drums with appendage socks! No matter how brutal the world gets, nothing can steal the utter elation lighting up the faces of everyone in attendance tonight. Thank god for rock and roll!
*Bangover: like a hangover after too much headbanging
