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The Dismemberment Plan @ Shibuya O-West, Tokyo |
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The Dismemberment Plan
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Shibuya O-West, Tokyo
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The sort of people who care about bands like this REALLY cared about The Dismemberment Plan. Considering that they split up some 7 years ago, anyone who can claim to have actually seen them gets major show-off points among friends. This reunion - in celebration of their recently re-released "Emergency & I" album - is among the wildest dreams for some people but, yes, that's definitely them, standing up there in shirts and cardigans, a little more facial hair but not too old yet, playing the songs again.
On paper it seems unlikely that these carefully constructed stories of life's tricky bits would ever set a venue on fire - they're too introspective; the grooves perhaps too stoic. But somehow that was always what The Dismemberment Plan managed to do. When they sung of sexual frustration the audience danced; when they sung of loneliness the crowd swarmed onto the stage and partied in the spotlights. After such a long break it was easy to doubt whether they could maintain such an atmosphere, especially in front of a notoriously placid Japanese crowd.
Happily, they do. It takes a while, but frontman Travis' humour is just too infectious. "One more..." he murmurs with a grin, undoing his shirt buttons on a sweaty stage. "Maybe not..." he reconsiders. The whole band are clearly delighted to be up there and, by the end of the show, so are the crowd - they climb up halfway through the encore.
Just like the good old days.
Reviewed by Nick Oakden
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