Battered, bruised, ears ringing, shirt drenched, and a smile that will last for weeks…
That’s how you’re left feeling after seeing Canada’s garage punk masters Japandroids, and it’s exactly how you’re supposed to feel.
Even after blasting Wellington’s Bodega Bar for exhausting 90 minutes, there was a bittersweet feeling when it was all over.
Vancouver’s powerhouse duo are just that – they take you by the scruff of the neck and demand you go along for the ride. Despite not having a sell out crowd for one of the last shows on a lengthy tour, for the band it was business as usual.
Lead singer Brian King egged on the Wellington crowd, playfully mocking them for an apparent lack of energy when the duo graced the stage.
Most of the crowd were somewhat perplexed by his encouraging statements to get loose “because it was spring break”, which all made sense when they launched into ‘Adrenaline Nightshift’.
King and drummer David Prowse simply don’t know how else to play other than with bucketloads of energy.
Rolling through tracks ‘The Boys Are Leaving Town’ and ‘Fire’s Highway’, fists were raised to the ceiling and the crowd did their best to support the band by yelling along with reckless abandon.
It was indeed like the first night of spring break, everyone at Bodega charged with forgetting everything but what was happening on stage.
King was greeted with ferocious cheers when he announced they would be playing plenty from their first album, Post-Nothing.
‘Young Hearts Spark Fire’ and ‘Rockers East Vancouver’, and the anthemic ‘Art Czars’ exploded from King’s multiple amps, equally matched by the never-ending momentum of Prowse’s drumming.
It beggars belief the sound and power the two guys can produce. If you manage to get a glance to the raised platform, in between the flailing limbs and sweaty bodies, it’s a constant surprise to see only two people thrashing around.
Apart from an earlier and very brief visit to the long white cloud for Laneway, this was the band’s first time playing the capital.
The string of shows in Australia and New Zealand also comes at the end of a serious amount of touring following the 2012 release of their acclaimed second record Celebration Rock.
The success of that album was echoed in the voices of Wellington as they yelled back at King and Prowse through ‘The Nights of Wine and Roses’ and ‘Younger Us’.
Giving the crowd a chance to catch their breath, the frontman sought approval to take things down a notch (but packing no less punch) with the slow jams of ‘Continuous Thunder’ and ‘I Quit Girls’.
The night’s biggest reaction was a close call between ‘The House That Heaven Built’ and ‘Wet Hair’. The latter elicited a bellowing response with King singing “We run the gauntlet / Must get to France / So we can French kiss some French girls.”
Prowse’s accompanying vocals underpinned the crunching distorted guitars from King as entangled bodies front-of-stage battled for steady ground.
By far the most physically draining and dangerous track came in the form of ‘For The Love of Ivy’ with bodies flying through the air as the Canadian duo brought out every last drop of energy the room could offer.
They returned for a rare encore in the form of a rendition of McClusky’s ‘To Hell With Good Intentions’, bringing to a close the opening night of Wellington’s spring break.
There may only be two of them, but in terms of energy there’s close to no rival; Japandroids are easily one of the best live rock acts in the world
