Gaijin Tonic

The other day I went to see one of my fave Japanese bands, Shonen Knife, perform live in Tokyo. They were in town to promote their ace new LP “Fun! Fun! Fun!”
If you’re not familiar, Shonen Knife are an all-girl punk trio from Osaka, who recently celebrated their 25th anniversary (although only singer/guitarist/songwriter Naoko remains from the original line-up.) They became quite popular in the west for a while in the early nineties, and supported Nirvana on tour in 1993.

The show was very cool, and the line up includes two cute new members on drums and bass. There were some authentically nerdy fans in suits dancing at the front, too.
The band played some great new songs, including songs about popcorn, cookies, the flu, and barnacles. Shonen Knife excel at writing songs about such inane topics. I had a chance to chat with Naoko, the singer, after the show, and asked her why shy wrote a song about a barnacle. She said “because it’s very fun,” which was good enough for me.

Here’s a good Shonen Knife fansite.