King Brothers
16th February 2018
Whammy! Bar, Auckland, New Zealand.
Review & Photography by Sarah Kidd.
While it is well known and often agreed upon that Guitar Wolf are the greatest Japanese rock n roll band to ever grace the stage – even lead singer of King Brothers Masafumi Koyama refers to Seiji as his “master” – there are two fellow Japanese bands that make up the magical Bermuda triangle of insanity, that being The Vottones and King Brothers. And tonight Auckland gets to see them both in one of the only venues guaranteed to ensure that tonight’s performances are loud, hard, and very damn sweaty; Auckland’s beloved Whammy! Bar.
As the four piece took to the stage the audience readied themselves for the onslaught that was about to happen. “Hellloooooo, I’m sorry – we come back” the lead singer of The Vottones uttered into the microphone, before the band launched into a barrage of guitars, drums and Japanese vocals. “Auckland, fuck you, fuuccckk yoooouu”, the vocalist eyes up the front row while raising both fingers in the air, the crowd returning the salute which made The Vottones happy, judging by the maniacal grins on their faces. It’s hard, fast and loud enough to rupture an eardrum if you get too close to those amps and that seems to be just the way The Vottones like it. They aren’t polished and its part of their undeniable charm, both guitarists and bassist lining the front of the stage while in the back the drummer keeps to himself and away from the madness as he pounds out the beat. While many of the songs are in Japanese, every so often an English title is thrown out such as ‘I am Diarrhoea’ or the hilarious ‘My Mother is a Fucker.’ Their set – besides being filled with fantastically thunderous punk infused rock – includes the lead singer going for a wander out into the audience, and a fan being offered a guitar and then being dragged up on stage to have a jam. “We are dog! We are dog! Woooo Wooooo!!” the lead singer emphatically tells us “You! You are dog!” the crowd responding with shrieking howls.
While The Vottones set has been highly entertaining up until this point, nothing could compare to the last couple of songs for pure craziness. To the tune of Black Sabbaths ‘Iron Man’ the bass guitarist – who is a fairly bigger man than the rest of the band – begins to ramp up. Placing his guitar down, he begins a series of interesting dance moves that include everything from jazz hands to imitating devil horns and picking his nose. But then it is straight into pure debauchery as the shirt comes off and he decides to get up close and personal with a few fans, spit running down the front of his chin. From the top of his jeans protrudes the band of his army camo print underwear, which apparently presented too much of a temptation for the lead singer who proceeded to latch onto them and pull as hard as he could, resulting in a monumental wedgie. But a standard wedgie just isn’t quite punk enough. So our vocalist decides to crouch down and put his whole head through the (now) significantly stretched leg hole. This promptly results in the bassist grabbing his crotch with one hand while refusing to let go of the mic with the other. Making his escape he continues to sing while his fellow guitarists feign distaste at his vocal abilities, tearing up little pieces of the set list and stuffing it into their ears. All too soon the end has come, although probably not too soon for our bassist who is currently down on one knee and breathing heavily. “One more song! One more song!” the crowd chants, The Vottones debating it and then agreeing; the bassist emphatically shaking his head no, but after a three word pep talk courtesy of the lead singer he sees the last song out before collapsing on all fours, screams of “Harigato!!” surrounding the humid air around him.
You know you are about to be part of something completely and utterly insane when a local band member introduces the group that you are about to watch and then utters the words “so please look after yourself.”
Taking to the stage dressed in what have become their trade mark black and white suits, the three piece who hails from Nishinomiya City appear calm and almost bored as they purvey the audience. But within a matter of seconds all hell breaks loose as they burst into life; a cacophony of guitars, vocals and drums smashing into the fans at full tilt. Within minutes lead vocalist Masafumi (Marya) Koyama has disappeared into the audience, reappearing atop of their hands as they assist him to crowd surf around the room. Each and every time they deposit him back on the stage he screams “Noooooooooooooooo!!!” and launches himself back into their hands. For anyone here tonight who has not seen them before, it is fast becoming clear why they were banned from several venues in Osaka, Japan.
Having formed in 1997, members have come and gone and the band has fluctuated from a four to a three piece and back again. But none of that has an effect on the pure craziness that pours forth from these three men as they churn out music which – similar to The Vottones but with a heavy dose of the blues injected in there – is raucously in your face the entire time. Soon Marya is drenched in sweat, his crisp white shirt now dripping and covered in grime; ripping it off he is left in his black suit pants that are secured with a few turns of some red duct tape around his waist.
Tracks such as ‘Oh Yeah Baby!’ had the fans singing at the top of their lungs, and for the songs where they couldn’t it didn’t matter, as everyone just threw themselves completely into the mosh pit and let the tunes move their limbs. After several more rounds atop the crowd’s hands as Keizo faithfully kept powering out the necessary guitar chords back on stage, Marya returned to his feet to only start assisting their drummer with moving the entire kit to the middle of the room. Almost in the blink of an eye the band were now set up in the dead centre of a circle of fans; but Marya could not resist at least one more turn around the room, everyone working as one to ensure that both his guitar and mic cords were held aloft to allow him freedom to move, such is the collective power of rock n roll.
Set concluded, King Brothers drop their instruments and disappear into the shadows; King Brothers once again leaving their very distinctive mark on Auckland. Harigato!
King Brothers:
The Vottones:
Were you there at Whammy! Bar for this high energy rock n’ roll onslaught? Or have you seen King Brothers somewhere else before? Tell us about it in the comments below!
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