Melt-Banana at High Noon Saloon
Few tour announcements have sounded more like a prank than the promise of “Melt-Banana Lite,” an electronic version of the mighty Japanese noise-rockers that would be performing before the main attraction during their trip through the U.S. Coming from a band that has spent the past 17 years artfully exhausting the critical vocabulary for “frenetic,” we had to wonder: Just how “Lite” are we talking? Wednesday night at the High Noon Saloon, the answer turned out to be, "not very." Melt-Banana Lite is pretty much indistinguishable from the real deal. Sure, there’s one less of them onstage and they hammer on synths instead of throttle guitars, but the sound was unmistakably, well, frenetic. Then again, the new Melt-Banana Lite live record is titled Ver 0.0, so it would appear the evolution has only just begun. The band underlined the distinction by performing the Lite set in total darkness, with the only illumination coming from surprisingly powerful spelunker lights perched on flailing heads.
The stage lights came up, the guitars came out, and a bassist emerged for the straight-up Melt-Banana set, which kicked off with the manic bass line of “Shield For Your Eyes, A Beast In The Well On Your Hand” from the 2003 album Cell-Scape. Gone are the 15-second singles that issued nonstop in Melt-Banana’s early days—last night the band showed off the comparatively elaborate jams that have marked its 21st-century work. “Hello, Madison people,” singer Yasuko Onuki chirped to the crowd in a clipped broken English that seemed a tad suspicious coming from someone who's been writing fairly sophisticated lyrics in that language for almost two decades (most Melt-Banana records even come with lyric sheets). No matter, audience members were dutifully crazed throughout the set, doing their best to pump their fists in time with the furious tempos and hairpin changes. Decked out in his signature surgical mask, guitarist Agata seemed to be in a state of symbiotic communication with his instrument and effects pedals, conjuring an onslaught of otherworldly sounds with telepathic ease.
For all its galloping drums, yelped vocals, and whirlwind guitars, Melt-Banana maintains incredible dynamic range, a trait they exaggerated live on herky-jerky wonders like “Lost Parts Stinging Me So Cold.” At the end of the show, the governing principle of Melt-Banana (Lite or not) was a steadfast refusal to be pigeonholed, as demonstrated during the encore's daffy cover of Toots & The Maytals’ (by way of The Specials) “Monkey Man.” Melt-Banana closed the night with the bewildering “Chain-Shot To Have Some Fun,” sparking some last-minute melee amongst the die-hards against the front of the stage, who were no doubt fearful that it might be a while before a noise-rock show this good comes through town again.
