It takes a lot to hold one’s attention live sometimes. Add on the fact that you’re playing an all-acoustic set and you may as well be Leno doing stand-up comedy in front of a room of Coco fans. Okay, maybe not to that extreme, but you get the point – it’s a tough feat.

Monday night’s Asobi Seksu show at the Drake was an acoustic affair, complete with audience members comfortably seated on the floor of the dark underground room. The resulting setting looked like a blend between a dim café hosting an acoustic open-mic night and a kindergarten where we’ve congregated for story time – perplexing but regardless, I was just happy to sit down and relax my tired legs.

Asobi Seksu’s bilingual (lead singer Yuki Chikudate sings in both English and Japanese) atmospheric indie-pop usually rely heavily on heavy drums with layered synth and guitar fuzz. Acoustically, we strip all that away to its bare melodies, primarily anchored by Chikudate’s captivatingly beautiful voice which was the best part of the performance.

Chikudate’s voice aside though, the set was – for lack of a better word – lacklustre. In an acoustic context, most of the band’s uniqueness is lost and replaced with fairly weak chord progressions. There’s not much there that grasps one’s attention which is unfortunate because I’m sure the band is capable of much more.

The “story time” portion – the banter – proved to be more interesting than the music itself, with Chikudate encouraging the crowd to “loosen up and laugh a little” whilst sharing stories of her first time taking mushrooms (and its direct result to a bird’s death by getting the vegetarian of the group, guitarist James Hanna, to run over it).

I’m sure if this performance was cut short and turned into an acoustic in-store tour, it would’ve been much more successful. Unfortunately though, for the band and for us, we were treated to a set that was about 30 minutes too long and lost my attention three songs in. Next time, bring the rock.

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For more Asobi Seksu,
MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/asobiseksu