Tokyo Police Club / Hollerado @ The Sound Academy – December 15, 2012

December 31, 2012 No comments
Written by Dustin Cordeiro

Photo by Dustin Cordeiro

The Christmas spirit was definitely in the air (along with a few other things) at the Sound Academy on December 15th, as Tokyo Police Club, Hollerado and last minute guest Topanga played for a very cheerful crowd.

Although the show was not nearly as sweaty as most crowds of this calibre are, it was certainly rowdier than some. The mayhem began near the beginning of Hollerado’s set when rainbow confetti and paper streamers were blasted into the audience from both sides of the stage, along with big, glowing beach balls a few songs later, which members of the band even had to dodge. But these were the least of anyone’s concerns as crowdsurfer after crowdsurfer plunged over everyone’s heads. (These are the moments when it’s not quite as fun to be front row.)

Amidst the chaos, Hollerado played their singles “Pick Me Up,” “Good Day at the Races,” “Juliette” and a track which lead singer Menno Versteeg presented as “a song about a homophobic man.” Versteeg also told a short story about a man with a unibrow who biked past him and apologized for having a unibrow (sometimes it’s just one of those days). One of the highlights of their set was their song “You Got To Lose” which built up to a crowd sing-along of the chorus “You got to lose love if you want to find love” and a fakeout ending.

Tokyo Police Club brought even more Christmas cheer when they started their set, full of their short punchy songs, which allowed them to pack in more hits than most bands are able to perform at one show. TPC opened with “Cheer It On,” the first song off their 2006 EP, A Lesson In Crime, which created a swirl of buzz around the young band at the time of release. They played nearly the entire EP, including the anthemic “La Ferassie”, “Nature of the Experiment,” and the robot dystopia track “Citizens of Tomorrow,” which seemed incredibly well-suited for this year’s apocalypse scares, despite its line: “That’s 2009.”

The boys played a “new” song (although they’ve been playing it live since the start of the summer) called “Argentina,” which had a bit of a Vampire Weekend vibe to it, and a more grown-up feel for them. Hopefully we hear more new material from them sometime near the start of the new year.

As the artificial snow continued to fall, Tokyo Police Club played “Let It Snow,” which seamlessly transitioned into their song “Frankenstein.” They were later joined by Menno Versteeg of Hollerado during the encore for a duet of another holiday classic, “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home),” which they both clearly poured their hearts into.

Santa Claus even made a surprise appearance as a back-up dancer, even though earlier he was in a bit of trouble with the security guards for crowdsurfing. During one of the guitar solos, Menno left the audience with these small words: “Alright, let me tell you something about Santa Claus. Santa Claus is a little thing that lives inside of every one of us.”

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