Thursday, December 27, 2007

peelander-z, 11/10/07, the knitting factory tap room, nyc, ny

if you've never heard of peelander-z, it's because they're not japanese, they're not american, they're not human... they're aliens. and they've been sent to earth to entertain us. on 11/10/07 they descended upon the knitting factory to play an hour long set of their trademarked madness.

we got there slightly early and had to watch some really loud and poor hairband/honky rock for a while, but peelander blue, red, and yellow hit the stage (pink was at the merch booth and working the spotlight) ready to raise some hell. they immediately busted out with 'mad tiger' and were rockin' it when about halfway through a drunk person (who feels really bad about this and has already apologized but i can't write a review of this show without mentioning this) started a chain of human dominoes that i was unfortunate enough to be at the end of and i went flying (as did my margarita) head-first into a wall. it fucking hurt. the security guy tried to get me to go outside and get fresh air, but i fucking bought that ticket 2 months earlier and had been looking forward to the show since the last time i had seen peelander a couple of years ago at the kaiju big battel- i wasn't missing a minute of this 1-hour set. i'm not old yet, motherfuckers. flash forward a couple of hours: giant bump, bag of frozen peas, a headache that lasted a couple of weeks, etc. etc. if you've ever smashed the shit out of your skull, you know how it goes (i grew up with too many older brothers- THIS TIME i stayed conscious!). incidentally, my little ear crystals got dislodged in the blow and i have to do exercises to re-distribute them now so the room will stop spinning, wheee! and yet, the world will never stop revolving around me- you see how that works? anyways, back to the music.

as far as peelander's "hits", i think they did all of them? "steak", "y.y.y.", and who can forget the lively, "hooooooooooo!!!!"? i did recognize a few of the songs. there was a tango line of audience members turned percussionists, they also swapped their instruments out with members of the audience- what they do is hold up signs asking for "DRUMS", "GUITAR", and "BASS", and people from the audience come up and play those instruments. it's a total nightmare, but it's also awesome. and what peelander-z show would be complete without a frame of human bowling? i'm not sure what the answer is, i think they do this at every show, but it's pure insanity.





1 hour is not nearly enough time for peelander-z to rock this world, they didn't even have time for an encore! the knitting factory tap room was not the ideal venue either, as the ceilings are really really LOW, and the band wasn't able to jump as high as their typical antics flow (they were hitting the ceiling when jumping/climbing on things, and i think one of them was actually pushing himself away from the ceiling when the crowd was carrying him around).



i could easily see these guys doing a big set on the mainstage or a full night in the beer tent at moe.down (though, they might need to install some laminate flooring for the bowling portion). if you hear they are landing in your town, go check them out, they are FUN, it's an experience- and hopefully they will get to play LONGER.

japanese punk rock sugar rush from eating too many cupcakes and then standing on your head for too long gwar: 7.75* HUZZAHS!

mad tiger:


*had to deduct points for the head trauma and length of show

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