POLYSICS at the Magic Stick

author: Jacob

© JaME - POLYSICS - Jacob Enos

During their most recent visit to the United States, POLYSICS made stops all around America on their MySpace Music Tour, supporting their new American release of We ate the machine. On November 7, POLYSICS, along with their support acts Jaguar Love and Black Gold gave an electric performance to a hysterical audience.

The Magic Stick, a small loft atop a bowling alley and bar on the outskirts of downtown Detroit was late to open. Shortly after the scheduled show time, Black Gold hit the stage. The audience warmed up well to the young band, who had been recently supported by iTunes promotion and television appearances. The second opening act, Jaguar Love even had their own few fans in the audience. The singer, wild and screechily delivered a strong set, and obviously gained several new fans that night. As their set ended, Jaguar Love packed up, and slowly, POLYSICS brought their equipment out.

After a brief sound-check, the bands dispersed and eventually a low, throbbing SE began. As the crowd's excitement peaked, guitarist and vocalist Hayashi stormed the stage, clapping along with the audience to the beat. Fumi, Kayo and Yano took their places on stage. The first song started with a bang and Electric Surfin' Go Go was underway. Hayashi and Fumi's unmistakable guitar and bass style was spot-on from the start, and already the performance was overflowing with character. Kayo singing in her bubbly voice, punctured by Hayashi's loud shouting energized the crowd. After the song, the audience was treated to Hayashi's chatter exclaiming "Hello Rock City!" on multiple occasions.

The second song was POLYSICS' cover of 1979 hit by The Knack, MY SHARONA. The electronic intro galloped in, while Hayashi jammed through the intro flawlessy with a constant grin on his face. The highlight of the song, as always, was Kayo's robotic singing through the vocoder, never once breaking her stoic character. After the main verse, she broke down into a loud synthesizer solo with Hayashi signaling to her until the crowd was worked up. The next song PEACH PIE ON THE BEACH kept the energy up. This particular song was especially audience interactive and there was a back-and-forth with Hayashi and the audience for the "Ya, ya, ya!" chorus. Appropriately for the cheery track, Kayo slipped out of character for a few moments to break out shiny, gold pom-poms which she thrashed around wildly. As the song built and built toward a climax, a member of the audience who was obviously overcome with excitement rushed onto the stage to attempt a stage dive. However, he was forcibly removed by the band's manager. Although the audience may have been distracted, the band went on as strongly as ever, never missing a single note.

Hayashi introduced the next track with a lengthy explanation of the word "Toisu," including a shouting match with the audience. The song started up with more perfect integration between Fumi and Hayashi. With her bass rolling along with the drums, Hayashi shredded to complete the surf-rock style of the track. Armed with their lesson on "Toisu!", the audience shouted in sync with every shout. As the heavily-instrumental track rounded out, Hayashi returned to the spotlight again; "Hi! Hello... what's up Detroit?!" was met with enthusiastic response, "It's hot... enjoy the SHOOOOOOOOOW!!!" The fifth track, DNA Junction included memorable solos from Kayo and Hayashi, who was often downstage, and the song soon became an easy sing-along for the crowd.

The sixth track opened with their signature siren sound and Hayashi's solo intro. As Fumi broke in with the bass, Kayo introduced the chorus for I My Me Mine, quickly switching to her recorder, playing through the vocoder for a distorted, electronic sound. In its final throws, the song included a solo for Hayashi, for which he dropped to his knees, inches in front of the audience, playing flawlessly, with a respectful front row keeping their hands out of the way. As the song went concluded on Kayo's second recorder solo, the next song, Mind Your Head quickly became a showcase for Yano. The audience was able to clap along, unprovoked to the song, which was a bit more mellow than their previous tracks.

PLUS CHICKER opened with its throbbing backtrack, and brought Fumi to the spotlight. She played coolly as Hayashi danced around her, pointing wildly until the audience was fixed on her. Hayashi quickly stopped his dancing, and jammed alongside Fumi in a bass-guitar duet. The break in the song was extended for the show with a long, and extremely quiet pause, until the the backtrack picked up again with the band playing even more energetically than before; Fumi thrashed around the stage. After the song ended, Hayashi thanked the audience, and then showed his appreciation for Black Gold and Jaguar Love who were sitting at the merch table to the right of the stage.

"New album... must buy, or DIIIIIIE!!!" Hayashi screamed before he broke into a wide grin and shouted, "Yeeeah boooy!" in a perfect imitation of Flavor Flav. Kikai Tabechaimashita opened with its drum-synth intro, and was delivered even more intensely than the already-aggressive studio recording. The loud bass prevailed much more, and the chanting, by Fumi, Hayashi and Kayo echoed through the small venue. The enthusiastic dancing of the audience was causing the floors to shake even more than before. There was even a noticeable bounce. With the whole band and audience head-banging furiously, the crowd met with the band on every shout of "I ate the machine!"

The song Moog is Love was a strong crowd favorite, and they seemed to know every word to the track. Laced with guitar and keyboard solos, Hayashi and Fumi took turns provoking the audience and delivered rounds of high-fives and signaled to the back of the audience. Rocket was the next track which included a strange interaction with Hayashi and the audience. As Kayo performed her synthesizer part, the guitarist would do a large, slow arm wave from side-to-side while furiously shaking his hands, which was perfectly mirrored by the audience. The perfect synthesis caused Hayashi to break into a huge smile and laughter, his happiness reflected in his bright guitar playing when the song picked up instrumentally.

After a quick retuning, Hayashi removed his trademark black glasses for the frantic KAJA KAJA GOO. The song, introduced with an innocent electronic intro is particularly heavy number for the band. The pounding double-bass vibrated the room, while Hayashi screamed at the top of his lungs, "Kaja kaja goooo!!!" Hayashi moved to the centre front of the stage and lifted his guitar on his head to 'play' with his teeth, producing a truly unique and shockingly musical sound. The next two tracks, Coelacanth is Android and Baby BIAS went by in a fury, and somehow the two songs transitioned smoothly into each other. The upbeat choruses appropriately stimulated the audience. After Baby BIAS, the band vacated the stage, all sweaty and panting.

After several minutes of relentless shouts of "One more song," Hayashi popped out from stage-right, blowing kisses and delivering high-fives to all of those on the edges of the stage whilst hanging off of the oddly placed support beams. The personable guitarist thanked the audience endlessly, "Thank you, Detroit! Detroit Rock City! We are happy to be here. We'll be back again soon!" The encore tracks, Boys & Girls and Tei! Tei! Tei!. Boys & Girls, with its heavy bass and danceable beat was a pleaser for the entire crowd. The quirky verses by Hayshi were met with strong drumming from Yano. Tei! Tei! Tei! made the perfect show-closer, energetic and loud and practically begging for crowd-band interaction. The bass style executed in the song, which is a key element of the POLYSICS sound was complemented nicely by Kayo's bubbly cheery voice. Hayashi and Fumi danced across stage switching microphones throughout. The whole set finished with frenetic energy, every member of the band joined the chorus which was ended by a standard drum-outro. The band members then tossed out picks, shook hands with the audience, waved and smiled. After Hayashi's final "Bye-bye!" the band cleared the stage. The exhausted audience then chose to rest or slowly filed out of the tiny concert area.

Set list:
01. Electric Surfin' Go Go
02. MY SHARONA
03. PEACH PIE ON THE BEACH
04. Toisu!
05. DNA Junction
06. I My Me Mine
07. Mind Your Head
08. PLUS CHICKER
09. Kikai Tabechaimashita
10. Moog is Love
11. Rocket
12. KAJA KAJA GOO
13. Coelacanth is Android
14. Baby BIAS

- Encore
15. Boys & Girls
16. Tei! Tei! Tei!