Japanese punk trio cement their place in the UK music scene, winning over the crowd in the respected indie venue.
The New Adelphi in Hull is probably not on the average J-rock listener's venue radar, but it’s a much loved and well-known stop off point for bands on their way up, and those with a flair for being unique, loud or generally fun—all categories that suit tonight’s headliner MUTANT MONSTER.
Wearing their signature shirts and colours with neon warpaint glowing under black lights, the girls walk out onto the stage with nervous smiles—after all this small obscure venue is probably more intimate than a typical Japanese venue—but it doesn’t take long before the nervous smiles are replaced by ecstatic grins.
The crowd started as a handful of keen fans who would sing along to every word throughout the night, and it didn’t take long for them to be joined in their enthusiasm by everyone else in the room.
Kicking off with ABNORMAL before diving into the shout-along unrefined sound of NO WAY!, MUTANT MONSTER had immediately made their intentions clear—they were here for a high energy performance, and they delivered without fault.
With Be and Meana sharing a box at the front of the stage to elevate themselves above the crowd, the girls continued to switch seamlessly between straight up power punk to the more typical harmonies of J-rock bands, early in the set playing arguably their best-known song Hanashite Ageru, reminiscent of greats like Stereopony and Fuyusuru Neko.
The next hour would be full of tracks from the girls’ history, not just those available from the usual outlets in the UK, which may have been a challenge for a band with less energy, but a captivated audience soon learned to join in and dance along at the right moments.
The small room got hot quickly, but as the trio moved from album title track NEKO KABURI through CHEER UP, there was never any sign of tiring and every new song brought with it a new series of fist pumping and power posing.
Unusually, there were no stand out moments for the set, or at least none that were obvious from crowd reactions, because each and every song was played with the same amount of enthusiasm, and the crowd followed suite—cheering, clapping and dancing from the start of the night through the encore.
Drawing into the home straight of the set, and starting with the bouncing beat of BUB BUB BUBBLE, Chad had her biggest grin of the night, exchanging glances with Meana before looking straight out at the crowd and beaming even more.
Despite singing in their native Japanese, the sheer energy and catchy tunes produced by the trio on stage had grabbed the attention of the audience, evidenced by the surge of bodies towards the merchandise table where MUTANT MONSTER rounded off a perfect evening greeting their new fans with uncontrollable smiles.
Set list
01. ABNORMAL
02. NO WAY!
03. KAWAII DAKE JA IRARENAI
04. HANASHITE AGERU
05. YURYO REN AI
06. NEKO KABURI
07. SPARKLING ENERGY
08. PARALLEL WORLD
09. RAY OF LIGHT
10. TOKYO
11. CHEER UP
12. LAZY GUY
13. BUB BUB BUBBLE
14. KOPPAMIJIN ROCKET
15. GIRLʼS FIGHT
16. SUMMER TICKET
