LIVE :::: Asobi Seksu at Cargo on 07/12/09

Asobi Seksu are a rock band from New York, and they’re awesome. I’d forgotten this before I saw them on Monday, but they more than reminded me. Yuki, Japanese-American vocalist and keyboardist, may be small but her voice carries a huge chorus like few others. James, guitarist, is rather tall and erratic, but this doesn’t stop his ethereal sound gracefully blowing an audience away. These two songwriters are backed up by the solid foundation of Billy and Larry on bass and drums. Between them, the group sounds something like being crushed under a really beautiful chandelier.

For a label, Asobi Seksu normally get slapped with “nu-gaze”. This basically means they are a throwback to the British shoegaze/dream pop bands of the 90s (My Bloody Valentine, Cocteau Twins), but they’re more interesting than that. Yuki alternates between English and Japanese lyrics or often simply uses her voice as an instrument, and singing live she hits every note she did on record (an impressive feat, despite her naturally high range). James sings a bit as well, but his genius is in his melodic, undulating guitar. It’s surprising that one guy drowned in effects can bring about such a tide of auditory sweetness. This is the sound that dominates their performance and sets the audience swaying, until they explode in feedback and instrumental contortion, leaving us to absorb it for a while before the encore.

Having released an acoustic album, Rewolf, earlier that very day, it’s surprising that they didn’t do any acoustic tracks; perhaps a change of pace could have accentuated even further the extremes of their songs. Nonetheless, the well-mixed crowd filling Cargo – an excellent, friendly venue – were in good spirits. After their second stint on the stage, the band finished the set without either of my favourite songs but with the indie-pop-ish lead single from latest album Hush, “Me & Mary”. It doesn’t have the gravity of some of their most recognisable older stuff, e.g. “Thursday”, but it was a catchy and memorable conclusion to a still broadly impressive set; they saw off a satisfied crowd that night.