Asobi Seksu

The Drake, Toronto
Cost: $12.00
Hand Stamp: “Against the Grain”, but with the placement and fading “Again the Rain”
February 02, 2010

Asobi Seksu brought their alt-rock dream-pop sound to the hipster-haven Drake hotel for their first unplugged acoustic tour in honour of their modest new album, Rewolf. To add to the atmosphere, the stage was lit with vanilla scented votives, disco balls reflected upon the noticeably worn velvet curtain behind the stage, and wine was the refreshment of choice. Typically it would not be unusual see an audience seated at an acoustic show where seating is provided. However, The Drake only has a few chairs around the perimeter and minimal scattered seating around the rest of the room, yet a large portion of the audience sat cross-legged. The lovely lead vocalist, Yuki Chikudate seemed to enjoy the seated atmosphere for this acoustic show, along with having less gear to carry. Yuki went on to explain that this acoustic tour was the result of their UK label guy who encouraged the m to record the album, which resulted in the tour. The cover of the album even has his one-eyed, loud-purring cat, Mazie on the cover. Before playing, New Year’s, Yuki explained that this song was for Mazie, changing one of the lyrics to “Mazie says.” What a lucky cat she is, making the cover of the album and getting a live shout out.

Asobi Seksu’s music lends itself really well to an acoustic tour, however, the audience only responded with polite golf style applause. It seemed to be a bit of a distraction to Yuki as well as she jokingly commented, “it’s okay, you guys can laugh, Jesus.” While this acoustic show did have less heavy gear, it did not exempt them from technical difficulties as guitar player, James Hanna broke a string, and the Whirly keyboard remained stubborn refusing to play certain keys. Yuki joked, “We’re cheating a bit with the keyboard, but there’s no piano here.” Even so, seeing Yuki and bass player, Bill Pavone on the keys was a nice addition, along with the glockenspiel and music box. In spite of the lack-luster audience, the best aspect of this softer performance was that it allowed for Yuki to tell a few stories here and there about certain songs. She even gave the audience a chance to learn, or at least understand some of their Japanese songs titles, like Meh No Mae which means “the view in front of you”, which as drummer Larry Gorman had once said sounds like caveman speech. Then there was Urusai Tori which means, “shut up bird”, this was also the point where Yuki expressed her dislike for Toronto winters, and jokingly wanted to op for resort-only tours. It was also nice to hear the covers Suzanne by Hope Sandoval, and the closer, Celeste by Donovan and Thursday which was inspired by French songstress Francoise Hardy. As an added bonus, a song entitled Goodbye which was written for the Rewolf album but was never recorded was played.

By far the most memorable of stories from the evening was told by Yuki as the rest of the band exited the stage. She explained that every summer she is fortunate enough to be able to go to the beautiful Martha’s Vineyard, where on one occasion she had mushrooms for the first time. Right at its peak, she realized she loved the trees, and they in turn loved her back. Yet on the decline she soon learned she actually hated the trees, and they hated her right back. It was at this point she and band mate James Hanna encountered a wounded bird could not be saved. On a brighter note, this event inspired the song dreamy track, Blind Little Rain. Yuki expressed her thanks and said, “Toronto has always been good to us.” Even though this crowd could have been a bit livelier, I suppose that’s the trouble with Monday night concerts.