Japanese all-female group HANABIE. swung on by Birmingham's O2 Institute on their EU/UK tour recently, and brought Lake Malice along to join the angry, shouty party.
We've covered Lake Malice a couple of times here on Music Scene Media in recent years as they've been featured as main support on a number of shows. With news that their debut full-length album is now fully in the works, hopefully it won't be long before we see them on a significant headline tour of their own.
Lake Malice
The show started with a bang as "Magic Square" brought us Alice's vocals blasting us straight in the face. In no time at all, guitarist Blake executed the first of his signature 'big jumps'; and the crowd was on board from the off. Next was "Power Game", which saw the first piece of audience participation of the evening with the classic everyone gets down, then, on the drop, we all have a little jump around. "Black Turbine" swiftly followed, before a song about disorganisation and coping with ADHD, "Scatterbrain".
There was a brief pause as Alice commented on the incredible line-up of predominantly women this evening, alongside their drummer Emily and the women in HANABIE. (guitarist Blake was the only male performer this evening). Championing women in the alternative community, "this song goes out to anyone who feels unsafe, uncomfortable or harassed", as the crowd were encouraged to raise their middle fingers high for "Creepers".
Up next was the hot-off-the-presses new single, "Nobody Wants To Be You", which was followed by an unknown song from the teased-about new album mentioned earlier. "Misuko" was up next, which, as we have become accustomed to at a Lake Malice show, now saw the creation of a large circle pit which ultimately ended with guitarist Blake jettisoning himself from the stage to the very centre of.
The set rounded out with "Stop the Party" and "Blossom". There was one last call to arms from Alice, thanking the crowd for coming down early, and thanking them for supporting independent artists: "the best way to support independent artists and support what we do is showing up, showing up early, showing your support, showing up and buying some merch, touring is expensive now a days and that's the best way you can support what artists like us are doing".
"Bloodbath" was the final number before the band was serenaded off stage by Rednex's "Cotton-Eyed Joe".
Now, we could compare HANABIE. to a certain other Japanese all-girl metal group, but that would be far too easy and would be doing a huge disservice to what HANABIE. are carving out for themselves (even if their song "We Love Sweets" on the surface sparks a memory of a certain chocolate-based song of another band). Self-coined as "Harajuku-core", the quartet initially give the cutesy kawaii persona you may expect, but it's got a spicy side — it's spikey, has sharp edges, and is fully in your face. J-pop with a heavy dose of deathcore/metalcore and undertones of punk, hardcore, nu-metal, electronica, and drum & bass, their sound is unique and aggressive, but will leave you with a smile on your face.
HANABIE.
Led by drummer Chika, one by one, the group burst onto the stage to rapture from the crowd, each one a bouncing bundle of colour and energy, then bang, as all of our faces collectively melted off when "Warning" kicked in. The assault continued with "Bucchigiri Tokyo", and fan favourite "Spicy Queen" (this saw the first bodies up and over the barrier), before the crowd were allowed a brief moment of reprieve from the chaos.
The first break in play saw lead singer Yukina reading aloud from flash cards being held up by bassist Hettsu, explaining to the crowd that she has lost her voice; and, as such, she needed everyone there to shout as the band broke into "Meta-moru-phose!". Although whimsical, sadly, with English not being their first language, and the Birmingham crowd's grasp of Japanese being somewhat limited, some of these interactions between the band and the crowd didn't always land.
"Ware Amatou" followed with "Kotoshi koso Gal~Shoka ver.", and the latter saw Yukina don a pair of sparkly heart-shaped sunglasses; the party felt like it had just been dialled up to eleven. There was an odd technical glitch which, on occasion, saw a little too much dead space left for comfort between the backing tracks for certain songs; but such was the energy in the room and the adoration of the fans that it was barely noticed.
New single "Karu Garu Everyday!!" was next, and got a very solid reaction from the audience.
The next pause in play saw Hettsu announce that it was guitarist Matsuri's turn to take a drink, where she was presented with a can of Guinness (top marks there from this reviewer). A later back and forth with the crowd, again foiled by the language barrier, was a lot more awkward; I believe Yukina was explaining that the band had been to the "big mall", presumably Birmingham's iconic Bull Ring, and that they had spent so much time there that they were nearly late for the show, she then asked the crowd if there were any other good places to shop in Birmingham, shouts of the Digbeth Red Brick Market (which is an alternative fashion mecca in the city) went up, but I do not think were fully understood. "Birmingham is a great city, lets have an amazing night tonight!"
HANABIE.
It was more of the same, and that is in no way a bad thing, as the duality of J-pop and Deathcore bathed the room. "Ito Okashi MyType", "GIRL'S TALK", "Reiwa Matching-sedai", "GAMBLER", "Choujigen Galaxy", "NEET GAME", "LOVE Ranbu" (apparently Yukina's favourite song), "TOUSOU", and "Osaki ni Shitsurei Shimasu." which saw a very gallant wall of death from the brummy crowd.
The band left the stage and I've honestly not seen anything like it. The chants of "one more song, one more song" were so feral that the venue security looked genuinely worried, and was accompanied by a chorus of stomping so fierce I thought that we might break through to the venue space below.
An encore of "ghost mania" saw a huge orchestrated circle pit, finally "Sentimental☆Heroine" brought the night to its full conclusion. There were promises to return to Birmingham (on a plane this time), as a heavy drum & bass remix of Limp Bizkit's "Rollin'" played out.
Arigato Birmingham!!!
HANABIE. will continue their EU/UK tour across mainland Europe (with Sun [Brutal Pop] in tow) until the end of November.
