semifinalists + tokyo police club

Arriving rain-sodden after some issues locating the venue, it’s of no little surprise to catch TOKYO POLICE CLUB treating the crowd to a flurry of two-minute wonders. The band are still sticking to the ruthless, no liberties taken approach of their debut EP ’Lesson In Crime’. What is impressive about TPC is the amount of progression they manage to coerce from these short, sharp vignettes; they completely fail to adhere to the structural guidelines of traditional pop songwriting. Graham Wright flits between the keyboards and a tambourine, which he treats like a sadistic Victorian teacher beating a small child. Meanwhile, David Monk’s clear vocals elevate new songs ’Tesselate’ and ’In A Cave’ to instant favourites, the crowd gleefully contributing handclaps to the latter. The current trend for singers to have a whack on the drums with a single stick is upheld, before they depart as time-efficiently as they performed, albeit more politely. When Ferry Gouw isn’t directing music videos for pal Dev Hynes, he can be found fronting the slimmed-down SEMIFINALISTS, who recently lost founder member Adriana Alba. Initially, their performance feels more like a performance art piece than a gig; there’s lots of space on stage, with lead guitar being the only traditional instrument and Gouw flailing around maniacally to programmed beats. Their combination of discordant guitar, 80s synths and fey vocals ensures that ’Odd Situation’ remains fixed in the consciousness of all watching. However, it does feel like they’re missing a point due to their artfully decorated triangle.