I first heard of tricot from a guitar cover of 「おちゃんせんすぅす」 my friend played which he uploaded on YouTube. tricot’s a math rock band from Kyōto which originally had four members but subsequently was down to three after the departure of their drummer, Komaki. tricot currently comprises Nakajima Ikkyū (vocals, guitar), Kida “Motifour” Motoko (guitar, vocals) and Sagane “Hirohiro” Hiromi (bass, vocals). They have two albums (THE and AND) under their belt currently, and interestingly, they don’t see themselves as a math rock band. To be honest, this is the only math rock band I listen to. And when it comes to listening to them, I’m afraid it’s still casual. But I do have a handful of favourites.
tricot has played KL like twice, and I wasn’t back home then. When I heard they was doing a “YATTOKOSA” face to face tour 〜in Europe〜 which included a date in Leeds for eleven quid, and on a Saturday night to boot, I quickly bought myself a ticket online.
The venue was on the first floor of a restaurant/drinking hole-cum-music hall pretty near to The Headrow, so parking wasn’t an issue. There wasn’t much of a queue and doors were only opened at half eight. After getting a couple of tees and a physical copy of AND (I only have both albums as iTune downloads), getting to be at the front was right easy, as the number of people at the hall was somewhat sparse, and most of them were casually sitting on the couches enjoying a beer etc. I parked myself in front of stage left where Ikkyū would be and spent the next 20 minutes checking out the simple stage setup. The opening was a local three-piece named Bearfoot Beware which I have to say was pretty good! During their set, I noticed at the corner of my eye, Motifour on my right standing near the wall checking the band out.
tricot’s onstage crew comprised only two guys who promptly sorted out the amps (Fender silverface Twin Reverbs), stompboxes and guitars. The line check was quick and the band’s current live drummer, Yamaguchi Yumiko, did her own set up. I noted that she set her throne pretty high and the snare angled away from her. I read that her drumming really gels with tricot live so I was looking forward to see her chops.
tricot got onstage at about half nine. “We’re toriko from Japan”, said the barefooted Ikkyū and they kicked off the set with ぱい~ん. Ikkyū’s voice was a tad inaudible at the beginning but I put it to being too much to the front as I was not getting much from the house PA. The thing I love about tricot was Ikkyū’s calm (just about) tones backed by Motifour’s raucous guitar work. Talking about guitar, I just love Ikkyū’s walnut Altero tele. Motifour played an off-white strat-shaped Altero Astra and the diminutive Hirohiro a massive Fender Jazz bass. おもてなし worked a treat and the melancholic artsick was just sublime. Felt a tad Sevencollar T-shirt for a while. They played some songs from their EPs that I haven’t owned so I didn’t recognise a few of their tunes.
The lasses do look serious at times but they do goof about onstage. The start-stop guitar bits on おちゃんせんすぅす was cool as the whole band just froze at one point of the song. They then played a note and stopped again, whilst Motifour reached for her towel to wipe her brow. And when you thought they were gonna play the next chord, they didn’t and Motifour reached for her towel again. If tricot has inbuilt metronomes in them, I won’t be suprised. I’ve to say Ikkyū looked really tall from my vantage point and I’m glad she did her one-legged flamingo pose on one of the songs (prolly artsick).
My fav bits of the show included 庭 where they really went all out on the samba bit:
poolside and POOL were almost samba-able as well, and these two being two songs I’ve enjoyed from the first time I bought THE online just before my first ever Japan trip. I loved how poolside was played in a laid back manner as it was on the record. Another fav bit of the show was at the end of 99.974℃ where the lasses went apeshit – Hirohiro was stood on Yumiko’s kick drum, and Motifour on a monitor waiting for Yumiko’s final drumroll to jump. Motifour landed onstage with her bum up in the air and Ikkyū was floored. Like, literally.
They came back onstage for an encore, where they played Break. Just perfect. I should’ve brought some A4 with cathartic words written on them to tear up during tha… never mind.
I would love to put up the actual set list, but I can’t find one anywhere online. The following is what they played in Cardiff which is pretty much what they played in Leeds – can’t confirm if they played the set in the same order, though.
Belgrave Music Hall & Canteen, Leeds 12.3.16 set: ぱい~ん / アナマイン / おもてなし / artsick / おやすみ / ポークヒジンジャー / おちゃんせんすぅす / E / C&C / poolside / POOL / 庭 / 99.974℃ // Break
