Japanese Voyeurs, Liverpool Masque, 16.10.09

It’s the shits being the first-band-support. Not only do your sound-check needs get pushed to the bottom of the priority sound agenda, but you also get stuck with the lame start-of-the-night sludge that sees people trickle in with all the energy of a narcoleptic getting on the bus to work.

On tour with Johnny Foreigner, JV are looking rightfully sheepish - the audience, of which there are few, are scattered throughout the auditorium. Some are eagerly stood at and around the front of the stage and do some gentle head-banging of appreciation throughout the gig, the rest of the audience are sat on their arses.

Why? It’s beyond me. If I had it my way people without a viable reason to be sat down would be chucked out until they pulled their fucking act together. Cheer up kids! Live music! Woooo! Why not even have a dance!? No? Oh, for fucksakes...

It’s a shame too, because JV deserve to be playing to an audience ten times the size of this one. Although let down by some inconsistent sound tech, their live performance is a bolt of fucking lightening. Feral, enigmatic, thunderous and blissfully doom-ridden, JV are clearly a band at the beginnings of something very, very special indeed.

Opening with ‘You’re So Cool’ - a disenchanted acclamation to the aggressive flirtation techniques of playground boys, singer Romily Alice’s voice purrs in sickly adoration before obliterating itself into a cadence of snarling, supreme screams. Backed by an incredibly ferocious rhythm section, the song pounds and pulverises - it almost feels like a playfully rough foreplay technique in it’s power and sly, loving brutality.

Romily in herself is fantastically engaging, if a little quiet between songs (but who can blame her when half the audience can’t even be arsed standing up?). Stomping her way around the stage and bashing her head against the mic stand as she thrashes herself around, guitar swinging with control like a weapon from her shoulder. Her voice is deliciously sickly, and when it reaches heights of despair or anger flares out majestically into passionately forceful bombshells of feral, animated howls.

In fact, shave part of her hair off, stick some combat boots and a pair of hot-pants on her with a belt buckle reading ‘FAAAAARK’ and we’ve ourselves a modern day, real life Tank Girl.

When ‘Love Sound’ kicks in - its delicate, thrumming intro teases artfully before exploding into what is a deviously sexy and fiercely raucous salvo of a song - backed by some sublimely well-paced drums and a mischievously creeping organ-line.

Sadly, the whole gig isn’t as consistently amazing as it could be - let down by a lack of atmosphere (a fault shared and perpetuated by the audience and the band), occasional poor sound, and a couple of songs which unfortunately fail to hit the same highs as the rest. There’s little rapport between themselves or with the audience, and by mid-set they play a couple of songs in the style reminiscent of someone checking their watch to see if its time to get out of work yet.

Regardless, every song off their ‘Sicking And Creaming’ EP sounds outstanding, and their second song (I wish I knew the title...), involving something about ‘I wanna be an animal’, is a decadently snarling slice of neo-grunge genius which is performed so adamantly that it’s nearly hypnotic. With the last note of 'Dumb' still feeding-back determinedly

Do yourselves a favour - don’t be missing the first band next time. Especially if it’s Japanese Voyeurs. And be standing for it - trust me - sitting down is for losers.