Shonen Knife, Ben Ely & The Mungo Fungo Band, The Glycereens @ The Gov, Adelaide 29/2/2024

Shonen Knife have become regular visitors to Australia since I first discovered them back around 1997. I was late to the scene as the band had been together since 1981 and to date, releasing over twenty albums.

Brisbane’s The Glycereens describe their music as “dirty bubble-gum aesthetics with garage punk rock tones” and tonight they proved it. Hitting the stage in their black & white striped tee’s, it was all loud guitar, pounding drums and hair flying in all directions. Last year’s single, Jane Street kicked off proceedings and the band blasted their way through their thirty minutes to end with Neon City Lights and Last Exit. It was the sound of an atomic blast happening in The Gov and it was beautiful. If a movie was to be made about them, it would be called The Fast & the Furious.

Ben Ely’s “other” band is Regurgitator, but tonight his band is The Mungo Fungo Band. Last time Shonen Knife played The Gov, they supported Regurgitator, tonight Ben repays the favour. Ben Ely & the Mungo Fungo Band have a new album out, which they wanted to share with “Cool Adelaide”.

With Ben Ely declaring The Gov as “the best rock ‘n roll club in Australia”, the band inaugurated their six-song set with Severed Memories. The music flowed from the stage into the ever-increasing crowd who were soaking up the sounds. The sound was moody, exciting, dark and at times quite heavy. During Skull Candle the riffs became very dark and substantial with a hint of psychedelic guitar, and even at times some Doors influences woven around the music. The song was interspersed with some of the best Black Sabbath riffs, Sabbath never played. Ben said he told the band “Adelaide is going to be the coolest place on this tour, better than Sydney or Melbourne, who think they are cool but are not”

“Besides” Ben told us, “Adelaide has a shop that sells VHS movies. How cool is that”. Space and Time finished off a great set with it’s slow build up to a scorching finish. How great was the set? Well, another forty minutes would still not have been enough and I bought the vinyl record straight after. Let’s hope they come back soon as headliners.

While some bands take the live act serious with grim looks on their faces on stage, Shonen Knife head to the other end of the rainbow. How much fun can a band have on stage? Go see a Shonen Knife gig to find out. The smiles never left their faces as they ran around the stage giving the audience a good time. Konnichiwa, from 1998 opened proceedings with Banana Chips following and Twist Barbie all the way from 1983 following. Shonen Knife started out as a Ramones cover band and the influence still applies today. The songs are short and fast.

Lead vocalist and guitar player Naoko Yamano told the adoring crowd, “It’s great to be back in Rock City, Adelaide” then hurled Pop Tune and Concrete Animals at us. Drummer Risa Kawano took over vocals for Cycling is Fun, while being very animated behind the drums. Sharing the vocals, Naoko’s sister, on bass, gave us Wasabi.

With a new album out, Our Best Place, the band played a run of four new songs, still smiling and playing them as if they had been playing the songs for years. Sweet Candy Power had us in the audience waving our arms as if we were on the Countdown TV show, feeling like we were sixteen years of age again.

The Ramones influence came to the fore on Buttercup (I’m a Supergirl), fast and ferocious. Set closer Antonio Baka Guy had drummer, Risa, standing to play the drums, putting more power into the beat. The closing riffs were all (fun) heavy doom metal and with a lot of smiles and “Thank you” the girls left the stage.

The two-song encore was short and fast. Sushi Bar Song (they do love songs about food) and a surprising cover of The Carpenters Top of the World, played as The Carpenters would never have played it.

A man cannot give away a lady’s age but this band has been going since 1981 and the energy spewed forth from the stage was amazing, with twenty songs performed in sixty minutes. It’s a nonstop electric performance. And they have so much fun on stage.

The night was an amalgam of sounds, with the three bands all playing a different style of music. I am not sure when I last had such a good time at The Gov.

A bit of trivia; Shonen Knife toured with Nirvana in 1993, at the personal request of Kurt Cobain. Shonen Knife had no idea who Nirvana were.

Live Review By Geoff Jenke