Last Night: An Cafe at Slim's

An Café
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
Slim's
Words and photos by Kirsty Evans

Who knew there was such a thing as Looney Tunes Rock?

I have to admit that I wasn't expecting to like An Café. They're so obnoxiously, relentlessly cheerful that my inner sarcastic goth was fully expecting to have a miserable time. And yet...

Live they were just so damn bouncy and positive it was almost impossible to dislike them. Like a weird cross between an anime soundtrack and the music to a Nintendo game, An Café were all upbeat melodies and hyper caffeinated stage presence.

Frontman Miku bounced into view looking so damn shiny that I felt like I needed sunglasses to protect me from the glare, and he barely stopped moving for the rest of the show. The man is ridiculously, implausibly cute - he looks like a doll, and he jumps around like a 4-year-old in the midst of a sugar rush. The rest of the band seemed to have had maybe one or two candy bars less, but that still left them with more energy than any band at the end of a world tour should by any rights have possessed.

OK, so the music is pretty simple and not exactly difficult to play. The thing is, that's not really the point - An Café aren't trying to dazzle audiences with displays of musical virtuosity or songwriting skills. They're a silly, happy pop rock band on a mission to cheer people up, and on those terms they succeeded rather well.

The audience certainly seemed to be having a good time. The moms stationed themselves at the back and around the edges as their kids dove into the fray, and even though it was pretty crowded it was an oddly nice crowd for a J-Rock show. Usually J-Rock audiences are notable for their odd nastiness - often it's as if the sheer weight of the collective teenage angst compels people to push and shove and elbow each other in a most unfriendly manner. This crowd was all smiles, which was a welcome surprise. It was as if the band's sheer enthusiasm sucked all the negativity right out of them.

An Café built last night's performance mostly around new-ish material - no "Escapism" or "CandyHolic" on the setlist - but it was clear that most of the audience had been into the group for a while. The band claimed that their American audience isn't much different from their Japanese one, and you could see what they meant. Thanks to the power of the Internet, there was level of familiarity at Slim's that you might not expect from a group that had never toured the US before. The fans definitely knew all the songs, and made it clear which ones were their favorites.

And then there was the Donald Duck thing. Now see, this is where it would be easy to hate An Café if you came in expecting them to be anything other than what they are. If you were expecting a serious rock band, what would you make of a singer who held up Donald Duck and Cookie Monster plushies and asked the crowd which one they preferred? Or who hit audience members over the head with an inflatable pink hammer? At one point there was actual meowing from the frontman, in a song that also featured him singing in an Alvin and the Chipmunks voice for no apparent reason. OK, so it was totally infantile, but it was also oddly lovable.

An Café were so silly - how could you hate a band that's willing to be completely ridiculous just to make people smile? If you're looking for something to knock you out of a gloomy mood, you could do a lot worse. The band is incredibly silly, but they're also kind of adorable. And really, that seems to be exactly what their fans want from them.