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Peelander-Z
Pike Room at the Crofoot
17 May 2012
On a Thursday night at the tail end of a couple of crappy weeks, I got tapped to haul my crabby carcass up to Pontiac for Peelander-Z. Did I mention it was a Thursday? And in Pontiac?
I'd seen the band before, so I figured the show would be like receiving full-spectrum light therapy -- a dose of Peelander-Yellow, Peelander-Pink, Peelander-Blue, and Peelander-Green, to whip me back into shape.
What surprises me about a Peelander-Z show is the crowd. When you think "Japanese action comic punk band," you think kids wearing hundreds of plastic bracelets and brightly-colored kawaii teddy bear ears, right? There were actually only two of those there. The rest were the hardcores, the punks, the old RAB standards that I see at most of the other shows I go to. And they weren't there just because they had nothing else to do -- they were there to see this show.
The Pike Room being the smallest room at the Crofoot, I knew this was going to be an interactive show. No choice, really -- Peelander-Z is very hands-on with their audience anyway, but at the Pike Room, there was no escape. In fact, we didn't have enough room for their signature human bowling, but you know what we did get? Giant squid baseball. So no complaints there.
There aren't a whole lot of acts that I say you just gotta see to really "get," but Peelander-Z is definitely that. Like my beloved Amino Acids, their music is totally listenable -- throw it in your car and open all the windows -- but once you've seen them in person, you'll be jumping to be taken up to their home planet.