I can now say with complete conviction that Kinoco Hotel are as lovely and sound as good in real life as they are on their videos.
I saw them performing in a crowded, sweaty back room in London a couple of days ago. Wow! I'd gone to that particular gig rather than one of the ones closer to home because the wonderful No Cars were one of the support bands. The other support band was Oh! Gunquit.
Unfortunately at the start of the gig, and again just before they came onstage, we were asked to not film Kinoco Hotel and not to take photos of the band - they had their own photographer there and both stills and video were being shot, there were a few boos on hearing that. Hopefully some of that will turn up at some stage. So sadly, I shot nothing of them, but that didn't stop a lot of people filming and snapping away like crazy. So I'm sure that something will turn up somewhere.
The guy who was stood at my left was using one of those huge digital SLR cameras which he was using with complete disregard for the band, and for other gig goers. A number of times he held his camera directly in-front of, and no more than 18" away from the lead singers face and then kept it there until he got the right shot. Pro photographer, or just a complete c*nt? I'll go with the latter, 'cos most pro photographers are much more considerate.
Here's a promo shot that was used for the gig...
...and that is pretty much what we got on the night, except that Marianne Shinonome, singer/keyboard player was wearing stilettos, and their epaulettes were rather dishevelled. Oh, and because of a high stage, and the band members (except the drummer) being stood right at the front of the stage, a lot of black underwear was on show.
I nearly blushed, especially as Marianne's undies were rather tiny.
They were tight, drenched in sweat and put on a magnificent show. The band, Kinoco Hotel, that is.
Marianne Shinonome - voice and electric organ
Isabel Keme-Kamogawa - fuzz guitar
Giulietta Kirishima - electric bass
Fabienne Inawashiro - drums
The band took to the stage in their sexy hotel uniforms, took up their instruments and got ready then a minute or so later Marianne Shinonome prowled onto the stage brandishing her riding crop. Then it was straight into the first song. As the band don't speak English, there wasn't much chat from them, just song, song, song with barely a break between numbers. Giulietta Kirishima, bass, did risk a few sentences telling us about the merch and asking us to buy or else they wouldn't be able to get back to Japan.
Marianne also tried a couple of sentences but quickly lapsed into Japanese so this made their set flow along very quickly and all too soon they left the stage. They did come back on for an encore.
Most memorable moments of the gig? Hmm. Apart from when Giulietta Kirishima, bass, stole my and Sasquatches hearts... Let's see, well, during the last song of their set there was some of this...
Closely followed by some of this...
... with Marianne pawing at her keyboard like a cat. Then the keyboard stand collapsed and the keyboard hit the stage with Marianne still kneeling on top of it.
I wish I'd gone to more of their shows as seeing just one show wasn't enough. But they will be back next year, so I'll have to try and catch more shows next time if I can.
I nearly blushed, especially as Marianne's undies were rather tiny.
Marianne also tried a couple of sentences but quickly lapsed into Japanese so this made their set flow along very quickly and all too soon they left the stage. They did come back on for an encore.
