What I Did Last Night - Shonen Knife

It's difficult to argue with Kurt Cobain and Sonic Youth. They, after all were the avatars that first heralded the cool of Japanese trio Shonen Knife back in the early Nineties. Flag bearers for a certain niche kitsch, they're still going almost thirty years on from when they toured with Nirvana and they haven't changed one jot.

When I saw they were coming to Newcastle a few weeks back I thought they were one to see. So last night I made my way to The Cluny in the Ouseburn Valley in Byker to catch them for the first time. After slightly more technical fiddling to see that everything was ready than you might have expected, they were on, in matching Mondrian dresses, standing on the cusp of the stage together and holding aloft banners for their latest record, Sweet Candy Power, before kicking off into a night of, well just that!

Playing before an audience of a certain vintage in the intimate Cluny 2, where I've seen some fabulous gigs over the years from the likes of Courtney Barnett, Bill Ryder Jones, Misty in Roots and Aldous Harding. While tonight wasn't quite up there with the best of those in my estimation at least, they certainly got a mightily appreciative response and kept a smile on my face.

This draws on and exists utterly within a certain bubblegum ethos: The Partridge Family, Josie & the Pussycats, Sugar Sugar and The Ramones. Most of all of course The Ramones. But while the bruvvers were a quartet of unprepossessing bowlheads from Queens, Shonen Knife are defiantly cute.

All three of The Knife took their turns on the mic as you'd expect and gave a good run through for their new record in addition to a selection of classics from their vast back catalogue. They never once slip out of character and exhorted us to 'crap your hands' at a certain point in the night.

I didn't stay to the end. I didn't feel it was necessary. I'd seen them do their stuff. They were good but not great. They had the best merchandising stall I'd seen in some time, truly knowing, as you'd expect from a Japanese band, how to package their brand. There's clearly plenty more gas in their tank.