I'd been trying to catch Bo Ningen since first hearing them on 6music sometime last year. I had a ticket for their Dingwalls show back in April, but then the date changed and I couldn't make the new one. I did see them play the collaborative "sonic poem" with Savages in May, which was good but really only whetted my appetite for the real thing. It was worth the wait, they blew the Scala apart tonight.
Bo Ningen hit the stage in a blur of flying hair & limbs and launched straight into a sonic
assault of the senses. I've seen some loud bands of late and Bo Ningen are right up there. I was spellbound the entire show. Monchan, their phenomenal drummer, is a force of nature who provides the bedrock for the wall of sound that screams out of the other three members guitars. Taigen is the obvious face of the band and overcomes the language barrier by seeming really open and friendly. He sings in Japanese but still manages to convey something about the emotion in the songs. His
bass lines are something else, and often perform as much of a lead as the twin guitars of Yuki and Kohhei. It was tricky to keep track of the songs they played but I've had a stab at the setlist based on some fairly oblique notes. They ended the main set with an epic tune that may have been Daikasiei (part 2) but was stupendous either way. A really fabulous night and a band you should most definitely grab the chance to see live.
Gia Fu
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