Tokyo Police Club / Mobius Band

Canadian four-piece, Tokyo Police Club arrived at London Scala for the last night of their British Tour in support of their debut album 'Elephant Shell'. Acclaimed EP's (In Particular 'A Lesson In Crime'), gained the band the publicity they needed to leave the media and fans eagerly anticipating this April release. Having made no real inroads into the charts, the band have a clear core of fans as the main room was packed to the rafters with indie scenesters and, strangely, the odd business person (well this is London after all) bound together for their love of garage rock being blasted out by a band billed as Canada's answer to Bloc Party... and they weren't disappointed.

First up though were support act, Mobius Band. Their moody fuse of beats, guitars and energy was a certain hit with the crowd. Not too far away from Tokyo Police Club, the band played for 30 or so minutes creating fantastic soundscapes that left the listener both depressed and jubilant but either way, certainly wanting to hear more. Cross CSS with Interpol and you're close.

Tokyo Police Club took to the stage with mild celebratory whoops from the largely youthful crowd. 'Graves' is first up and the leads to the crowd nodding their heads in unison. The most notable thing about Tokyo Police Club on record, is the length of their songs, with any song very rarely reaching over two and a half minutes. Still, it takes nothing away from the performance as the band seem to create enough energy themselves to power the whole show.

Bloc Party comparisons are certainly not lost on the band, with drummer Greg Alsop creating fast and creative beats that drives through the songs and gets the crowd going. Singer and bassist, Dave Monks is like a Kele Okereke with a spring in his step and keyboardist Graham Wright is like a man possessed, jumping up and down and squealing into the mic whilst playing a seemingly limited instrument. It all works perfectly though and songs such as 'Cave' and 'Juno' soar into the audience and demand attention. Its old song 'Your English is Good', midway through the set, though, that really grabs the crowd and sparks a mini moshpit. From here, the band can do no wrong and play b-side's, album tracks and older songs from their 2 EP's.

With not a huge amount of conversing from the band between songs, they let the music do the talking and finish up with sing along 'Nature of the Experiment' and 'Be Good'. They then scarper off stage for a blink of an eye and re-appear to announce new song, imaginatively entitled 'New New Song', and finish with the highlight of the night 'Cheer It On', the first song on their first release, leaving the crowd buzzing and wanting more.

They may not be a chart success, but on the evidence of tonight there's a hell of a lot still to come from this quartet. What else is there left to say? Join the club.

FUTURE GIGS

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