Kikagaku Moyo Wrap Up North American Farewell Tour With Adventurous Brooklyn Steel Send-Off (SHOW REVIEW)

At the top of this year Tokyo’s foremost emissaries of psychedelic rock, Kikagaku Moyo, announced that after a decade as a band they would be going on indefinite hiatus. Before calling it quits they gifted fans with the release of their fifth and final studio album, last May’s Kumoyo Island, and embarked on an extensive year-long farewell tour; making their final North American stop at New York’s Brooklyn Steel on October 6th for a thrilling and emotional two-night stand last week, the second of which Glide was fortunate to attend. 

After an opening set from ambient experimentalist legend Laraaji that had him engaging the crowd with musings and mantras Kikagaku Moyo took the stage. Amid the roar of cheers that greeted them were repeated shouts of “We love you!” and “Don’t leave us!” – sentiments that would, unsurprisingly, be repeated more and more as the night went on and the reality set in that this might very well be the last chance to see this band perform. The quintet eased into the evening with a pair of acoustic songs, “Cardigan Song” and “Old Snow, White Sun”, both off of 2016’s House in the Tall Grass, with drummer Go Kurosawa taking on guitar and lead vocals while some of the other members took seats on the stage floor, floating their way along gentle jams on both tunes, their guitars swirling upon an atmospheric mix of percussion and sitar. 

After Kurosawa took his place back behind the drums, a squall of feedback from lead guitarist Daoud Popal signaled that it was time for the rock show to begin. And begin it did, as a quick count-off sent the group exploding into the opening of “Cardboard Pile”, the lead single Kumoyo Island; Popal’s fuzzed out guitar hitting wall-shaking volume amid the charged groove as the crowd instantaneously turned into a sea of dancing and headbanging. Another pair of Tall Grass cuts, “Trad” and “Kogarashi”, featured hazy, electric jams between Popal and guitarist/vocalist Tomo Katsurada and sitarist Ryu Kurosawa respectively, and the band unleashed a heavy stomp on “Zo No Senaka”, ending with Popal wringing out psychedelic mayhem from his guitar in one of his most fiery solos of the night.

From there the band stretched the already spaced-out “Silver Owl” into a 20-minute opus, complete with an incredible mid-song percussion break with each member adding interlocking parts over bassist Kotsu Guy’s hypnotic groove before finding their way back into the tune and building it up to a forceful and triumphant finish. Ryu’s sitar playing, one of Kikagaku Moyo’s most distinctive elements, was given a stunning feature on “Entrance”, where he spun out a psychedelic web over a slow-blooming swell from the rest of the band that led them directly into the opening pulse of “Dripping Sun”. Popal’s guitar once again filled the room, working in tandem with Go’s drumming to build up the energy, balancing the song’s mellow verses with moments of searing rock and some of the night’s funkiest interplay.

After thanking the audience for their support, and sharing a few hits from a joint, they rounded out the set with a ripping take on “Smoke and Mirrors”, a highlight off their 2014 album Forest of Lost Children which they extended into a towering tour de force, and “Nazo Nazo” which floated off on a breezy jam between Ryu on keyboard and the two guitarists. “We’re going to play one more song. It’s the last song on our first album and we played this song so much the first time we came to the U.S.” Katsurada announced, recalling their first New York performance at the tiny Manhattan club Berlin. “It’s really emotional, and thank you all so much,” he added before the group kicked off into the swirling “Dawn”, which featured another sitar solo before the band brought things to a careening crescendo full of wailing guitars and crashing cymbals.

As the audience roared once more, the five men on stage each embraced one another, celebrating the gravity of what they’d accomplished before taking their bows, giving one more emotional goodbye and leaving the stage, and for a moment it seemed as though that was it. That there would be no encore. But the house lights didn’t come up, and the crowd stayed put; cheering and chanting for one more song. They got two. 

Kikagaku Moyo returned, took their place at their instruments, and with a single snare hit from Go unleashed the mighty opening riff of “Gatherings”, working their way into a powerful jam during which Popal dove off the stage to crowd surf before rejoining his bandmates. After over two hours of music, the group performed their final song for the American audience that embraced them nearly 10 years ago, leaving with Kumoyo Island’s catchy opening track “Monaka” which rose into one last psychedelic powerhouse, all of their abilities and chemistry on impeccable display until the very last note.

There’s no doubt that Kikagaku Moyo will leave a hole in the modern psych scene. With each album they seemed to break out more and more, pulling in increasing numbers of fans from all walks of life and all over the globe (the Brooklyn crowd was one of the most diverse this reviewer has ever seen at a rock show), and while the band members say that they’ve accomplished what they set out to do, one couldn’t shake the feeling watching them that there were even greater heights they might have climbed to. One can only hope that this indefinite hiatus won’t end up so indefinite and that one day they’ll return to American shores. But for now we can only bid them the fondest of farewells.

Kikagaku Moyo Setlist Brooklyn Steel, Brooklyn, NY, USA, Final Tour 2022

 

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One Response

  1. Nice review – I went the prior night and loved that show, but your review made me feel like I missed something epic

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