There’s nothing that feels put on about the friendliness and positivity, or for that matter, the cuteness, of Shonen Knife’s performance. The joy that they apparently derive from making music together and entertaining an audience, even after doing it for over 40 years, is palpable and extremely contagious. 

So what do you do when all the norms of society seems to be collapsing around you, but not in a good way, and the keys of power have been handed to the worst people imaginable?

Well, where I come from, you go to a punk show.

I grew up in Johnson City, TN, but I never really had much of an idea that anything particularly significant had ever happened there in terms of music, other than the one Bruce Springsteen concert at Freedom Hall in 1976 that my parents will never tire of telling me about.

The fantasy of a tropical escape seems to be very close to the hearts of this band who have often described their style in interviews as a “summery melancholy”, an image that seems oddly appropriate for musicians from the dark and damp town of Hamburg.

A band from the Dutch indie rock hotbed of Utrecht for whom layering myriad influences onto a solid heavy retro-rock foundation seems to come as naturally as breathing.