Concert Review: Japanther and Ninjasonik at the Jackpot Music Hall
By NICOLE REINERTSON
Positive Mental Attitude is thought to have originated from the '70s D.C. hardcore band Bad Brains. P.M.A. is still alive and actually thriving as I witnessed last night at the Jackpot in Lawrence.
Japanther and Ninjasonik, two bands from NYC, rolled into town and really showed us how they do as they headlined for local bands Fortuning and Coat Party.
Nicole Reinertson Click for slide show.
Fortuning kicked off at 11pm. The three-piece band from Lawrence brought to mind my piano teacher from way back in the 1980s. Her name was Kitty McClintock and she always said, "Practice, practice, practice!" She was right. Fortuning, just keep practicing. P.M.A. All the way.
Thank goodness Coat Party killed it super hard with their master beats of marvel. I would recommend this band to ANYONE. Except people who love Jesus. Now come to think of it, both the lead singers looked like Library Science majors with that pure Christian glow, so maybe I'm wrong. Go see this band.
"I Wanna Fuck" was one of the first Ninjasonik songs in what would turn out to be the longest set of the evening from all the bands. The song was more complex and inspirational than one might expect from the title. It can be found on a downloadable mix tape called I Don't Care if She Got A.I.D.S. (look for it under the Sounds Like portion of their MySpace). While DJ Teenwolf spun the killah beats, Telli Gramz and Reverend McFly rapped, sang, freestyled, and screamcored their way right into this white bitch's heart. They told us: "Stay positive. Be friends with everyone. Use the laser." (Instructions for making Ninjasonik's weapon of choose: Using index and naughty finger make an upside down peace sign. Put fingers together and point at the sky. Fire laser of P.M.A. using thumb as trigger. Get Happy!)
Matt (bass, vox) and Ian (drums, lead vox) of Japanther sang into their telephones for about seven songs until it was time to hang up and call it a night. They said next time they would start earlier and make it an all-ages show and apologized for such a sho(the drummer and lead singer) indoctrinated us between songs with his testimony, "We were all fuck-ups. All of us. Until we started doing this. Until we started doing this, we didn't give a fuck about anybody or each other. Now, it's just like this is what we have to do. Use your Laser! Make friends in the universe." I crown Japanther the Pope of P.M.A.
Critic's Notebook
This was better than: Wesley Willis (R.I.P.) throwing beer bottles from the stage at Gabe's Oasis in 1999.
Friends made using the Laser technique explained above: Sun, Curt, Taylor, Jenna, Dominick, and Justin at The Jackpot.
Random Detail: My above-mentioned friends and Haskell Indian Nation University Students, Curt and Sun, found a guy wearing "the best fucking sweater I've seen in like two years." Sun thought it was an Indian riding a camel. "I see now it's a horse," he corrected himself, "because we don't ride fucking camels." No doubt.
Epilogue: During the break all the kids (Lawrence, where were you last night, you missed a hell of a show) and I went outside to breath a little fresh air. Then something happened. I've been to a lot of shows in my day. I've seen Wesley Willis throw beer bottles at audiences, I've watched Keith Urban rock the shit outta some country -- hell, last week I watched Britney make a fool of herself. No other show I have ever been to in my life has been made up of such a truly diverse and seemingly wonderful crowd. The girls dressed in Gap clothes were hanging with drunken punks, and the black kids were hanging with the kids from Haskell
And speaking of McFly, I felt like Marty in Back to the Future watching Ninjasonik. I just wanted to grab everyone and say, "Your kids are going to love it." By the way, in 2005 my BFF Nate gave me the Japanther Master of Pigeons CD. I listened to the first 3 songs and gave it back to him saying that it was literally THE worst band I had ever heard in my life.
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