By Jase Walker
There’s nothing like a bit of slightly weird Brit rock to kick off March with a bang, Yonaka are hitting Melkweg’s Oz stage tonight and I’m super buzzed I get to catch these again after Download festival a while back. Armed with a new album, ‘Welcome To My House’ and two supports, Mimi Barks and Noisy, it’s looking like this one might be a bit of a late finish but also one to send me to bed with my head replaying ‘As I’m Trying To Sleep’: could be worse I suppose!
I’ve picked myself a nice spot on the upstairs balcony area so I can lean a bit and get some nice photos here and there without having to worry about the ever present danger of six-foot something Dutch people standing in front of me.
Now to preface that I’ve been to a lot of shows where the outfit of the people on stage have been a bit weird but Mimi Barks‘ choice of a trench coat and spiked balaclava took me by surprise. With a musical style similar to the likes of Zand, Jazmin Bean, and Ashnikko, where it’s a mix of trap style and metal with a whole bunch of attitude thrown in. I wasn’t super keen on the start but the stronger metal influences show through a bit further on and I’m a bit more into it. Mimi spends barely more than a second in any single spot, frequently flinging themselves across the stage and often back to one particularly enthusiastic person down the front that’s clearly a pretty huge fan. There’s a bit of disparity in sound levels when it comes to more subtle spoken word parts Vs the stronger shouting/screaming parts, it’s a bit jarring because the mic suddenly pops like crazy.
The drummer clearly enjoyed his chance to have a bit of a jump around in the stage on one song as everything was essentially from the backing track stuff. To their credit as well, they got a decent moshpit going at one point as well which for an opening act isn’t as easy as you’d think. I don’t think I can really get away with the vocals for this unfortunately, the harsher vocals sound too strained and painful and the more rapid spoken parts sound like they’re out of breath. Mimi Barks has had a solid response from the crowd but for me personally it’s a miss, kudos to them for literally getting stuck into their own moshpit though.
Next up is Noisy, and I actually recognize the banner they’ve put up at the back of their stage. So initial impressions are that it’s like Dizzee Rascal sort of stuff with a bit more of a punk slant. The sort of rapid fire MC style vocals reminiscent of a lot of garage acts from the ’90s and the like. Some massive balls on this fella as he’s gotten straight into the pit to get it going and promptly lost the mic right after, all in the name of good fun though, eh? Do have to say Noisy sounds pretty damn good and doesn’t seem to be running out of breath considering the amount of words he’s spitting out in addition to doing a running commentary as the show moves on. Despite the technical difficulties that seem to be plaguing the show, they’re keeping things rolling and not leaving any dead air, it’s tough to deal with but they’re taking it like champs.
Noisy are definitely again not really my sort of thing but still pretty solid marks for how good the set’s been, the crowd response has been great as well and the fantastic command the bands had on audience participation has been fantastic. Noisy’s whole show has been pretty fun and even as someone who’s probably not going to ever see or listen to these again, I really enjoyed what they’ve got going on.
Finally time for Yonaka to take the stage by opening with ‘By The Time You’re Reading This’, one of the massive singles off the latest album, off to a strong start! I did think for a moment that they were having some sound issues prior to taking the stage based on the somewhat urgent back and forth the production crew were having but from my point of view they sound pretty damn good.
The crowd is already going wild for them right from the start, no shortage of pits and dropping in ‘Call Me A Saint’ so early is a bit surprising considering its popularity, I can honestly hear the crowd singing it over the music as well, always impressive. ‘Hands Off My Money’ keeps the energy bouncing with not only being a savagely riffy song but a chorus that people are fully on board with screaming right back as well. The audience here tonight are loud as fuck and down for going wild, you wouldn’t think this was a Sunday night show!
It’s funny how when Yonaka’s singer really leans into her accent when singing she reminds me so much of the Sex Pistols, this came across especially well during ‘Panic’. ‘Welcome To My House’ evidently still seems a bit too new for people to have properly learned the words for it yet but I can see this one settling in as a set favourite over the coming years. After a brief calm moment with an acoustic song, we’re back to the high energy through to the end with ‘Predator’ that shows off Yonaka’s blend of punk/metal/trap and this fully sets off everyone going apeshit in the middle of the venue floor.
The set feels like it was over far too quickly despite being just over an hour, it’s been such a great show from start to finish and the encore of ‘Guilty’ done in acoustic and finishing up with ‘Seize The Power’, what a way to end it. I’m a little bit miffed that ‘Ordinary’ wasn’t in the set, but a brilliant show all the same.
They’ve still got so many dates left to go in this tour, seriously don’t miss this. Yonaka are on top form and it won’t be long before they’re hitting far bigger venues!
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