Live music listings: July 2008

Doors 8.00
£8 via WeGotTickets

Nisennenmondai are one of our most favourite bands! Imagine an insane birthday party with Sun City Girls, Keiji Haino and Mika Miko all invited, things are gonna go volcanic, and that's where Nisennenmondai come in! Of all the noisy girl groups of Kansai, Tokyo, Nisennenmondai - their name translates as 'Year 2000 problem', a reference to the millenial computer bug - honestly! - are at once the most intense and hypnotic band to run out of the scene. Himeno Sayaka (drums), Zaikawa Yuri (bass) and Takada Masako (guitar) met, of all places, at the same after school music club at university in Tokyo and quickly jumped into band formation, self-releasing two EPs with short shrift before touring Japan alongside the likes of Death Sentence: Panda!, OOIOO, Lightning Bolt, Hella, Oshiri Penpenz, and Afrirampo. Their pulsing rhythm section and metallic overtoned guitar sound something like a heathen and tranced-out amalgamation of Boredoms, Neu!, Ruins and Leopard Leg - apt comparisons considering their group ensemble ethic and circular pattern performance setup.

Beards are three outstanding beasts of nature who find Leeds their habitat. The Dickosaurous, The Clairedactil and The Kathodocus come on stage dressed in cloaked day-glo majesty, rip it up and swap instruments with delight. Born of the herky-jerky party sound, Beards tread ever onwards with motorik abandon, expect jittery wonk pop, shrieking vocalisations and guitar jab par excellence.

Please are Keebie (Cleckhuddersfax, Poltergroom), Michael and Rowland from London. Delectable offerings of riff and boogie in divine freakbeat equilibrium. Elements of the freakbeat sound include strong, direct drum beats, loud and frenzied guitar riffs, and extreme effects such as fuzztone, flanging, distortion and compression or phasing. Progressive Eastern scales tweaking through pomp rock anthems provide immediacy amongst short swathes of psychedelia.

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