ex-girl
It's not very often that I ask myself "Is this happening? Am I REALLY seeing
this?" On the night of September 9th, when the Japanese trio Ex-Girl took the
stage at the Shim Sham Club in New Orleans, LA, those doubts were the first
things to enter my mind. The Girls entered bearing inflatable frogs and
wearing costumes whose colors are most often found in the 80's. When they
began a choreographed dance routine apparently inspired by robots, they
resembled fuchsia, lime, and yellow whirlwinds of energy. After the opening
song, Kirilo, Chihiro, and Fuzuki gave a brief speech, telling the audience
about their origins on the planet "Kero! Kero!", then seemed to practice idol
worship on the inflatable frogs. When eX-Girl eventually resumed playing
music, they quickly won the audience over with a combination of heavy rock
guitars, bizarre acapella vocals, and catchy, pop synthesizers. The standout
song was by far the fittingly quirky cover of 80's one-hit-wonder M's "Pop
Musik." eX-Girl's stage presence was an interesting blend of innocent Japanese
coquettishness, incredibly quirky B52's-esque weirdness, and rock-vamp sex
appeal. How refreshing to see a band achieve the difficult balance between
playing live music well and keeping the stage show interesting.