Puffy AmiYumi at Slim's

Three long years after their performance at the Fillmore in San Francisco, Japanese duo Puffy AmiYumi were scheduled to return to the Fillmore during a brief U.S. tour promoting their new album Honeycreeper. And by brief, I mean their tour consisted of five total venues (Puffy AmiYumi creeps around the West). Strangely enough, the venue changed after tickets went on sale and the group instead performed at Slim's, which I've never been to before (although Zoo Station plays there occasionally). It's a much smaller venue than the Fillmore, which meant it was much easier to get close to the stage. I was less than 10 people back from the edge of the stage and I didn't even get there when the doors opened, having driven over from Stockton after work.

American fans are also unlucky because the new album has not been made available for sale here yet. Fortunately, they were selling copies at the show (which were also signed by the duo!). Unfortunately, all of them were sold within 5-10 minutes of the doors opening. If a record label doesn't want to sell the album in the U.S. due to the cost of pressing CDs, at least make it available on the iTunes Store. Sheesh.

As with their previous S.F. show, they rocked. Hard. Even though they're considered a pop group, they rock harder than any American pop stars (and shame most of them). Yet they also played their 'cartoon hits,' like the Teen Titans and Hi Hi Puffy AmiYumi themes (which both also rock live). The two took occasional breaks to talk with the audience using English they'd written out on little steno pads; asking if we'd seen their photo in the current GAP campaign and noting how much warmer it was here than in the last two venues (Vancouver and Seattle). The show was a little short for my tastes (only one song in the encore?), especially considering they didn't play a few of my favorites ("Your Love Is A Drug," "Friends Forever," "That's The Way It Is") but they did play a number of songs from Splurge, released last year. But a surprising treat was a blistering cover of Green Day's "Basket Case," with certain song character's genders changed from 'she' to 'he.'

Hopefully they'll be back in the area before another three years goes by. And hopefully I can get a copy of their new album before then.