Live DC: Cornelius @ 930 Club

January 28, 2008 by Ben  Send to a Friend

all photos: Fitsum Belay

Freezing January temperatures last Friday couldn’t keep Washingtonians away from their Japanese noise pop, as the 9:30 club was surprisingly packed to see Cornelius. Maybe it was the local press drummed up a lot of attention for this show - but more likely, I probably underestimated the demand for one of the men who gave birth to the Shibuya-kei pop movement. Screw throwback bands doing the same old stuff, Cornelius delivered a mind-expanding performance last Friday.

Monochromatic bars flickered in front of a dropcloth masking Cornelius and his posse just as the band started to play.”Breezin’” opened up the show with splashy outdoor visuals, including a small girl blowing bubbles on an organic, clean playground unlike the tattered and rusted-out landscapes commonly seen in America. Almost immediately after the opener, tiles of lips splashed across the club’s display as Cornelius launched into “Gum,” with the bigger pairs of lips performing mitosis before fading into a blue backdrop of seagulls and the occasional helicopter dashing across a dark blue sky for a rendition of “Wataridori” - one of the more mesmerizing performances of the night.

Before I talk about anymore of the songs - the intricacy and timing of the visuals needs to be discussed. Cornelius and company performed absolutely in-sync with some complex and bewildering sights, which were some of the most intense I’ve ever seen at any show. They ranged from completely fucking weird (picture a vegetable with Medusa-like tentacles attached to a hula dancer’s head) to hilarious (the video accompanying “Tone Twilight Zone” was a pair of fingers walking through a kitchen obstacle course of sorts, complete with a swan dive into a jar of jelly). Cornelius even gave the audience a chance to participate in a Helevetica sing-a-long for portions of “Smoke,” as romanized Japanese words flashed across the screen.

And while keeping in pace with the visuals, the group looked incredibly relaxed and nonchalant, laying on the charm with each progressing song. The band also interacted with the crowd while managing to keep on beat - Cornelius dashed across the front of the stage, letting people jam buttons on his sampler, and even brought someone up from the crowd on stage to play a theremin.

After opening with a lot of material off of Sensuous, Cornelius fell into a deluge of old tracks, mostly ignoring his latest release for the remainder of the night. But this isn’t a complaint - he played almost everything a die-hard fan would want to hear, with a setlist that included “Another View Point,” “Count Five or Six,” and “Star Fruit Surf Rider.” All while being treated to a hodgepodge of landscapes that bounced from a rotating panoramic of a Japanese bedroom with dancing light trails and spinning digital clocks to Tokyo expressway tunnels.

Normally, I don’t bring a notebook to shows I’m covering - but I should have for Cornelius. I knew there would be some sort of visual element to his show, but just like the crowd that showed up, Although Cornelius is known for his special effects, I failed to do my homework and ended up completely overwhelmed. But the visuals didn’t take away from the excellent performance - they merely complimented it. So as Cornelius told his fans to go home and “sleep warm” in his closing song, I did just that. (and therefore, missed a kick-ass warehouse party, apparently

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