Tokyo Police Club once again visited the nation’s capital, stopping in at Ritual on Nov. 28th to play for a packed house. The foursome from Newmarket just played Ottawa this summer as a part of Bluesfest and returned as part of month-long tour across Canada to promote their newest album Forcefield, which came out in March.
The indie rock band has visited the capital region numerous times in their almost decade long existence, and keyboardist Graham Wright was glad to be back.
“I like the shawarma very much,” said Wright in an interview before the show. “This is what it turns into when you’re on tour for too long; just ‘I like to eat the food.’ But we do good here. It’s a small room, but it’s sold-out, the crowd is really enthusiastic and that’s all you need, to feel welcome.”
Opening with Argentina (Parts I, II and III) the band mixed old favourites with new tracks throughout the night, coupling that with shenanigans that have come to be expected from the group. At one point frontman Dave Monks leapt off the stage, and wandered through the crowd during Frankenstein, taking a Cincinnati Reds hat from someone in the crowd and wearing it for most of the remaining set.
To close their initial set, the band linked arms at the front of the stage and led the masses in a stirring rendition of O Canada. They returned for a two song encore, finishing the night with the ever popular, Your English is Good.
The set list was similar to the previous night in Montreal and has remained for the most part, the same for this tour.
“I used to think it was important to switch it up, but you work really hard on a set list, putting together one that works” said Wright. “At the beginning of a tour we’ll change it up as we trial and error it. But once you get into something that works, that flows, that makes sense then it seems like you’d be shooting yourself in the foot to change it just for the sake of changing it.”
Joining them for the show was two Vancouver based acts; the Pack AD and frequent touring partners Said the Whale.
“They’ve done three or four full Tokyo tours at this point, like too many I think,” joked Wright. “This has to be the last one or people are going to start thinking we’re in some weird symbiotic relationship. But it just keeps making sense, it keeps being a good mix.”
Tokyo Police Club wraps up their tour with back to back shows at the Danforth Music Hall in Toronto on Dec. 11-12.
