The SoapGirls and Tokyo Honey Trap – Bannerman’s, Edinburgh

Looking for a way to liven up a boring Wednesday evening?  John Scott reckons The SoapGirls might have the solution. Support Tokyo Honey Trap.

Tonight’s openers are local band Dolarhyde. Unfortunately, I missed their set. Sorry guys. Second support, Tokyo Honey Trap are anything but local coming, as their name might suggest, from Japan.  It’s their first time in Scotland and they are very happy to be here.

Tokyo Honey Trap are something of an enigma. A frantic post-gig Google search proves virtually fruitless; their website is mostly in Japanese script. A brief section in English describes the band as “Sex Pistols with computer knowledge” and reveals that the band has had more than 20 former members. A rummage around Instagram reveals the guitarist to be Tetsuya Nakagawa, whose Instagram handle, Tetsu Nclaren, suggests that he moulds himself after the Pistols’ Svengali manager.

Nakawaga is accompanied by three female musicians on vocals, bass and drums. The Sex Pistols influence is reflected in the singer’s Jaimie Reid-style jacket which I suspect would probably set back the mohicaned punks in the audience more than a couple of months’ wages.  Musically though, Tokyo Honey Trap are more like Sigue Sigue Sputnik crossed with Transvision Vamp mashed up with a machine-built Blondie in a Bladerunner bar.

It’s a fun mix.  Nakawaga in a slinky black suit and a grease paint mask across his eyes looks either like a glam-manga Yazuka boss or Adam Ant at a fancy dress party done up as Hong Kong Phooey, depending on your point of reference. The rest of the band put in an impressive, energetic performance – I really wish I could namecheck them – and as the songs are sung in Japanese, it’s easy to imagine being temporarily transported from Edinburgh’s old town to Tokyo’s Shibuya district.  I hope this isn’t Tokyo Honey Trap’s only visit to Scotland.  I’d see them again in a heartbeat.

This is the week in which Barbie took over the world thanks to Greta Gerwig’s dolly-based blockbuster movie.  If a couple of Barbies went all Thelma and Louise and got amped up on candy floss, amphetamine and bourbon-laced soda pop, looking for fun or trouble, maybe they could do worse than to break out of Barbie World and start a punk-pop band. The SoapGirls, sisters Noemie (Mie) and Camille (Mille) broke out of their own Barbie World around ten years ago when they split with a major record label and struck out on their own and have never looked back.

Dressed in white PVC thigh-length boots and not very much else, it’s fair to say that The SoapGirls make an instant impression. Mille divests herself of her boots after the first number, presumably to more easily facilitate the back bends and leg stretches that she somehow manages to pull off while singing and playing bass. This being an equal opportunity band, the already bare-chested drummer soon slips off the rest of his clothes. Maybe it’s my age, but rather than thinking “Whoo, rock and roll” I find myself fervently hoping that he wipes down his drum stool with some anti-bac spray after the gig.

Musically, The SoapGirls centre on punk-pop with some killer hooks although in a live context, I thought that some of the tunes got a bit lost in the volume of the performance.  It’s impossible to criticise the band’s enthusiasm though. And the sisters’ personalities shine out; even their absolutely atrocious attempts at a Scottish accent end up as endearing rather than irritating.

I’m pretty sure that anyone going to a SoapGirls gig will know that there is a bit of nudity involved so it’s perhaps slightly disingenuous that Mie has to make a case for taking her top off. It does, however, give her the opportunity to invite anyone in the audience who wants to do the same to do so.   Many do, resulting in outbreaks of that particularly pasty skin tone that we Scots excel in.  I was a bit worried that the whole tops-off thing was going to be a bit pervy but rather than ranks of slack-jawed punks of a certain age gawping at the stage, everyone concentrates on having a good time moshing to the music. Fun, safe self-expression is what The SoapGirls are all about.

The band cram in more songs than the on-stage setlist suggests.  During what Mille tells us will be the last two songs, a lucky birthday boy is invited up on stage to dance and they buy him a drink as well. As a bonus, an extra song gets bolted on too.

If you are easily offended by body parts then a SoapGirls gig might not be for you but if you’re up for an evening of unselfconscious pop-punk fun then you will have a great night out.

Setlist

Wasted

Johnny Rotten

Promise you

She Don’t Wanna

Chains

Hate Breeds

Broken Melody

In my Skin

Demons

Psycho

Kill Breed

Play with Fire

Drown

Real

Breakdown

Breathe

Champagne Cocaine

John Scott

All photographs by John Scott at UPSTAGE PHOTOGRAPHY