It’s exciting to get to play home-town tourist every once in a while, especially when you live in L.A. Luckily for me, a friend of mine from France is hiding in California for a few months while she shirks the responsibilities of post-college job hunting, and I get to show her how amazing California is! On one of my recent trips to visit friends at UCLA, I brought my Frenchie with, and played tour guide like it was my job. She toured campus, went to a house party, dropped in on a class, drank cheap beer out of red cups, learned beer pong, ate at In-N-Out, saw a pseudo-celebrity (Kim Kardashian), bought some flip flops, frequented college dive bars, ventured through Venice Beach, and last but certainly not least, went to a show at the Roxy on Sunset.
The Roxy is a place I’ve always wanted to go, but never got the opportunity to when I was at UCLA. It’s a well known, Sunset strip venue; tiny- but a great little spot to intimately view your favorite bands or up-and-comers. It’s fun 'n' gritty: dark, no frills, sticky floor, sticky bathroom, but that’s kind of the best part: The Roxy doesn’t mess around, it serves its purpose as a music venue and that's about it. Who did we see? "The Polysics! From Tokyo....JAPAAAAAN!" The crazy Devo-inspired-Japanese-punk-new wave band rocked our faces off. Clad in orange jumpsuits, name tags, and futuristic rectangular sunglasses, the Polysics have so much energy and enthusiasm in their act that you forget they’re singing in Japanese and you mosh into the music. The ridiculously prolific band luckily played a bunch of their better-known songs like “Kaja Kaja Goo” and “I My Me Mine”. The lead singer/guitarist, Hayashi, jumped around the stage, screaming and dripping sweat until the last beat, while their female keyboardist/ back up vocalist, Kayo, complete with robot-voice-effect headset, 
was in C3PO mode the entire act. She even stayed robotic as she unplugged her synth and walked off stage: no smiles, no waves to the crowd or anything, just gone. It was like the Polysics had been on a mission from planet punk to rock our world from 11pm-1am and when they were done, they were gone…
was in C3PO mode the entire act. She even stayed robotic as she unplugged her synth and walked off stage: no smiles, no waves to the crowd or anything, just gone. It was like the Polysics had been on a mission from planet punk to rock our world from 11pm-1am and when they were done, they were gone… Definitely worth the ridiculous cab fare to get to the Roxy, and I am sure Mlle. Emmanuelle will not be forgetting this trip.
Hayashi, from the band’s myspace blog- “I prayed ‘Hope I could have a great show today too!!!’ Anyways I’m so hyper tension!!!! Because of this today’s show was so cool!!! Everyone’s was so awesome, and our tension was brilliant as well!!! Thank you Los Angeles!!!!”
P.S. Kayo is leaving the band in March, to pursue “normal woman” things:
Kayo, from the Polysics’ website.- "I have almost given my all to the Polysics during my 20s. From my 30s, returning to a normal woman, I feel like wanting to do normal things. I wanna try lots and lots of normal things. "
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