PeelanderZ Invades Toledo!!!!!

by Julian Garcia

Photography by Amanda Holman

Once again T-Town was invaded by the super hyper, super fun band of wandering Japanese-looking aliens from PeelanderZ on Monday, March 5 at Frankie's Inner City. And once again a large crowd turned out on a weekday night to make contact with the theatrical "anime-punk" group and not one soul in the room was idle. They must have brought down a contagious fun disease from outer space because unlike any other band that has come through Toledo, at least in recent months, PeelanderZ gets everybody to participate. The crowd was banging on steel drums, doing the limbo and collectively singing "E-I-E-I-O" to a punked-out version of "Old MacDonald" — and this wasn't necessarily a recreational-drug-infused festival crowd. Sure there was plenty of cheap PBR being sloshed around, but the main intoxicant of the night was pure wholesome F-U-N!

On his planet Peelander Yellow is handsome!

In the interview I did to promote the show (2/22/12 issue of TCP) with the band's leader, Peelander Yellow, he said their mission was to collect smiles, because his planet uses smiles as an energy source. Well, they hit the motherlode here in Toledo, perhaps because everybody seems so desperate for good time.

Another high energy Japanese band opened for PeelanderZ, they went by the anime-sounding moniker, Electric Eel Shock. I happened to just miss their set but everybody was buzzing not so much about the shredding style music, but because of their almost nude drummer. Sources told me at one point he was "helicoptering" and playing the drums with a particular lower extremity. I think the proof is in the pics below....

Yikes! Electric Eel Shock Drummer "Helicopters!"

One of the main features of a PeelanderZ show are the costumes. The performance heavily relies on their theatrical presence. Their tunes are the classic sound one would attribute to punk, so there is a good deal of three chord shredding and garbled screaming. However, behind trite lyrics like "Taco, taco, taco' repeated with audience participation, there is a clear sense of self-mocking and satirization of American pop-culture.

Peelander Pink proves "girls just wanna have fun!"

Ok, now bear with me as I attempt a conversational analysis of an otherwise silly NYC, Asian punk band. With their whole anime persona they embrace and control Japanese stereotypes—really they come out like Power Rangers. And their lyrics lovingly make fun of Japanese stereotypes of Americans. One of their more popular tracks is "So Many Mike" in which they point out there are a lot of people in the America named Mike. They even have a song to sell merchandise, "Get Glasses" which did sell a lot of fake Ray Ban looking PeelanderZ shades. Everyone seems in on the joke — and more importantly everyone has a blast.

But enough said about that. The audience really comes to PeelanderZ shows for the Giant Squid or human bowling. So the next time they come through Toledo on their interplanetary tours be sure to check them out for an extraordinary evening of careless revelry.

Giant Squids also make great bowling balls

P.S.—Rumor has it PeelanderZ will be back in Toledo this summer. Until then they have a big showcase show at this year's SXSW. Stay in the loop with the Toledo City Paper for more details.