BORDER CROSSING: The Kids in Japan

The recent surge in reformed, touring '77 punk bands has dredged up many of the forgotten obscure sounds when the youth movement was sparking up all over th UK, Ireland and also mainland Europe. Well, at least in the West these bands remained obscure until labels like Bomp! and ROIR revive them; but in Japan, many of these acts have a continuous and ongoing fandom and when they finally make it over to tour, they are received by enthusiastic Japanese fans waiting patiently to take a snapshot with the band and get their original LP's autographed. It was like this for Nikki Corvette (a Japanese friend first turned me on to her garage punk sounds), The Dogs who were recently celebrated with a tribute album here, The Cannibals who joined Back from the Grave and The Stems who have had CDs reissued by two separate Japanese labels. It was no less the same for The Kids, the cheeky, untamed Belgian punk group who were known to have played alongside Iggy Pop and Patti Smith when they came to Japan for a two niter at Shelter in Shimokitazawa.



Honestly, I had not heard about The Kids before, but I had been listening to some of their old recordings recently. I'm also very interested in world punk, especially from the original punk era, so I was excited to see what it would be like. I learned earlier that The Kids were really kids when they started out, being between the ages 12 and 20, in 1976. They are also accredited to being the first Belgian punk band.

Their Sunday night set at Shelter seared many of their songs into my brain upon hearing them; I couldn't forget "Do You Love the Nazis?" "I Wanna Get a Job in the City," "Freedom, Liberty, Democracy" and of course "Radio Radio." After playing a very full set to a packed audience who kept yelling for more, The Kids came back out and played a double encore appropriately including Sham69's "If the Kids are United" and "Blitzkrieg Bop." Be sure to view The Kids' Japan video tour diary on YouTube!



The Kids were brought to Japan by 1977 Records, a local label that reissues many classic punk and power pop bands. They brought the Stems here last November and have organized events for The Fast Cars and Private Dicks later this year.