StraightenerThere are two nationalities that are the winners in the drawcrowd stakes here at FRF. The first is the Brits. It was fellow FRFer Jeff who put it so succinctly when he said if you laid a turd on toast, put it on stage and called it British, people would come to see it.

The second is, unsurprisingly, the Japanese. No matter who they are, regardless of if they’re any good, a local band will always draw a respectable crowd. So it is at White right now, as Straightener show me just why they have as big a group here as One Day As A Lion will later this evening. I expect local rockin faves The Cro-Magnons will draw a bigger crowd still.

I don’t know much about these guys. We have two guitars, a bass, and drums throwing out some good, if a little generic sounding tunes. Melodic vocals with a wall of guitar. Frontman Atsushi Horie changes between his guitar and keyboards to give a different sound to “16 Wonder”. These are good tunes for this time of day. Not too fast and frenetic, just a good steady pace. We have a little swaying where the moshpit should be. And a lot of people camped out in their chairs, Don Coglione styles.

Looks like maybe they are saving their energy for The Cro-Magnons and One Day As A Lion after all.