They came 2nd in the Queensland Campus Band Competition which is a fantastic effort. When I heard that they were supporting Grinspoon I couldn’t help but be happy for the guys as they are a bunch of really nice blokes and as humble as could be.

We arrived at the venue and caught up with Jin and the Orochi boys before hand and went in to the bar. This place is a massive room, and has a really great vibe to it. Bar at one end, stage at the other and a beer garden/deck type area out to the side, it’s airy and has enough room to be able to feel comfortable wherever you are.

After the questionable mix of music being played over the PA before hand (including Chef’s “Suck on my Chocolate Salted Balls”) Orochi’s intro tape started followed by the narration that gives the history and story of the Japanese story of Orochi, the 8 headed dragon. A very theatrical band the show starts with Benkei the drummer donning a traditional Japanese mask portraying Orochi and stalking the stage in the low lights…Ushiwaka (vocals) comes on stage as the role of Sonnou, the Samurai warrior who says Orochi and the story finishes with explaining that the soul of Orochi returned later in the form of 4 Samurai…and the show begins.

From the start, there is nothing small about this band. Their hair is big, their guitars are big and pointy looking and they wear kimonos and makeup. They look every bit like they just stepped out of a rock club in downtown Tokyo circa 1987 and jumped right into the South East Queensland music scene. Not only do they look big but they sound big. Made up of Ushiwaka, vocals; Yoritomo, guitar; Jin, Guitar and Benkei, drums they get along very well on stage with the lack of a bass player. A lot of their songs have a sequenced keybord/bass track that plays over the PA and gives a fantastic traditional sound to their music.

Very high energy, the band run around the stage and headbang away while they play and get right into their music. They played the 3 songs that appear on their EP, Sakura, Hanya and Saragutsuwa which they do every gig and pull of superbly. They have a handful of other songs that they play, and if I had any idea what they were called, I would name them here. All I know is that they all rock really hard and have very catchy melodies. I have to say that in the 8 or so Orochi gigs that I’ve been to, they have yet to disappoint me. They always make the time after they play to come out still in their stage garb and talk to fans.

The feeling in the crowd was a little bit of a downer with idiots trying to start up pissweak Grinspoon chants after every couple of songs, but the noise that us Orochi fans were making made up for it. We decided to put out feelers after their set and it seems that those who were there to see Grinspoon didn’t really appreciate Orochi, and those who were there to see Orochi spent Grinspoon’s set sitting outside in the beer garden drinking and breaking up fights.

So how was Grinspoon’s set? I dunno really, I was outside drinking beer and breaking up fights. It was pretty good background music I guess.