Zukunasisters Credit: Photo by John Anderson

Japan Nite

Elysium, Friday, March 18

When your world comes down, the only thing left to do is dance. Everyone walked into Japan Nite knowing that every performer has seen their home nation crumble. Yet that wasn’t going to slow Zukunasisters, whose jazzy soul revue was enough to get Lalo Schifrin shaking. Like Tina Turner throwing down Ike’s best licks, scarlet-clad frontwoman Emi ecstatically yelled, “It’s showtime!” and blasted the crowd with joy and love. With broken English and a cracked voice, she gave one simple message from Japan: “Many people are hanging in there and helping each other. We don’t give up!” Rarely has “What a Wonderful World” been performed with such passion and poignancy. “Give us your power,” she begged the audience, but if it was power she wanted, White White Sisters had it by the megawatt. An electroshock blast of metal machine music, the drum and guitar duo scoured the room with their data-driven art rock. It was passion of a different kind with the psychosexual sleaze of Oh Sunshine. The Tokyo duo boosted up to a quartet for a Dead Weather sound, but when Emily Connor writhed and whispered to Mikio Hirama’s power chords, it was all sensual intimacy.

This article appears in March 18 • 2011.

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The Chronicle's first Culture Desk editor, Richard has reported on Austin's growing film production and appreciation scene for over a decade. A graduate of the universities of York, Stirling, and UT-Austin, a Rotten Tomatoes certified critic, and eight-time Best of Austin winner, he's currently at work on two books and a play.