On Friday night, Anamanaguchi and Be Your Own Pet came to the House of Blues in Orlando, Florida, for the last night of the Buckwild Tour. The night featured contrasting styles, starting with aggressive rock and ending with dance pop.
Nashville rockers Be Your Own Pet kicked off the night with an energetic 40-minute set that evenly represented each of their three albums. The band played with punk aggression and the raw, visceral flavor of garage rock. Singer Jemina Pearl was always in motion, kicking, headbanging, dancing, and flailing across the stage. Bassist Nathan Vasquez matched her intensity while Jonas Stein laid down nasty, distorted guitar riffs backed by John Eatherly’s rapid-fire rhythms.
Most songs were fast and frenetic, like the infectious “Goodtime” and the reckless “Thresher’s Flail.” A “Fuuuuun” and “Food Fight” medley ratcheted up the intensity, with Pearl belting out the vocals over the breakneck punk riffs. Midway through the set, they slowed things down for the snarky ballad “Becky,” which sounds like a retro slow-dance song but is about murdering a best friend’s new friend out of jealousy.
“Here’s a new song. Though maybe they’re all new to you,” Pearl joked. They followed with the kinky “Rubberist,” a dynamic, hook-laden song that pairs funk licks with abrupt rock explosions in the chorus. Whereas on the album, the song ends with Pearl whispering the refrain “shiny, shiny, shiny like a brand new sin,” on this night, she shouted the refrain.
The band then kicked things back into high gear for the rest of the show. On “Hand Grenade,” they tore through volatile punk verses that abruptly shift into melodic, sing-along choruses, with Pearl backed by Stein and Vasquez on vocals. They closed the set with “Bicycle, Bicycle, You Are My Bicycle,” a frantic alt-rock song that careened between speed punk, punishingly slow sludge, and then back into a furious pace.
If an opening act’s job is to rile up the crowd, Be Your Own Pet did its job and then some. Stein’s riffs, which ranged from punk power chords to hard rock lead licks, combined with Pearl’s strong vocals and charisma, backed by an intense rhythm section, made the band a hard act to follow.
When New York quartet Anamanaguchi did follow them, they changed things up. In contrast to the in-your-face intensity of Be Your Own Pet, Anamanaguchi played a detached set of danceable pop rock.
The band played cloaked in darkness, usually only backlit by an impressive light show featuring strobes, large lights in the shape of the band’s star logo, and a rope light draped along the stage and around Luke Silas’s drumkit.
The music was a mix of analog and digital, rock and electronic. James DeVito’s thumping bass grooves, along with Silas’s rhythms, provided the up-tempo dance beats while Peter Berkman and Ary Warnaar’s guitar riffs added pop-rock vibes. Layered among those analog sounds was pre-recorded chip-tune music from hacked 1980s Nintendo and Game Boy consoles. Those 8-bit video game sounds created a light, joyful club atmosphere.
Many of the songs were instrumental. Even on those that had lyrics, the vocals weren’t the emphasis. Like at an EDM show, the vocals added extra flavor, but the dance grooves were the main course. Vocal duties were shared by Berkman, Warnaar, and DeVito, all of whom sang in a monotone drowned out by the densely layered soundscapes. On some songs, though, such as on the dancehall electronica of “Air on Line,” the vocals were provided by a backing track.
Anamanaguchi’s set heavily featured songs from Anway, released last August, in addition to some crowd-pleasing older songs. During the post-rock banger “Sparkler,” the band tossed beach balls into the crowd that made their way across the floor throughout the remainder of the show. Songs like the bass-heavy “Magnet” and the cover of Toby Fox’s “Hopes and Dreams” showcased the band’s electro-pop elements, while more aggressive songs like “Really Like To” showed more of a pop-rock edge. On “Nightlife,” the band took a twangy bass riff and added propulsive emo punk with 8-bit electronic flourishes.
They ended the show with a series of fan favorites, including the pulsing raver “Meow” and the slow-burning, atmospheric “Valley of Silence.” During the set-closing “Endless Fantasy,” DeVito tossed the rope light into the crowd, who passed it around while jumping and dancing along.
In the night of contrasts, some fans preferred the snarling punk intensity of Be Your Own Pet, while others favored the bitpop grooves of Anamanaguchi. Most in attendance seemed to enjoy both distinct offerings. With the Buckwild Tour complete, Anamanaguchi heads home while Be Your Own Pet continues on with its own headlining tour, next in Tampa on Sunday.
