Hi/Zo/U/Bu/Tu is dressed in a loose, black and white stripped pyjamas. His hair is a disheveled mess. He looks like a prisoner who’s been released from solitary confinement after 20 years. He starts his set by creating pops by whipping the floor with a violin bow – the noise picked up and amplified by the microphone. He runs a microphone along the strings of a double bass. It sounds like something that might have come out on Mille Plateau. A violin is plucked then viciously sawed. We get a bass interlude accompanied by moans and jittering dance moves as he flits between instruments plucking the strings of guitar, bass and violin. The guitar on the floor is then whipped with the end of the violin bow.
Next a couple of Bo Ningen members play a set. Echoed out dub drum beat. A metallic bowl is circled created a cold drone. Shakey bells, vocal moans, electronic barks and whoops over low end pulse. White noise swells before Mongolian nasal yodel drones are layered on top. I notice that someone in the audience is sketching. I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone drawing at a gig before. A penny whistle plays and there’s some campfire guitar strum.
Next up is more a solo set by another Bo Ningen member. Keyboard playing over a white noise base layer which is slowly manipulated. Some vocals are screamed. It’s not a highlight. 
For Bo Ningen rock clearly ended in 1973. They all look like they just crawled out of the TV in Ringu. MC5/Stooges guitar sturm and drang. Hi-energy drum pummel and riffage and yelping vocals which segue into extended guitar solo white-outs. It’s good, but for me they operate within rock’s traditional structures. For music that is supposed to be out there – it is actually deeply conservative in the way they so closely mirror their forefathers. I can’t get excited about the Second Coming. I want a new God.
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