Japanese Rockers Band-Maid Put Guitar Center Showoffs to Shame
There’s a pun to be made about how much Band-Maid ripped, but the Japanese group goes even harder than that. Fluctuating between hard rock, aughts nu-metal, and pop rock, each member of the quintet is a virtuoso in her own right with more than a decade of practice in Band-Maid alone. They lured curious onlookers into the fold when highlights like “Domination” and “Don’t You Tell Me” got huge reactions from the crowd, but it was the bass solo-versus-guitar solo duels mid-song that got the biggest cheers. This is what those guys in Guitar Center think their ridiculous riffing sounds like. Turns out it’s done best, and most effortlessly, by women in black-and-white maid dresses and frilly hair-pieces as they smile ear to ear. –N.C.