Kishi Bashi at Center Stage, Atlanta, December 31, 2014

I've never been big on going out on New Year's Eve - "amateurs' night," I'd call it dismissively, nothing but a bunch of obnoxious drunks and scary drivers.  But when I learned that Kishi Bashi was doing a New Year's Eve show at Center Stage, just a couple miles from my house, how could I resist?  I bought tickets immediately.

Opening was Atlanta's Red Sea, a band I often confuse with Austin's The Eastern Sea, merely because of the marginal similarities of their names, although their music's nothing alike.  In any event, Atlanta's Red Sea opened the show with a lively set of progressive, occasionally math-rockish songs.  I didn't get any pictures, but here's a sample song:

"Happy New Year's, everyone.  I'm gonna play some weird music for you," announced the next act, Roger Sellers, who actually is from Austin.  Although Sellers describes his music as "widely accessible" and a "folk-dance-americana-electric-symphonic fusion, where Philip Glass, Sufjan Stevens, and Joanna Newson all groove to late night ambient house music in George Martin’s living room," to me he sounded somewhere between Animal Collective and Dan Deacon (that's meant as a compliment to you doubters out there).  His set was quite entertaining, and he really sells his songs with theatrical gestures and occasionally coming out from behind his table of electronics to dance for the audience.  A lot of fun, and here's a sample of Sellers:

Kishi Bashi took the stage at around 10:15, or about 75 minutes before the end of the year.  In all, he played an over two-hour set, and here's the set list, snagged from the video projectionist after the show:

It seemed that several of the songs, especially the early ones, were extended versions of the usual performances I've heard earlier this year at the Georgia Theater, Terminal West, and Bumbershoot, and in any event, he wasn't able to fit Ha Ha Ha in before the midnight hour (it was moved to near the end of the set).  He had a bit of trouble getting the boisterous, rowdy, NYE audience quiet for the gentle I Am The Antichrist (which doesn't seem like the title of a gentle song if you haven't heard it) and Bittersweet Genesis, but managed to keep things under control without resorting to Sun Kil Moon hissy fits.  He brought two audience members on stage as winners of what he called his "Facebook Contest." but it was a trick as it was actually a marriage proposal by someone named Alex to someone named Jalysa, which in itself sounds like the title of a Kishi Bashi song (isn't one of the names in The Ting Ting's That's Not My Name "maybe Jalysa?").

Midnight saw the traditional cover of Auld Lang Syne, followed by Kishi Bashi's cover of Live And Let Die, which has become a set staple for the band. As is his custom, Kishi attempted to crowd surf during the song but was dropped, and noted later that it was the first time he's ever been dropped while crowd surfing.  "This next song's called, My Ankle Hurts," he joked. 

Things got decidedly silly after that.  During Mr. Steak, someone came on stage dressed in a steak costume and danced around his titular song.  He stayed on stage for most of the rest of the set, and Kishi often teased him and engaged him in stage banter, although the character remained mute and only pantomimed his answers.  There was even some sort of  Mr. Steak game, but the audience didn't seem to grasp the rules or their part in the action, and it didn't go over all that well.

After that, I had had about enough of Mr. Steak, and Kishi Bashi went through a cover of Ah Ha's Take On Me. followed by his set-closing Bright Whites and, for his encore, It All Began With A Burst. 

(For the unfamiliar, that's not really Kishi Bashi performing in the video - although it's his music - and those hilariously fractured subtitles aren't really his lyrics.)

So, a good way to ring in the year, and the fourth time seeing Kishi Bashi in 2014.  Kishi Bashi was to 2014 what Thao Nguyen was to 2013.  I wonder what Asian-American musician I'll end up stalking in 2015.  Touring much this year Dustin Wong?

It seems that some changes are afoot for Kishi Bashi, and he'll be touring with a string quartet this year. but so far, no dates have been set for anywhere near the American South.

  

Post-Script: As I was writing this post, I was listening to Roger Sellers' album Primitives on Bandcamp.  It's really quite good and I'm very impressed.  You really should check it out sometime.