Walking along 4th Avenue to the downtown Minneapolis Pizza Luce, a dark sunglasses-clad upper 20-something female scenester stops Hideo Takahashi and Yuichiro "Matthew" Kazama of the Birthday Suits.
"Hey guys!" she said. "I love you guys! I saw you at that one underground place."
Takahashi and Kazama scrunch their faces and scratch their heads in confusion.
"Uh, it was next to an Arby's," she elaborated.
The two look even more confused, but are polite. They smartly change the subject: "We're playing the Entry tonight," Takahashi said.
"Oh, you have free tickets?" the woman asks with a grin. They politely say they don't, but do tell her it's at midnight and then head into the restaurant.
As we're walking in, I ask if they know what venue she was talking about.
"I have no idea," Takahashi said.
Inside the restaurant, members from the other local bands playing both the 7th Street Entry and the First Avenue Main Room that night have already finished their sound checks. They chat and goof around, eating slices of pizza and drinking Coronas before their set times.
During the interview, members from a few of the bands goad Kazama into a shirt strip-tease. He playfully lifts his shirt up to mid-chest as the table beside us giggles. Takahashi is more focused and ignores the commotion.
Despite their slight personality differences, Takahashi and Kazama could be brothers. Both are exceedingly nice and give off an approachable aura. Takahashi does most of the talking in a matter-of-fact tone, while Kazama quietly waits his turn to answer a question, always wide-eyed.
The two still work day jobs at restaurants in the Twin Cities: Takahashi is a bartender while Kazama is a sushi cook. When asked if they'd like to play music full time, Kazama, with eyes big and face smiling, said he'd love to do nothing more than play music and based on their frequent touring, that's just what they've set out to do.
Less than a year after their previous band, the much heralded Sweet J.A.P., split, Takahashi and Kazama decided to form a two-piece. The idea was brought up by ex-Sweet J.A.P. lead singer Sho Nikaido who persuaded them to form a band. (Nikaido formed Mute Era around the same time.)
A mere five months after forming, the Birthday Suits completed work on their debut album, "Cherry Blue." The album is eight bursts of frantic noise-rock interspersed with Takahashi's scattershot yell-along vocals.
It wasn't a difficult transition to a lead singing role, Takahashi noted. He'd already done minimal singing with Sweet J.A.P, which has influenced his vocal style in the Birthday Suits.
"The lyrics are mostly an aside, just another instrument in the mix," Takahashi said.
On "Rochester Moon in Toldea," Takahashi screams about killing the Mayo City, but his annunciation of "Rochester! Rochester!" is ferociously cute, with a hint of accent and fury.
The band knows their strengths and despite "Cherry Blue" garnering plenty of end-of-the-year list buzz, they see themselves as more of a live band. Kazama loves the freedom a two-piece allows him on the drums. With Sweet J.A.P., he said there were "so many noises from all over," but the Birthday Suits are more concise and he competes only with Takahashi's jagged playing.
And compete is exactly what these two do: Sonically jabbing each other from across the stage, Takahashi runs back and forth on the platform, head and guitar high, his straight black hair hanging over his eyes, while Kazama is transformed from a quiet guy with flashes of intensity to a purely hedonistic snare smasher, eyes closed and mouth agape as he whips his long hair from side to side.
At the time I spoke with Takahashi and Kazama they were about to leave on a Northwest US tour, returning in August 2006 to play four shows in the Twin Cities, then leaving in September for an East Coast tour. Kazama barely contained his excitement at the thought of it.
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