The fact that the mighty Acetones are the opening act should flash a warning sign reading "Achtung! Heavy fucking rock and roll!" across the skies of Musashino City tonight. Vocalist Shunsuke Oba's trousers get more ripped with every passing gig but no less tight as he screams, yowls and shakes his maracas at the utterly rammed venue. It's riff-heavy garage rock that is almost as hard-driving as it is hard-drinking, mixing the usual quota of Nuggets covers with some equally impressive material of their own.

Tokyo's most hard-working band, Yoru No Strangers, follow up with a crowd-pleasing set cut from a slightly more Stray Cats-orientated rock cloth and delivered with professionalism, charisma, a boatload of charm, and, most importantly, tunes. That they are called back for an encore seems a matter of course and they are every inch the showmen about it.

The Outs seem almost megalithic in this small venue and the whole place goes crazy, with a splatter of blood and who knows what other bodily fluids spilled upon the dancefloor. The focus is all on frontman Takuya, who has the rare skill of being able to draw almost limitless amounts of adoration from the audience without ever seeming to notice they're there, and as they are pulled back onstage for the second encore of the evening they even manage the neat trick of looking like they weren't expecting it.

The Mookees are a sharper, edgier proposition; their songs mostly built from the rhythm section upwards, with Eriko's guitar working its riffs and solos around Kazue's bass. There's no moshing and beer-fighting to be had with these songs. This is music to jerk around to with one hand in your jacket pocket and a wild glint in your eye. Noboru Momose, squeezed into some seriously intense trousers, is grinning away beneath his immaculate pudding-basin mop of hair as he screams blue murder into the mic, although one feels that perhaps he is shuffling here where he should be giving it more of a strut, the drumming is as steady as you like, and Eriko's guitar has now blossomed into a joyously potent weapon. - Ian Martin, Dec.26.04.