Tabata Mitsuru at The Old Bar

16 October 2025 in Melbourne, supported by Cat Hope.

The Old Bar has got to be the best venue in Melbourne at the moment. There are so many great shows on, the sound is always good, and the tickets are always so cheap. This was $17 to see two absolutely real ones.

I can't remember if I'd seen Cat Hope before now. If I had it would've been more than 20 years ago before I absconded from Perth when I was immersed in the local music scene there (as a punter. Always a punter). I still have Kiss My Wami compilation CDs from 2002 and 2003, both of which include excellent tracks from Cat Hope's project Gata Negra. In any case, I was really looking forward to her set.

And she was awesome. She uses few-and-far-between vocals to great atmospheric effect, beginning with more conventional breathy words and later sounding like voices coming from the most possessed corner of the hauntedest house. She played bass, crescendoing from single notes and strumming to lots and lots of noise. She is someone who knows what they are doing.

In between sets I bought a copy of the Paul Kidney Japanese Experience LP as a bonus birthday gift for Aidsy. Tabata Mitsuru (or, as he introduced himself, Mitsuru Tabata) is one of the four musicians on this record. We listened to the record this morning and it rules.

Then of course Tabata played his set. The vibe was very much that of an accomplished superstar guitarist doing whatever the heck he wanted. This evening he wanted to make weird effects to play over, with some looping, and combining being noisy with some lead guitar-style going off.

All in all I enjoyed both the acts as much as each other. It was really good psychic food and made me want to plug things in and make weird noise without worrying about what music is or should be. And, unlike the haunted Thursday night gig we went to the other week, it finished with plenty of time to catch a train home afterwards.

Finally, please enjoy Tabata Mitsuru's website, which my friend Pagrus alerted me to. This is what the internet should be. Don't forget to scroll to the end for the Myspace link.