Shonen Knife rolls into Denver Tuesday night for a two-shows-in-one concert at HQ, the South Broadway venue, bringing along a piece of punk history that predates most of the openers on the bill. Tickets run $30, doors open with support from Bricheros and Flight Kamikaze, and the show kicks off at 7 p.m. It's a rare local chance to see the Osaka trio that Kurt Cobain once called cool enough to bring on tour with Nirvana itself.
According to Westword, Shonen Knife is widely considered the original pop-punk band in many alternative music circles, a reputation built over more than four decades of mixing early American punk with 1960s UK pop. The band formed in 1981 when sisters Naoko and Atsuko Yamano started the group in Osaka, and Naoko remains the sole member who has stayed with Shonen Knife continuously since, according to Magnet Magazine. Atsuko permanently rejoined as bassist in 2016, and drummer Risa Kawano, who joined the year before, rounds out the current lineup.
How Cobain Became the Band's Loudest Fan
Nirvana brought Shonen Knife stateside in 1993, but the connection actually began two years earlier, when Cobain requested the group open for Nirvana on its 1991 UK tour, per the Westword report. After watching them perform live that year, Cobain told Melody Maker he “turned into a nine-year-old girl at a Beatles concert,” crying, jumping up and down, and tearing his hair out with excitement, according to KEXP. Cobain later said Shonen Knife was cool and that their performance thrilled him, per the same Westword piece.
That endorsement wasn't the band's only foothold in the American underground. Calvin Johnson, founder of Olympia's K Records, discovered an early Shonen Knife record in a Tokyo shop back in 1985 and wrote to Naoko Yamano's home address printed on the sleeve, eventually issuing an expanded cassette version of *Burning Farm* in the United States, according to The Guardian. By 1989, the band's influence had grown enough that indie label Giant Records released a tribute compilation featuring more than 20 American alt-rock acts covering Shonen Knife songs, including Sonic Youth, L7, Redd Kross, and Pat Smear, per Discogs.
A Rare Osaka Ramones Set on the Bill
Beyond the band's own catalog, Tuesday's show includes something unusual: a special Osaka Ramones set, a tribute the group has performed selectively during its current U.S. run, per Westword. Shonen Knife opened for the Ramones twice in Japan and first performed the Osaka Ramones set in 1995, with Ramones frontman Joey Ramone himself coining the term, according to the same report. Naoko Yamano said she first heard the Ramones on the radio as a young teenager in Osaka, and the band went on to release an official Ramones covers album in 2011.
Naoko reported that audiences sang along with the Ramones songs at a New York City show earlier this month, per Westword's account. She has described her own music, including the material on *Let's Knife*, as DIY, punk and pop-rock, while also saying she loves the Beatles and music from the 1960s and 1970s. Shonen Knife plays songs from *Let's Knife* at most shows, and that 1992 breakthrough album is at the center of the band's current touring cycle.
Braving Sub-Zero Buffalo to Re-Cut a Classic
The band's new release, *Let's Knife Re-Cut*, is a re-recording of that 1992 album, and it came together after Good Charamel Records head Robby Takac suggested Shonen Knife revisit *Let's Knife*, according to Naoko Yamano as reported by Westword. Naoko traveled to Buffalo in February to record the project, arriving amid brutal weather that hit minus 58 degrees Fahrenheit, or roughly minus 50 degrees Celsius, per the same account. The record was engineered by Jay Zubricky at GCR Audio and released digitally and physically on July 10, according to The Spill Magazine.
Robby Takac, who also plays bass for the Goo Goo Dolls, founded Good Charamel Records in Buffalo in 2003, and the label shifted its core focus toward female-fronted Japanese rock bands in North America following a joint 2006 U.S. tour with Shonen Knife, according to Wikipedia. The band's back catalog includes plenty of unexpected crossover moments, too, including a 1994 cover of the Carpenters' “Top of the World” recorded for the A&M Records tribute album *If I Were a Carpenter*, which placed Shonen Knife alongside Sonic Youth, The Cranberries, Sheryl Crow, and Dishwalla. More recently, the band released its 22nd studio album, *Our Best Place*, in February 2023, featuring food-themed pop-punk tracks like “Spicy Veggie Curry” and “Vamos Taquitos.”
What to Expect at HQ on South Broadway
HQ, located at 60 South Broadway, opened in June 2020 after Oriental Theater owners Peter Ore and Scott Happel took over the space formerly occupied by 3 Kings Tavern, a landmark Denver live rock venue that had operated there for 14 years before closing during COVID-19 shutdowns, according to 303 Magazine. For Tuesday's show, concertgoers can expect Naoko Yamano performing on her custom pink signature electric guitar, built by Japanese manufacturer Fujigen with a thinner neck, jumbo frets, and a humbucker switch tailored for power-pop rhythm playing, per Magnet Magazine.
Doors open ahead of the 7 p.m. start, with Bricheros and Flight Kamikaze opening the bill before Shonen Knife takes the stage for its two-part set. Tickets are $30, and for longtime fans, the promise of both a *Let's Knife*-heavy set and the rarely performed Osaka Ramones tribute makes this one of the more unusual stops on the band's current U.S. run.
