Kishi Bashi @ The First Unitarian Church.

Text andimages and text by Grace Dickinson.

“I fucking love you guys,” said K Ishibashi of Kishi Bashi. “This is amazing. What a great show.”

And a fucking amazing show it was on Wednesday. Filling the basement of the First Unitarian Church with sweat and fans, K Ishabashi proved Wednesday night that he can do the whole solo act performance and he can do it well.

K is a member of Jupiter One as well as a former touring mate for names like Regina Spektor, Sondre Lerche, and Of Montreal, a band he would notably go on to join. However, in May of 2011, K decided to break out on his own and release his first EP, Room for Dream, under the heading of Kishi Bashi. His four-track release, which includes a duet with Kevin Barnes, showed K that going solo was something he wanted to explore further. In April of last year, he put out his first full-length album 151a, a title that plays off a Japanese expression meaning “one time, one place”.

Mastering looping techniques and the violin, an instrument K’s played since he was seven, Kishi Bashi’s solo act isn’t lacking any depth. While he brought Elizabeth from Elizabeth and the Catapult for backup vocals and keyboard and Mike of Tall Tall Trees to play banjo, much of his live performance consists of K by himself up on stage. Through layering violin melodies, beat boxing rhythms, and a wide range of vocal sounds (including a few words of Japanese every now and then), K is able to create a live, one-man orchestra, entirely on his own. Along with his energetic bounce and charisma, it’s hard not to be impressed.

Wednesday’s set list ran the gamut, from expected tracks off of 151a like “Manchester” and “Bright Whites”, to unforeseen surprises like a surfer-vibe song K wrote back when he was 12 and a cover of U2’s “With or Without You” he threw into the encore. Kishi Bashi also performed “Philosophize In It, Chemicalize With It”, a full-length version of a tune he produced for a commercial in Japan. The initial, shorter version got so popular that he was asked to finish the song, resulting in a catchy tune with a beat box-derived loop and an up-tempo violin backdrop.

“I was thinking about how I was going to go to church tonight,” said K, referencing the night’s venue. “Then I was drinking in the sanctuary. That was a first.” K went on to say the basement show was his biggest one in Philly yet, recalling an earlier performance at The Fire when Kishi Bashi was just getting started. About six of the hundred or so in the crowd raised their hands to say they were at that past concert too.

“That was a sweaty show. There’s something about Philly liking sweat,” said K who went on to deliver quite a few other stories that night, a chatty result he credits to drinking Red Bull.

Just like his personality, a lot of the tracks off of 151a are energetic and poppy, though at times he slows it down, placing a real showcase on his lifelong study of classical violin. Also adept in piano and guitar, it’s clear K has talent, particularly evident in his reproduction abilities up on-stage. Live, you’ll find more moody violin jams and improvisations then you’ll get off the album, and of course a chance to better understand how K conducts all of the looping he utilizes. You’ll also get the touring mates that come with him. Though they weren’t present throughout the whole show, the two did add extra eye candy when they were. Elizabeth played percussion using fibula bones as drumsticks, while Mike held a pair of his own sticks in a back pocket for when he’d transform his banjo into a drum. Mike was also given a prominent banjo solo at one point just before exiting the stage.

Kishi Bashi is set to head up the east coast and then across country on tour, though K assures us he’ll be back in Philly sometime soon.