Tokyo Police Club’s set at Boot and Saddle last Wednesday began with the lights on and an empty stage. The audience slowly parted as David Monks, the lead singer of TPC, made his way through the small back room of the bar, with no microphone, playing the opening guitar riff of their song “Ready to Win” on acoustic guitar, warmly filling the room with the silly and hopeful melody. 

Monks stood on the floor and delivered to the grinning crowd before jumping onstage to finish the song earnestly, blending it into New Blues, the first track off their fifth album TPC, which came out in October of 2018. Though the band stuck to the stage for the rest of the set, it carried the same feeling of intimacy throughout the whole show. 

Tokyo Police Club is a Canadian indie band, guilty of wordy pop with unapologetically bubblegum overtones, but a little sexier and with more yearning. And guitar solos. Lots of guitar solos. Monks sings candidly about mistakes and youth, with lyrics that carefully blend turbulent internal monologue with vignettes of lovers past. 

Their songs are dotted with imagined conversations and anxious wishes for the future, with a level of poetic sophistication one should expect from an indie pop band that was formed in 2005. Monks gave a captivating performance, with powerful diction and impressive, creative basslines.

The show opened with another Canadian band, Dizzy, whose mesmerizing lead singer Katie Munshaw crooned over haunting, refreshing beats and the accompaniment of three brothers Charlie, Alex and Mackenzie Spencer. Their dreamy electric guitar melodies, mixed with Mushaw’s silky vocals, had the crowd chilled out and ready for more by the time Tokyo Police Club was up.  After 15 years of practice, it is no surprise that TPC put on a seamless performance.