After Thursday’s big pre-show surprise Red Marquee performance, Friday night saw Otoboke Beaver back where they are supposed to be, a smaller stage and later at night. The dayglo ferocity just seems to pop a bit more in these sorts of settings. And pop it did, with Kyoto’s (pop?) punk 4 piece doing things in a way only they can.

The crowd was there, and it was about as big as Naeba Shokudo could handle. The band took to the stage and the next 40 minutes was a lesson in the definition of owning the stage. The drums were big and the bass was on point, but Otoboke Beaver is for all intents and purposes Accorinrin and Yoyoyoshie’s group, the two original members. They compliment each other perfectly, Yoyoyoshie’s blistering and frenetic guitar balancing with Accorinrin’s snarling and rapid-fire vocal performance.

They blasted through a perhaps 20 song set with plenty of crowd pleasers like Don’t Light My Fire and PARDON?, but more than any individual song was the feeling of propulsive intensity that never let up. Even the pauses between songs were no place to catch one’s breath, as the band barks off the title of the next song and heads into it before you even know what hit you.

The band has a bubbly but taunting quality that really works in an intimate setting like Naeba Shokudo, with their aggressive femininity and no holds barred attitude, like they are asking you to be a voyeur and chastising you for it at the same time. Brilliant.

After their whirlwind set the crowd demanded more, so Otoboke Beaver came back for an encore. Which lasted 20 seconds at most. Perfect style, give the people what they asked for, then give them the finger for having asked in the first place.