Friction Live, Sucker Punch Tokyo

Friction There’s joy in repetition, and a soaring thrill in the obsessively uncompromising rhythmic craftsmanship of Japanese rock band Friction. Now a 2-piece but for most of its history a trio, Friction is as famous for its stripped-down, transcendent riffing as for its paucity of live shows, despite being founded by bassist Reck almost four decades ago, after a stint in 1980s No Wave New York. The pictures in this document were shot at the gig Sucker Punch at Shibuya Club Quattro, end of August 2018, with stoic hard man Tatsuya Nakamura on drums. It was the first Friction gig in six years. Testimony to the band's eschewal of fashion, the sold-out event, unusually for a hard rock show, attracted equal numbers of male and female listeners aged from their teens to their 70s, many shouting Reck’s name. I squeezed as close as I could, dodging flailing bodies and pushing the lens through gaps between shoulders and over the top of gyrating heads, trying to stay steady while my guts pounded to the rhythm, appreciating what I once heard Reck say – that plenty of people know how to rock, but few really know how to roll. I shot with a 35mm panorama camera on black and white film