Melt-Banana tonight at the 7th Street Entry

​Not the face, not the face! Melt-Banana, up to no good as usual.

Somewhere between the self-serious unfathomability of Merzbow (man-in-chair-clicking-mouse-button) and the potentially lethal aggression of Hanatarash (throwing of live chainsaws into the crowd) lies Melt-Banana, the Tokyo noise-rock band that, despite being almost completely unlistenable on wax, has curried much favor across numerous musical genres.

It's largely on the strength of their live shows, which have all the benevolent violence of an Andrew W. K. performance, with little or no hazard to the crowd's bodies.

The 7th Street Entry has been a near annual pit stop for Melt-Banana on their world tours in the last several years, and it's hard to imagine a better venue for them. Their shows are dadaist montages of light and sound and motion, the kind of thing that leaves audiences a little dazed and dizzy afterwards. Their musical and visual inventions don't quite measure up to, say, Boredoms (another Tokyo noise act), but for a small stage show in front of 150 people, there's some dazzle and wizardry at work that never lets down.

Tokyo loves their noise--from Guitar Wolf to Boredoms, Japanese imports into the American Underground have been delightfully hard on the ears. Melt-Banana is the most approachable of the pack, the most technicolor, and the least intimidating. It's not to say they're less dynamic--they just don't seem to have an itch for major structural or bodily damage to their venues and fans.

18+. 8:00 P.M. $12.00. With Triclops! and Heart Shaped Hate. 7th Street Entry, 701 First Avenue North, Minneapolis; 612.338.8388.