Panchiko
Union Transfer
1026 Spring Garden St.
Philadelphia
Nov. 12, 2024
Panchiko, an obscure '90s band brought back from the dead by the Internet, launched into a live rendition of their Tik Tok hit D>E>A>T>H>M>E>T>A>L with a sample stolen from Sega Saturn video game Burning Rangers.
“Track one contains game data, so please don’t play the track with a regular CD player,” an artificial female voice pleaded. “It may damage the audio system.”
I’ve heard that song enough times — willingly and not — to know that that clip usually belongs around the bridge. But before seeing Panchiko play Philly’s Union Transfer this week, I had never heard any of the boy band’s other music.
That’s because other than once-a-week descents into my poorly curated Tik Tok feed, I’m largely offline. Panchiko’s real fans — who, from my Tuesday night observations, seem to be exclusively brace-faced teenagers — live online.
They’re the ones responsible for getting the group to perform global tours more than two decades after the original band broke up in the early 2000s following steady rejections from record companies. The story goes that Panchiko was just a quartet of underaged male manipulators when they recorded their EP, D>E>A>T>H>M>E>T>A>L, the title track of which caught a 4chan user’s interest in 2016 after they found a copy of the anime-covered album in an Oxfam record shop. An Internet inquiry was undertaken to uncover the source of the distorted song, whose shoegaze effect was largely due to disc rot from the CD’s age.
Panchiko — now made up of indie-sleaze styled grown-ups who have spent their adult lives teaching, gaming and performing tree care — was able to capture that attention and turn it into tens of millions of Spotify streams by reconvening to release new recordings of their late '90s sound.
At 25, I felt like I was already over the hill while failing to push my way to the front of the stage, peering past a skyline of tawny scalps belonging to teenagers filming the concert on their old school Nintendos. Under the bruised purple lighting, my weathered face probably blended just fine into a sea of awkward acne — but I knew I was close to a decade older than everyone around me. I belonged in the back, beside some middle-aged stragglers who I could only assume were parents trying to play it cool like me.
Panchiko’s music is a collage of cultural influences. “Deathmetal” starts off with the eerie opening soundtrack of the 1964 film Dr. Strangelove. Their cover art is taken from panels of Japanese manga. Their songs are filled with references to video games I’ve never played.
The fundamental sound is reminiscent of Radiohead, Nirvana and the Beatles, fitting into the so-called “male manipulator” genre that meets the current moment: While white men might be culturally unpopular right now, their historically weepy brand of music lingering on personal decay through apathetic self-righteousness has clearly made a comeback. The lyrics to "Deathmetal" capture that unaffected sensibility: “Cause you’re holding onto someone who’s special/ Educating someone who’s mental/ Giving the fat pigs their facial/ We all listen to death metal.” A bunch of dudes failing to love their manic pixie dream girls is an easy metaphor for modern society.
As Panchiko returns to the music scene and starts writing fresh sets, I wonder whom they’ll be making music for. It’s possible that Panchiko was just before their time, and it took a future of Internet addicted nerds to give credit where credit was due. It’s also possible that Internet fame is just as ephemeral as anything else. Is it the meat of the music that Panchiko’s fan base is interested in? Or are the people buying tickets just attracted to the online lore of alternative loners getting a chance to cry their heart out on stage?
“Deathmetal” was properly positioned at the end of the night, so that any TikTokers waiting to hear their favorite song live couldn’t leave two tracks into the show. Everyone chanted the lyrics in unison.
But the highlight of the night in my eyes was “Gingko,” a new, yearning, piano-laden piece that has yet to be released by the band.
“You command the leaves to fall/ the gingko burns as well/ I like things that keep their shape,” lead vocalist Owain Davies sang. I could be getting the words wrong. They’re not published online yet. But the message I heard spoke to me: Longevity isn’t promised, and we are lucky when a loophole in the system lets us in. Whether or not the Internet community is the real deal, Panchiko once was — and I’m glad 4chan gave them the chance to sustain an otherwise unfinished sound.
The band members didn’t say much between songs, but Davies offered a humble thank you towards the end of the evening: “We put some random stuff on the Internet and all of you have come out to see us, so we appreciate that.”
After "Deathmetal," there was no encore. The whole crowd briefly posed for a group selfie, punching peace signs into the foggy air. Then everyone disbanded.
Follow Panchiko on tour here. They next play in New Haven Thursday night. Their new single, "Gingko," comes out on Nov. 22.
