Vancouver, BC’s Japandroids and LA’s Bleached brought their joint tour through the Bay, with a stop at the Fillmore in San Francisco on Monday night. Their final stop together is tomorrow night at Seattle’s Neumo’s. Japandroids will continue on with an extensive tour thereafter, dates below.

For those unfamiliar with Los Angeles’ Bleached, they’re a post-punk, rock band staffed by some bad ass ladies. Try listening to their track ‘Think of You” without nodding your head. Last time I had seen Bleached live was at SXSW this spring during Aquarium Drunkard’s showcase. SXSW can wear on a band and the hectic schedule of shuffling in Austin played its part, but Bleached still put on a solid show. Since then, they’ve put quite a bit of time in on the road, including tour dates with DIIV. That experience was quite obvious Monday at the Fillmore, as they seemed much more comfortable and honed in playing to a sizable SF crowd. I’m excited to see this development translate on their next record.

Speaking of development, it’s hard to understate how far Japandroids have seemed to come during 2012. This is a band that was throwing in the towel in late 2008 before a series of events involving a Montreal show and some positive attention on their 2009 record Post-Nothing kept them in the game. This year, their new release Celebration Rock received incredible reviews from a number of outlets and Japandroids have obviously seized the moment. Stepping on-stage with bursting energy, Brian King eagerly alerted the crowd how much he and David had anticipated this show, as they’d be away from SF for awhile. Then they immediately leaped into Celebration Rock jams. While I mentioned that Bleached had become more comfortable and cool with their on-stage duties, Japandroids demonstrated they were even more at ease–yet incredibly sharp–in the headlining roll. Brian skipped across the stage in unison with the instrumental hits and vocal bursts of the ‘Droids’ songs. With nearly every song break, he again stated how excited they “to be here” and how they were “going to make tonight count”. This fit with the anxious, rushing Japandroids tunes, though after a fair share of rambling through the set it appeared to be somewhat chemically aided. Regardless, Japandroids showed how they’ve matured as entertainers during their busy 2012 and put on an excellent show at the Fillmore.

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Japandroids Tour Dates
Nov. 17—Urban Lounge—Salt Lake City, Utah
Nov. 18—Bluebird—Denver, Colorado
Nov. 20—Firebird—St. Louis, Missouri
Nov. 21—Exit/In—Nashville, Tennessee
Nov. 23—Bottletree—Birmingham, Alabama
Nov. 24—Hi/Tone—Memphis, Tennessee
Nov. 25—One Eyed Jacks—New Orleans, Louisiana
Nov. 27—The Social—Orlando, Florida
Nov. 28—Crowbar—Tampa, Florida
Nov. 29—High Dive—Gainesville, Florida
Dec. 1—The Earl—Atlanta, Georgia
Dec. 2—Grey Eagle Tavern—Asheville, North Carolina
Dec. 4—Webster Hall—New York, New York
Dec. 7—Black Cat—Washington, DC
Dec. 8—Union Transfer—Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Dec. 9—Paradise—Boston, Massachusetts
Dec. 10—Cabaret Mile End—Montreal, Quebec
Dec. 11—Phoenix—Toronto, Ontario
Dec. 13—Metro—Chicago, Illinois
Dec. 14-15—Triple Rock—Minneapolis, Minnesota
Dec. 17—Pyramid—Winnipeg, Manitoba
Dec. 18—Louis Pub—Saskatoon, Saskatchewan
Dec. 19—Starlite—Edmonton, Alberta
Dec. 20—Republik—Calgary, Alberta
Dec. 22—Rickshaw—Vancouver, British Columbia