Congratulations (Japan), Self Evident, Wax Teeth, Narrow/Arrow @ Cafe Bobo

Congrats! 🎉

Congratulations (Japan), Self Evident, Wax Teeth, and Narrow/Arrow @ Cafe Bourbon Street

BIOGRAPHY Tokyo, Japan 3-piece Post-hardcore / Emo / Indie Rock "2" (2026, Like a Fool Records) Congratulations aren’t newcomers — they’re a veteran unit built from decades in Japan’s underground scene. Guitarist Kei Uotou, who has fronted a string of respected Japanese bands and currently also plays in FIXED, leads the trio alongside vocalist/bassist Naho Kaimoto (FLUID) and drummer Ayumu Nemoto (POWER, XALU, UNPRODUCTS) — reuniting with Uotou for the first time in ten years since their earlier band together, Z. Together they channel the angular, female-fronted intensity of bands like Rainer Maria, Blonde Redhead, and Sarge: unsettling, serpentine arpeggios and beautifully warped rock phrasing, thrilling melodic guitar lines that lock in tight with the vocals, and a tense, minimal groove giving way to catchy but bittersweet Japanese-language vocals and emotional choruses. Their new album, 2, is their first full-length since 2022’s self-titled 10† debut, and finds the band pushing further past the template they laid out on that record — looser, freer, with Uotou taking on a larger share of the vocals. It moves between coiled post-hardcore tension and unexpectedly beautiful melody, closing several tracks in bursts of heavier, more chaotic energy. The label draws its own comparisons to Blonde Redhead, Denali, Unwound, and Uzeda — a lineage Congratulations clearly share, while sounding like no one else. This is Congratulations’ first tour of the United States.