POP MUSIC REVIEWS : Some Major Cuts From Shonen Knife

It’s easy to see why Kurt Cobain loved Shonen Knife so much. The Japanese female trio is an embodiment of the purity and innocence that the singer treasured and found so elusive in the pop music world.

Cobain was one of many peer-group patrons and admirers that the three women from Osaka have acquired along their path from offbeat cult item to fairly major cult item. Two others, the Bangles’ Susanna Hoffs and the Go-Go’s Charlotte Caffey, were part of the emcee team introducing Shonen Knife on Friday at the Palace. It was a big-time show for the group, and they responded with a typically fresh and unaffected performance.

“This is a song about my favorite drink, tomato juice,” said singer-guitarist Naoko Yamano, introducing “Tomato Head,” which featured the show’s one concession to theatrics--two roadies dancing around wearing tomato headpieces. “This is a song about a cat,” said bassist Michie Nakatani, announcing “I Am a Cat.”

So it went, delivered with a tight, perky attack that recalled the Ramones’ buoyant pop side. A sound problem left the guitar without much presence for the first part of the show, but it was full and powerful by the time the three women were dropping slow, lead-weight metal riffs and, with big grins, flashing the devil’s-horn hand sign. Never had parody been more free of hostility.