Tokyo Police Club Bids Farewell With Final Denver Show

By December, Tokyo Police Club will officially be a band of the past.

The Canadian quartet announced its decision to put the group to rest with a farewell tour earlier this year. “As of November 29, we’re done,” confirms guitarist and keys player Graham Wright, pointing to the tour's last date in Toronto. “It was just the decision that we ended up making.”

While most successful acts crash and burn to an untimely finish, it really is as simple as it sounds when it comes to the ending of Tokyo Police Club, which also includes original members Dave Monks (bass and vocals), Josh Hook (guitar and vocals) and Greg Alsop (drums).

Over the group's twenty years together, the four bandmates have made a habit of regularly checking in with one another and openly talking about what comes next, whether that be writing new music, touring plans or, in this case, calling it a career. Tokyo Police Club started throwing around ideas post-pandemic, but the four lifelong friends, who grew up together in Newmarket, Ontario, decided it didn't feel right to hit the studio for a new record.

“Then, not for the first time, one of the options that came up was maybe let’s do this one last time and shut it down,” Wright recalls. “But for the first time when we had this conversation, everyone felt good about it. In the past, there would always be one or two or three people who wanted to rally the troops and say, ‘No, no, no, let’s keep it going for another one. Let’s go here and write new songs.’

“This time, for whatever reason, in each of our own hearts and souls and minds, everyone felt like, ‘Yeah, that’s actually kind of exciting, enticing and creatively engaging in the same way that every other creative decision we’ve made is,’” he continues. “Since we’ve started talking about it, it started taking on a momentum of its own.”

The guys softened the public proclamation by including a little going-away gift with new singles “Just a Scratch” and “Catch Me If You Can,” the last audial entries into the Tokyo Police Club catalogue. The group plays Denver for the final time on Wednesday, October 30, at Summit. Menno Versteeg is also on the bill.
Though it would be easy to revel in nostalgia or wallow in anticipation of the end, surprisingly, Wright explains, the mood around the club hasn’t been too high or too low.

“There’s been very little nostalgia — it’s been interesting,” he says. “I was wondering if we’d be sitting around every night after the shows swapping stories, but the thing is, we were all there for all those stories, so they’re not that good to tell to each other, because we all know them already.”

But that’s how Tokyo Police Club is, even after becoming the unexpected face of the early-2000s indie-rock explosion with its 2006 debut EP, A Lesson in Crime, which made the band an instant headliner (even without a proper set list).

“When we started, we had sixteen minutes of music, and we’d go play these headline shows and come off stage, and the promoters would be looking at us, shaking their heads, like, ‘You’re supposed to play for an hour, you kids,’” Wright shares. “Like, we don’t have an hour’s worth of music.”

Of course, that’s changed. Although it’s safe to say that some fans would still be perfectly fine with only seeing a Crime playthrough, there’s Champ (2010) and the most recent album, TPC (2018), both of which were nominated for Album of the Year via the Juno Awards. Melon Collie and the Infinite Radness (2016) is fun, too.

Wright now calls the set list “protein-filled” and "beefy.”

“It’s been fun to just revel in the uncomplicated-ness in celebrating our whole career,” he says.

There is a satisfying symmetry to Tokyo Police Club’s résumé, which spans exactly two decades and has always included the same four members. Without a rotating cast of characters or different “eras” to follow, it's easier to digest.

“I think it’s just temperamentally who we are. There have been times where I’ve been like, ‘Boy, were we supposed to be wilder or more dramatic or less agreeable with each other?’ It’s just the way the cookie crumbles, I guess,” Wright says.

It’s also allowed the bandmates to really embrace and enjoy everything that writing this closing chapter has to offer.

“We’re doing it on our own terms. If we had some big blowup that destroyed the band, we wouldn’t be able to cram into the same van and drive around and do three months of shows,” Wright continues. “I’m really glad it shook out this way because it means we get to actually experience the ending of the band rather than just realize it happened already.”

There have been no talks or thoughts about what’s next, but all signs point to the Tokyo Police Club never hitting the stage again. If that’s the case, it’ll make this swan song even sweeter.

“In another ten years, this is also going to be a rosy, nostalgic, beautiful, perfect memory that everyone looks back on with welled-up eyes,” Wright concludes.

Tokyo Police Club, with Menno Versteeg, 7 p.m. Wednesday, October 30, Summit, 1902 Blake Street. Tickets are $48-$65.