Good vs. (kinda) evil: at Avalon on Saturday night
Abington native started a monster of a pop phenomenon with Kaiju Big Battel
by CAITLIN JOHNSON , Patriot Ledger (Quincy, MA)


Don't expect Dr. Cube to back down from
a fight during Kaiju Big Battel at Avalon on
Saturday night.
(Photo courtesy Kaiju Big Battel)

It's an age-old entertainment formula: good versus evil in a battle of mythic proportions. And what is mythic if not giant rubber monsters struggling for survival in a steel caged ring?

The name of this phenomenon is Kaiju Big Battel - misspelling intentional - the brainchild of Abington native Randy Borden. The Kaiju monsters fight for the country, for democracy, for the power-crazed Dr. Cube, or perhaps just because they feel like it.

Whatever the reason, their fighting prowess should not be taken lightly. Just because they are rubber giants does not mean they they are not dexterous and nimble warriors. Each monster spent years mastering his own technique.

And possibly in denial of the fact that they are actually just people wearing big rubber suits, the kaiju would only speak of the coming event in character.

- Kaiju Big Battel in ‘‘Mayday! May Day! Boston SOS!''

Music, performing arts, and live-action comedy

-Who: Kaiju Big Battel with musical guest Officer May and DJ Rofo

-Where: Avalon, 15 Lansdowne St., Boston

-When: Saturday. Doors at 6 p.m.

-Tickets: $18.25 all ages. Tickets available at Ticketmaster outlets (508/617-931-2000; www.ticketmaster.com), www.teapartyconcerts.com, www.nextticketing.com, and The Orpheum Theatre box office.

-Info: www.kaiju.com

More

The Kaiju fan favorites, Los Platanos, specialize in the Cuban clothesline, the plantain roll and the double hurricane. Their sworn enemy Gomi-Man, who hails ‘‘from the American smell state of New Jersey'' (he is made of trash and toxic slime) uses the garbage pail skid, the compost heap kick and the rotting rubbish recoil to punish his opponents, although his record remains a dismal 0 and 2.

Kaiju is part professional wrestling, part cheesy creature feature, and 100 percent parody.

Borden started the pop culture phenomenon in 1996 as a student at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts when he constructed giant monsters from rubber purchased at Building 19. What started as a spoof turned into a cult obsession. Since then, the spectacle has grown into an amazingly complex saga that has appeared on MTV and CNN.

In addition, Kaiju just released a new book, ‘‘Kaiju Big Battel: A Practical Guide to Giant City-Crushing Monsters,'' (Hyperion; $14.95) and a DVD, ‘‘Kaiju Big Battel.''

On May 1, the extravaganza will be making its way back to the city of its birth for a show at the Avalon, appropriately entitled ‘‘Mayday! May Day! Boston SOS!''

The base of operations is a dark basement in Jamaica Plain that Kaiju shares with a welding company. Over the front door, there's a yellow sign with black, ominous letters that reads ‘‘Danger Zone.'' It's in there that the monsters are created and repaired and fighting techniques are honed. The place is not glamorous, and Chief Kaiju Officer David Borden himself is a pretty modest guy, but he promises each Kaiju show will dazzle and delight.

‘‘It's wacky, it's totally surreal,'' said David, founder Randy's younger brother. ‘‘We try to treat the night as an event. You're experiencing the Kaiju show in a multi sensory level.''

The show works something like this. Each Kaiju character is a member of one of four factions: the Heroes, Dr. Cube's Posse, the Rogues, or Team Space Bug. Dr. Cube's Posse, said David, is like ‘‘1980's Soviet Union.'' The Heroes, of course, are the good old U.S. of A. He compared Team Space Bug to a street gang and the Rogues to terrorists.

And so they fight each other in the ‘‘danger cage,'' competing for the Kaiju championship belt and for the fate of humanity. If Dr. Cube has his way, all human beings would become mindless minions, completely under his command. It is up to the Heroes to keep that from happening.

‘‘I am confident that I can rule this planet better than any of you elected officials,'' said Dr. Cube, whose giant cube head that constantly sports a devilish grin sits atop a humanlike body.

‘‘I will not be losing to any pathetic Kaiju Heroes,'' Cube added. ‘‘I will be holding onto the championship for a long, long time to come.''

David said a DJ and a live band will warm up the crowd before the rubber beasts take the stage and commence the Big Battel. To maintain the illusion of their hugeness, the monsters trample through model cities, often using the buildings as weapons. Needless to say, the shows are over-the-top spectacles.

Audience members can expect to get soaked with monster slime and spit. They come bearing signs and join in chants, urging their favorites on to victory.

One of the night's main events will be a title match between Dr. Cube's star fighter, Hell Monkey, a red gorilla that is 666 bananas tall, equipped with a fire-breathing wonder nose, and the Rogue Unibouzu, a former geek turned into a radioactive sea urchin-style creature.

‘‘I can totally kick that monkey's butt. Cube will need to cheat to beat me, so I have to keep an eye out for his posse. I doubt that coward will even set foot in the danger cage if I am in there,'' said Unibouzu, who weighs 6 million nigiri (sushi) servings - and a dash of wasabi.

What's more incredible than these remarkably complex yet outlandish characters is the fact that anyone involved in Kaiju can talk about them with a straight face.

David, 29, a graduate of Northeastern's marketing program, said the characters are all developed in a writers' session. The results are characters with personal histories that in some way reflect and make fun of our culture.

For instance, Los Platanos, the Plantain twins, Pedro and Pablo, came to the United States from Latin America to escape a sock puppet dictator who sprayed their family with pesticides when they came home late. So, inspired by the legacy of Che Guevara, they snuck onto a banana boat and came in search of freedom.

But in this country, the twins encountered ‘‘Evil Government Plantains,'' who stole their identity in order to make millions. Now the twins spend their time fighting oppression and trying to take down Dr. Cube and his Posse of minions and evildoers.

Los Platanos, David said, are some of the most popular Heroes. Not only will they be partaking in a tag team match, but they will also be the guards for the musical tribute to the hospitalized Hero, Silver Potato.

‘‘We have fought Dr. Cube before and for the love of Silver Potato we will make certain that he and his Posse stay out of la pictura. We will be using force if necessary,'' they said via E-mail.

Other Battels include the Hero, Neo Teppin, against the ‘‘perennial sea loser'' Call-Me-Kevin, a Rogue who has yet to win a Kaiju Big Battel.

‘‘I hope Neo Teppin is ready to losssse because I am ssssssso ready to win,'' said Call-Me-Kevin, who hisses because he is a native of the planet Piscon 7, an aquatic paradise.

The spiky red giant allied himself with Unibouzu and was happiest when he raised kelp in his homeland.

Call-Me-Kevin is generally thought to be horribly out of his element here on earth and is just as much a victim of misunderstanding and intolerance as he is a bullying Rogue.

Gomi-man, one of the most despised members of Dr. Cube's Posse known for his toxic slime, will face off against a new, unknown super Hero guaranteed to defend humankind and revamp Kaiju Big Battel.

The attention to every last ludicrous detail is mind boggling, but the whole aim of Kaiju is to create a fantasy that mocks real life and the mindless entertainment we lowly humans enjoy.

‘‘The events are very convincing. They have an energy that is hard to deny,'' David said. ‘‘It has an absurd movie quality, so ridiculous, that it's non-believable. Not one moment are you suspending your belief.''

If you go...

- Kaiju Big Battel in ‘‘Mayday! May Day! Boston SOS!''

Music, performing arts, and live-action comedy

-Who: Kaiju Big Battel with musical guest Officer May and DJ Rofo

-Where: Avalon, 15 Lansdowne St., Boston

-When: Saturday. Doors at 6 p.m.

-Tickets: $18.25 all ages. Tickets available at Ticketmaster outlets (508/617-931-2000; www.ticketmaster.com), www.teapartyconcerts.com, www.nextticketing.com, and The Orpheum Theatre box office.

-Info: www.kaiju.com

What's a ‘kaiju'

‘‘Kaijuu'' - with the extra ‘‘u'' - is Japanese for ‘‘monster,'' and online kaiju fan sites are dedicated to chat about classic Japanese sci-fi monsters like Godzilla and Mothra. One particularly fun site teaches you Origami Kaiju. Learn to fold your own paper Godzilla, step-by-step, at: www.occn.zaq.ne.jp/raku/origami

Copyright 2004 The Patriot Ledger
Transmitted Thursday, April 29, 2004

posted by prof_booty | 09:42 AM