On Chinese Food That Made His Balls Smell Like Pork For A Week

As The Music catches up with Irish musical comedy sensations The Rubberbandits, they're busily curating an exhibition for a Tokyo art gallery. Much to their chagrin it won't facilitate their first visit to Japan, but they're nonetheless delighted to be spreading their famed 'Gas Cuntist Manifesto' into Asia for the first time.

"We don't get to go to Japan unfortunately - we just have to send our art over - but if it goes really well then it might open doors," enthuses one-half of the duo, Blindboy Boatclub. "I really want to go to Asia because I want a culture shock - it's impossible to get a culture shock anymore because of the internet. Like when I go to Australia everyone dresses the same and listens to the same music, and it's not really that different to Ireland except that it's upside down and it's hot."

The Rubberbandits - who wear masks fashioned from plastic shopping bags - are a massive proposition at home for their crude, surrealist humour and are keen to spread the gospel far and wide. Blindboy and his partner-in-crime Mr Chrome have certainly done their best to ingratiate themselves on past Aussie visits.

"[Australia's] not really that different to Ireland except that it's upside down and it's hot."

"I went to a Chinese restaurant in Melbourne and I got this noodle soup and I don't know what was in it, except that it made my bollocks smell like Chinese food for a week - I'd never experienced anything like that in my life," Blindboy marvels. "I had underpants on, and I had to throw them away because the Chinese food infiltrated my sweat - just exclusively in the area around my bollocks!"

It's probably best to avoid that restaurant - or that dish at least - this time around.

"No fooking way, I want to go back!" he barks. "Seriously, if you've got food and it's tasty but it makes your nuts smell like Chinese food for two weeks and it's in a different continent - man, I'm going back! It was broth that was made from pork, and I know that it's going to make my nuts smell but I'm doing it and no one's going to stop me!"

They've certainly noticed an evolution in their audience over the course of their trips Down Under.

"We originally started going to Australia in about 2011 and we were playing for an exclusively Irish audience, but now so we're playing to Irish people and Australians, which is quite nice," Blindboy admits. "The Aussie crowds don't seem to drink as much - I think that's because the Irish crowd's so isolated down there that when we do a gig in Australia every Irish person treats it like a reunion, and they end up getting extra drunk. It's like playing at a wedding.

"But with no disrespect to our Irish fans, it's far more enjoyable playing to a new audience in a different culture - it's fun, like when you first started doing gigs. There's nothing better than doing a song and seeing people laugh because they've just heard it for the first time. If they're already singing along and they know every word that's less craic - that's just one for the money."