Ninja Love is a San Diego band made up of Mike Villemaire (introducing himself as ninja number 2) on guitar and Matt Liebowitz (introduced as ninja number 1) on drums and keyboard.  They play an indie twist of 70's rock and are self admittedly not real ninjas, but are impressive enough in their ninja outfits.  On stage with them this night were two giant stuffed killer whales and a large fake eagle.  These are all part of the Ninja Love concept which is built around a story about a cyclops that is trying to take over the world by recruiting an army of animals.  The ninjas must kill the animals that have already turned evil.  Later in the show, the cyclops (a man in a mask) would show up.

The crowd, formerly at their usual 15 feet distance from the stage finally came up close for Ninja Love.  The ninjas themselves were stealthily out and ready to play after I glanced away for a moment.  They were clouded in a haze that came out from semi hidden smoke machines.  The first song was great and was followed by another impressive one, but the vocals were hard to hear and impossible to understand.  Villemaire asked the crowd if the vocals were loud enough and the crowd replied no, but as soon as he spoke the microphone had been turned up.  The singing could be heard much better from then on, so it was not just the fact they were singing through ninja masks after all.  

The next song was described as their saddest song, so Villemaire said, "Don't be embarrassed if you shed a tear."  While I did not cry, I noticed the song was much more mellow than the last two and was like a ballad.  A good number of the crowd mimicked Villemaire's "OOOs" and fist in the air while the drummer did backup vocals on a megaphone.  The song did kick (unintentional pun) into a rocking end.  The song after this was called their weirdest one and started with the Liebowitz holding a tambourine and a vibraslap next to Villemaire before returning to his drum set to once again end things on a harder note.  

The cyclops appeared in song seven and played the extra floor tom that was set up at the beginning.  The prerecorded intro to the next song sounded exactly like what was played a while earlier, making it seem that maybe it was accidently started before, especially since what followed after was musically disjointed from the introduction while this time it flowed.  The cyclops returned later along with two extra ninjas who danced together and then acted out a battle where the cyclops was thoroughly defeated.  The crowd wanted more though, shown by cheering and a girl who rallied the crowd to cry, "Kill the whale!  Kill the whale!"  

The encore was a cover of Prince's "Darling Nikki."  The whole set was quality music, never wavering, even at their finishing cover.  From only two guys came constantly entertaining songs and their theme and costumes which may seem a gimmick to some was nothing of the kind and only added to the experience.  The only downside to Ninja Love was how much they out shone their openers.  Also, they did not whip out the samurai sword or nunchucks as in previous shows.  Maybe next time brave warriors, maybe next time.