So I went to my first show in Japan. It was sgt.'s Osaka show in promotion of their new album. Middle9 and Dry River String opened for them.
The place was in the basement of a little shop, almost passed it up, but the person I was with noticed the stairway and I noticed the little signs of the venue name, Unagidani sunsui. The only indicators of it being the venue were a couple A4 sheets of paper, haha. It was a pretty nice turn-up, maybe 40 people? lol Small and cozy place but it didn't feel crowded at all, was really nice. Fairly good PA set-up and acoustics. We were the only foreigners in the damn place. haha Me, being the Asian I am blended in perfectly with the crowd, though couldn't say the same about my German friend. lol We got a few stares from our conversations in English lol.
First band to come out was Dry River String. Their keyboardist ran the merch table. I checked their myspace for a little bit before coming to the show, but didn't really know them. It was a nice set. Mainly acoustic guitars, some keys and Engrish vocals. The guitar work reminds me of Toe for a couple songs.
Next was middle9. Really cool band with a funny guitarist who MC'd their set. Downloaded their albums from here but haven't really listened to them much so not really familiar with their music. Really liked them, but the trumpet could have been a bit louder, could hardly hear it over the other instruments. Was nice instrumental upbeat Jazzy music, got me to start moving my feet a bit. I liked the xylophone! Also the guitarist chugged a mug of beer and was talking about how a couple of the girls in the audience were cute. His wife is the keyboardist/xylophone player btw.
She's pretty cute and that indie geek kind of way.
After them, I went out to get a drink since it was a one drink minimum. Got a Kirin Strong Seven since that was the only "beer" you can get with the ticket they gave you when you entered the club. It was actually pretty strong. lol Didn't have dinner and sorta gulped it down so I was already feeling some of its affects. Debated buying merch, but decided to wait til later. So my companion and I went back into the stage room and made our way to the center of the room and waited for the band to come out.
Then they finally came out. From start to finish it was just wow. I've only seen one post-rock band live before this (I think they were called Cul de Sac, they were alright), but this was a completely different experience from the last time. I don't know if it was cause of the alcohol, but it was like pure euphoria, something I've never felt from watching a band before. Plus Mikiko Narui is so hot!!! If you've seen the Apollo Program PV, she was wearing that same dress and had her hair all made up. Simply a beautiful sight to behold on that stage while she played her violin. lol She was like the frontman of the group. Unlike most bands, they have a strange set-up with the drums and violins up at the front and the bass and guitar to the back. And I think that set-up really affected how you heard the music. The rock drum beats just made you want to dance around, while the sounds of the violins made you just want to ride with the melodies. Not to take away from the bass and guitars, as they really filled out their sounds and were great too. The set was fairly spread out among their dischography. Though it consisted of only 6 or 7 pieces. Don't remember all the pieces they played and could hardly remember the order. It's hard when I don't remember most of the names of them. haha They played Paranoia from their split, and 銀河の車窓から from perception of casualty. Of course they were pretty limited to what they could play since they didn't have any other instruments besides the basic 4 they had. I liked Mikiko's use of her effects peddles with the feedback from her violin though and the way she used it to produce different sounds. During the MC before their last songs Hitoshi, the drummer, mentioned how hot it was and someone in the audience told him to take off his shirt. haha During a drum break near the end, he stood up on his drum throne and ripped his buttoned shirt off, sending buttons flying across the room showing off his belly and manboobs haha. For the encore he came out with a small sweat towel covering himself haha. What I liked a lot about the whole thing is just how much fun they looked like they were having up there, often smiling while playing. It was really just a good time.
I didn't have a chance to go to the bank before the show and withdraw some money so I was really limited in my merch purchase :/ No ATM around either. Not to mention how much Japanese merch is... So ended up getting one t-shirt, which ended up being slightly too big. Who ever told me that Japanese shirts are almost a size smaller than american shirts were lying to me... I'll still wear it though, it's peach colored, with hot pink print, how can I not?! They also had sggmt with a bonus bootleg of an unreleased track bundled that I couldn't get.
Hopefully that pops up somewhere.
Not really into taking pics at shows but here's one I took. Not really that great but whatever
I really want to see them again, and I never really care to see most bands twice. lol So jealous of the people who get to see their one man show in Shimokitazawa (Ayabie?) Since they're bringing some guest instrumentalists with them.
Well hoped you guys liked my re-cap.
Next month I'm going to see 凛として時雨, Mass of the Fermenting Dregs, and Sakanaction for Nexus @ Osaka.
Topic: General Japanese Rock Thread (Read 288935 times)