{"id":222,"date":"2007-08-12T02:19:00","date_gmt":"2007-08-11T17:19:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/fugutabetai.com\/blog\/2007\/08\/12\/summer-sonic-2007-tokyo-music-festival-day-1\/"},"modified":"2007-08-12T02:19:00","modified_gmt":"2007-08-11T17:19:00","slug":"summer-sonic-2007-tokyo-music-festival-day-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fugutabetai.com\/blog\/2007\/08\/12\/summer-sonic-2007-tokyo-music-festival-day-1\/","title":{"rendered":"Summer Sonic 2007 Tokyo Music Festival: Day 1"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\n\"Welcome
\nWelcome to Summer Sonic!
\n
\n<\/a><\/p>\n


\n\"Walking
\nWalking to Summer Sonic
\n
\n<\/a><\/p>\n


\n\"Marine
\nMarine Stadium
\n
\n<\/a><\/p>\n


\n\"Beach
\nBeach Stage
\n
\n<\/a><\/p>\n


\n\"Marine
\nMarine Stage Crowd
\n
\n<\/a><\/p>\n


\n\"Nishioka
\nNishioka Sumiko
\n
\n<\/a>\n<\/div>\n

(\u65e5\u672c\u8a9e\u7248<\/a>
\n)<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Summer
\nSonic<\/a> is a two-day summer music festival held in Chiba’s Makuhari Messe and
\nnearby Marine Stadium.  It is a huge event, with probably around 80 bands
\nplaying over two days, and unofficial concerts on the side as well.  This
\nwas my first time every going:  I really wanted to go last year since
\nWe Are
\nScientists<\/a> were playing, but I had a conference to attend and was back in
\nAmerica at the time.  This year, I didn’t have as much of a connection to
\nthe bands, but there were some great acts, and it is a real value for your money
\ncompared to the standard Japanese live show fare, which is about $45 for a
\nticket to see one band (maybe two if you are lucky.)  The two-day Summer
\nSonic Pass was about $275, and you can see about sixteen shows if you are tough
\nenough…<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

I had to wake up at about 7am to get to Makuhari.  It takes about an hour
\nif you hit the right trains, or an hour and a half if you get the local ones,
\ntaking Oiimachi line to Oiimachi, transferring to the Rinkai line to Shin-Kiba,
\nthen taking Keiyou line to Maihama Makuhari.  At the station there were
\ncrazy numbers of people, and they were making announcements about how it is
\ncrowded, buy your return ticket in advance, etc.  Exiting the station there
\nwere lots of people with hand-made signs asking to buy tickets and so on. 
\nAlso, there were lots of older guys (almost positively Yakuza) doing ticket
\nscalping trying to sell tickets.  They were also buying extra
\ntickets.  I have no idea what the markup on this kind of thing is, but
\nthose guys were around for the whole festival.  I don’t think they could
\nhave made that much money because I never saw anyone buy from them, but who
\nknows.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

It was a pretty long walk from the station to Makuhari Messe (the convention
\ncenter), where I exchanged my ticket for a two-day wristband pass.  I
\nwandered around for a bit and then headed over to the Marine Stadium since the
\nbands I wanted to check out in the morning started on that stage.  It was
\ncrazy hot, probably about 36 degrees celsius very humid, not a cloud in the sky
\nwith a fierce sun beating down.  I had put on lots of sunblock since I’m
\nwhiter than a scared ghost, but I was still worried about getting
\nsunburned.  Over at the stadium I walked around for a while, bought a
\nPokari
\nSweat<\/a> and kept wandering around.  Completely by coincidence I ran into
\nLisa and Kana, who I knew were coming, but didn’t expect to easily be able to
\nfind in the massive crowds.  We had more than an hour before the first act,
\nso we headed over to the Beach Stage (literally on the beach!) where Lisa said I
\nshould be able to get a small towel from the Tower Records stand (to help with
\nprotection from the sun!) <\/p>\n

“Onsoku Line (Speed of Sound Line)”<\/h3>\n

While at the beach stage we saw the opening act
\nOnsoku Line<\/a>, a
\nthree man group of rap-style music.  They were pretty good, and certainly
\nwere fitting for the beach stage.  It was lots of fun even though I hadn’t
\nheard of them before.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

We headed over to the Marine Stage and got a spot very close to the stage –
\nmaybe like 6 rows of people back.  It was crazy hot.  I had my towel
\nwrapped around my head and under my hat so my neck wouldn’t get burned. 
\nAlmost everyone else did too.  Did I mention that it was hot?  Before
\nthe shows really started to get going, some dude came out to warm us up.  I
\ndidn’t know who he was, but he was maybe half or something because his English
\nwas quite good, although the whole thing was mostly in Japanese.  After he
\ndid his thing (MC in charge)
\nNishioka
\nSumiko (you can see some of the other characters she has played, as well as a
\nbit as her current SM Mistress character in this youtube video)<\/a> came out and
\ndid a kind of routine.  It was kind of funny, but like most Japanese
\ncomedians the comedy comes from just shouting at people something vaguely
\ninappropriate (you guys are all pig bastards!) She has a kind of
\nleather-wearing Mistress like domination schtick. <\/p>\n

“The Pipettes”<\/h3>\n

Next up was
\nThe
\nPipettes<\/a>, a female singer trio from England.  They had a backing band
\nwho wore cute monogrammed sweaters, but the act is just the three women, who are
\nsingers.  They are like a blast from the 1950s, wore cute polka-dot
\noutfits, and had completely choreographed dances with intricate hand movements
\nfor each of their songs.  The really funny thing is that their song lyrics
\nwere mostly completely at odds with their poppy happy sound.  They reminded
\nme of Lily
\nAllen<\/a> in a way because of that.  I really thought they put on a great
\nlive show, although I’m not really interested in buying their album because
\nmusically I just wasn’t grooving that 50s sound too much.  It isn’t bad, it
\nis just at the price of albums out here, I’ve got a lot of other things to spend
\nmy money on before I head after these girls.  I really did enjoy the show
\nthough.  Lots of fun. <\/p>\n

“OK Go”<\/h3>\n

Next up was OK Go.  I knew of them because of their
\nYoutube
\nVideo for Here it Goes Again<\/a>, which is really great.  I didn’t know
\nmuch else about these guys, but they put on a good show, had some pretty heavy
\nrock sound, and weren’t bad at all.  I like their style. <\/p>\n

“The Editors”<\/h3>\n

I first found out about
\nThe
\nEditors<\/a> when they toured through Japan with
\nWe Are
\nScientists<\/a>.  I really liked them then, they reminded me a bit of Joy
\nDivision.  Actually, when I was chatting with Keith from the Scientists he
\nintroduced me to the guitarist and the bassist of the band.  They seemed
\nlike nice guys.  This time the guitarist was wearing a kind of
\nPower-Rangers type shirt that really went over well in Japan I think.  The
\nEditors put on a really great show, and the lead singer was crazy nuts with his
\nstrange arm movements and stuff.  He was twisting his arms around behind
\nhis back, moving around strangely, all that stuff.  It was pretty
\ncool.  They really rocked it hard, and if you don’t have their album “The
\nBack Room” I recommend you pick it up.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

After the Editors, I was exhausted from hours of standing in the hot sun, so we
\nall headed back to the indoors Makuhari Messe area for a break and lunch. 
\nI really wanted to check out
\nPuffy
\nAmiYumi<\/a>, but instead I had lunch and took a bit of a break.  If I had
\nreally killed myself and ran around like crazy I probably could have seen a few
\nmore bands, but that makes things seem more like work.  It was more fun to
\nrelax and see the bans that I really wanted to see and not worry too much about
\nscheduling, just try to have a good time.  Lunch also involved waiting in
\nlines and just took too long.  I did have a nice lunch though: Fried Yaizu
\ndon, which was a fried maguro fish on rice.  It was really good too. 
\nWhile the convention center was air conditioned, it was so hot and there were so
\nmany people that it wasn’t really all that cool.  Still, after about an
\nhour, I had finally cooled down a bit and quite sweating. That wouldn’t last for
\nlong though, since next up was <\/p>\n

“Interpol”<\/h3>\n

Interpol<\/a>
\nwas playing on the Sonic stage, a medium sized indoor stage.  I’ve always
\nlike Interpol since their first album “Turn on the bright lights” (still their
\nbest, IMHO) and since they are also a New York band I have a special place in my
\nheart for them.  Their show was really good.  I was up front so had a
\nreally nice view, and they played lots of songs that I knew so it was really
\ngreat. I really think that Editors and Interpol make a pretty nice
\npairing. <\/p>\n

“Dinosaur Jr.”<\/h3>\n

After Interpol I stayed at the Sonic stage for Dinosaur Jr.  I used to
\nlisten to these guys way back in high school, I would remember Eric and I in the
\ncar driving back from track practice after school with these guys on the
\nradio.  They broke up a while ago, but recently the band has been re-formed
\nwith new members apparently.  I should have known this, since it is their
\nstyle, but the distortion and feedback was just crazy.  The volume wasn’t
\nany louder than any of the other bands, but with all of the feedback the high
\npitched sounds were just unbearable.  I really needed some earplugs for
\nthis one.  I closed my ears and listened to the first two songs – including
\na surprising cover of the Cure’s “Just Like Heaven” – and then went next door to
\nrelax and sit down for a while. <\/p>\n

“Modest Mouse”<\/h3>\n

Probably the band that I was most looking forward to was (or second most, hard
\nto tell) was
\nModest
\nMouse<\/a>.  I really love their new album “We were dead before the boat
\neven sank”.  I was really amazed that Johnny Marr, the famous guitarist
\nfrom The Smiths, was playing with them, and right up there on stage in front of
\nme.  I never thought that I would have the chance to see Johnny Marr live,
\nbut there you are.  They played a lot of songs that I knew and just put on
\na great show.  One funny (or sad?) thing that happened is that the lead
\nsinger Isaac Brock went down into the crowd once, and when he came back up to
\nthe stage someone had taken his hat.  In between every song break he was
\ntalking about his hat.  First it was “Hey man, give me back my hat” and
\nthen it progressively got more aggressive like “Man, do you know how hard it is
\nto find a hat that you like?” and “You can’t just go taking people’s hats for
\nnothing!”, “This isn’t the Isaac gives away his hat 2007 tour!” and “Man, I
\ndon’t care if you say you can just comp these things, it doesn’t matter if it
\ncosts $20 or $1, you can’t just go taking people’s stuff” and finally “Fuck you
\nin the face, motherfucker!”.  I’m with him on that sentiment: that’s just
\nshitty to take some guy’s stuff just because you want it.  It really sucks
\nthat fans act like assholes sometimes.  The show itself was really great
\nthough.  They put on a hard-rocking show, and sang a lot of good stuff, and
\noh my god, Johnny Marr!  It was great.  They were my favorite act of
\nthe day, and probably of the two day festival. <\/p>\n

“Travis”<\/h3>\n

I finished things out with
\nTravis<\/a>
\nI don’t really know Travis well; I’ve heard them on the radio and various
\npodcasts that I listen to, but I don’t have any of their albums.  They
\nreally sounded great with a nice sound and very good harmony.  I am
\ninterested in picking up one of their albums, but I don’t know where to start
\nreally.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

After Travis, I headed home on the super crowded trains.  It took about an
\nhour and a half, and of course the train was super packed.  By the time I
\ngot to the Rinkai line though I was able to sit down.  There is at least
\none good thing to be said about taking a super expensive line that normally
\npeople don’t ride: you can sit down.  I collapsed into bed, hoping to rest
\nup these old feet for another day of the same punishment tomorrow…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Welcome to Summer Sonic! Walking to Summer Sonic Marine Stadium Beach Stage Marine Stage Crowd Nishioka Sumiko (\u65e5\u672c\u8a9e\u7248 ) Summer Sonic is a two-day summer music festival held in Chiba’s Makuhari Messe and nearby Marine Stadium.  It is a huge event, with probably around 80 bands playing over two days, and unofficial concerts on the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4,14,9,6],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fugutabetai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fugutabetai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fugutabetai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fugutabetai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fugutabetai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=222"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/fugutabetai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fugutabetai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=222"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fugutabetai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=222"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fugutabetai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=222"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}