On the second day I woke up a big later since I didn’t have to go through the
\nwrist-band exchange shuffle. An uneventful trip back to the Chiba area.<\/p>\n
The first “group” I wanted to see was the Blue Man Group. They were up on
\nthe Mountain Stage, the largest of the indoor stages. Blue Man Group have
\nbeen around in New York for a long time, and I’ve always wanted to to see
\nthem. The stage had two large screens to the left or right onto which they
\nprojected the action, so you could really get a great view from just about
\nanywhere in there. The show was surprisingly well suited to this kind of
\nmusic festival: the drumming and stuff is great, the humor is universal, and
\nthey had a bit where they played famous songs (Devo’s Whip-it, etc.) with little
\ngags at the end. They also had a kind of demonstration of useful moves
\nthat you can use while watching a show: head shake, hand pump, etc. I
\nreally enjoyed the show, and it really set the mood for the rest of the day.<\/p>\n
The first real act of the day was Tilly and the Wall. I haven’t heard any The most interesting thing about them is that they do not have a drummer. Next up was Hadouken! They are an interesting-looking group out of England The Polyphonic Spree is a large orchestral rock fusion band, with about 20 Most surprising, one of their final songs was a cover of Nirvana’s Update:<\/b> I just bought the Polyphonic Spree’s latest album, Next up was Bright Eyes, with Connor Oberst, one of the guys that really set up Anyway, I should backtrack a bit to earlier in the morning. I took a break Well, later in the afternoon when I went back for a break I sat down and started I also kind of like how the character brings up some discussion of homosexuality Anyway, I was really, really disappointed now that I had not signed up for There was one foreigner from New Zealand, but he was pretty strange: he was Next time there is some sort of public Karaoke Competition I don’t care what I wasn’t sure what I should go see in this slot, but in the end Cyndi Lauper won She was running all over the stage, and in between songs would segue off into Her final song was “Girl’s Just Want to Have Fun”, and she went back behind Cornelius Group is another group that I’ve heard very good things about, but \n The final band of the night, and the entire festival, was Pet Shop Boys. <\/p>\n \n They put on a really good show with very intricate choreographed dance moves, I was surprised that there were so many good covers. I guess the groups After the entire weekend, I was just exhausted. It was lots of fun, but On the second day I woke up a big later since I didn’t have to go through the wrist-band exchange shuffle. An uneventful trip back to the Chiba area. “Blue Man Group” The first “group” I wanted to see was the Blue Man Group. They were up on the Mountain Stage, the largest of 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\/223"}],"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=223"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/fugutabetai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/223\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fugutabetai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=223"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fugutabetai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=223"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fugutabetai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=223"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nof their stuff, but I’ve heard lots of good things about them on the podcasts
\nthat I listen to – mostly
\nShifted
\nSound<\/a> and NPR’s
\nAll
\nSongs Considered<\/a>. Also a few people over on the
\nBishop
\nAllen<\/a> forums like them, so I was interested. They are also from the
\nsurprisingly active Omaha scene, and are connected to Bright Eyes in some way.<\/p>\n
\nThey have a dedicated tap-dancer, and each of the ladies (there are three of
\nthem) had special little wooden stages set up which were wired for drum-like
\nsounds. It was really impressive. They also seemed to be very happy
\nto be in Japan, the lead guitars guy said that it had been a dream of theirs to
\nplay Japan, and he really sounded like he meant it. Anyway, these guys are
\non my radar now, and if I get a chance I’m going to pick up one of their
\nalbums. <\/p>\n\n “Hadouken!”
\n<\/h3>\n
\nwhich caught my eye on the schedule because of their name for obvious
\nreasons. Risa bought their album a while back and really likes them so she
\nrushed way up front. I hung back a bit, and then as they got going (and
\nwere much more heavy \/ rap \/ metal than I expected) it started to get pretty
\nwild. I stuck around for a while, but left early so I could catch another
\ngroup that I’ve heard about from NPR that looked very interesting to me.<\/p>\n\n “The Polyphonic Spree”
\n<\/h3>\n
\npeople on stage, a small chorus, horns, woodwinds and strings, and even a
\nharp. They have been accused of being too happy, but I don’t think that is
\na problem. I really liked their song, and seeing them live was pretty
\namazing. They were a real high energy act. They are definitely on my
\nlist of albums to get. Actually, along with Modest Mouse, this was my
\nfavorite act of Summer Sonic. Highly recommended. I didn’t really
\nknow much about them going in, but that wasn’t a big problem: the orchestral
\nformat, with such a wide variety of instruments, was really interesting to
\nlisten to and watch. <\/p>\n
\nLithium. It was a really good cover, and I really got into it.
\nCompletely unexpected! <\/p>\n
\nThe
\nFragile Army<\/a>, and the Japanese version has three extra bonus tracks (good
\nthing, since albums are so expensive here. This one was a reasonable 2,200
\nyen though) one of which was that excellent Lithium cover. I’m really glad
\nI picked this album up. <\/p>\n\n “Bright Eyes \/ Karaoke Sonic”
\n<\/h3>\n
\nthe Omaha music scene explosion. I also do not know Bright Eyes’ music
\nwell, but have heard a lot of their stuff on the podcasts that I listen
\nto. I was looking forward to seeing them a lot, but after all the standing
\naround I had already done I was getting pretty tired, so I took a break.
\nRight next to the Sonic stage, where I’ve been spending most of my time, was a
\nlittle break area with some benches and a secondary “Side Stage” area that was
\ndoing all sorts of strange things during the festival. One of them was
\nsome sort of
\ngroup
\nof people that put on stare contents, Staremaster<\/a>, in fact I think I saw a
\nbattle between
\nTsukika<\/a>
\nand
\nAraki
\nTomoe<\/a>, but I am not positive about that. I distinctly remember
\navoiding watching a contest that had
\nLove
\nSexy Otawaya<\/a> vs. someone else.<\/p>\n
\nbefore Modest Mouse and at the same sidestage they had a Karaoke Sonic
\nsetup. I wandered by the registration desk, and one of the women there
\nasked me if I wanted to sign up since there were still a few spots left. I
\nwas really, really tempted: I enjoy Karaoke, and there are a few Japanese songs
\nthat I like to sing. It would probably go over well. At the time
\nthough, I had two misgivings: first, there were a bunch of bands that I wanted
\nto see, and this would probably take some time. Second, the only song that
\ncame to mind immediately was Dragon Ash’s “Grateful Days”, which is a great
\nsong, but I haven’t been going to Karaoke at all lately. I knew that on the
\nfinal third of the song I would stumble since it is a fairly fast-paced rap and
\nthat wouldn’t be so cool. So I declined in the end, but it was a close
\ncall. <\/p>\n
\nto watch the Karaoke Sonic thing. The big surprise came when they
\nintroduced the guest panel of judges, and included in the group was
\nRazon
\nRamon of “Hard Gay”<\/a> fame! I know I’ve touched on it briefly before in
\nthis blog, but I don’t really get Japanese humor that is on the
\ntelevision. It just doesn’t really seem funny to me. I think there
\nare cultural differences, and probably I just don’t have enough background to
\nunderstand a lot of the humor, but in general I am not impressed with Japanese
\ncomedians. Hard Gay is another story though: I do think he is funny.
\nI mean, the main gag, that he is a totally gay guy doing completely
\ninappropriate things in inappropriate situations, is fairly easy to
\nunderstand. I actually like that a lot of his schtick is trying to teach
\nkids and do other good acts for people, all while being a complete gay
\nstereotype that I don’t really even think exists in Japan. At least in New
\nYork, I know where I can go if I want to bump into leather-clad S&M gay men,
\nbut in Japan I think that stuff is confined only to for-pay sex clubs and does
\nnot surface in everyday society. <\/p>\n
\nin Japan, where it is just usually not spoken about. I don’t think people
\nhere are homophobic, they just in general don’t think about things that outside
\nthe mainstream “group” dynamic. So it is a bit interesting from an
\ninvestigation of common social norms sort of theme.<\/p>\n
\nKaraoke Sonic. Even if I botched my song completely – and a few minutes
\nafter sitting down I realized I could also sing Sorimachi’s “Poison”, the theme
\nsong to the GTO drama from many years back – I would still get a chance to meet
\nwith and talk to Hard Gay. Also, compared to the morning, this afternoon
\nsession was packed: there were maybe a hundred people watching. That would
\nbe kind of fun, to get up in front of all those people and sing. Even
\nworse, I decided to stick around to listen to the banter and see how well the
\ncompetitors sang, and I am positive that at worst I would have come in second
\nplace. There were only about six people (some of those were actually two
\npeople in pairs, but six competitors) and I would have gone a long way on “white
\nguy singing in Japanese” alone. <\/p>\n
\nasian, and kind of bad pronunciation on his song, a My Chemical Romance ballad
\nabout parades or something. It was a pretty bad song to choose because it
\nwas slow, very repetitive, and boring: the beat wasn’t fast, and it was really
\nsappy. Those are the worst songs to Karaoke (easy to do though.)
\nThere was a Japanese guy who sang a British song from a group that was playing
\nSummer Sonic, and he was good, but not great. Two other girls sang a song
\nfrom the 80s and went over well, and two more women – officially foreign ers
\nfrom China, but they lived in Japan for quite a while – that went over well
\nalso. The other memorable competitor was the winner, a Japanese woman who
\nsang The Spice Girl’s “Wannabe” with extreme vigor and vim. She won, and I
\ndoubt that I would have done better than her, but I could have at least come in
\nsecond, and I’m sure I would have had an interesting conversation with Hard
\nGay. Man, I’m really kicking myself over that. <\/p>\n
\nsort of objections I come up with, I’m going to enter. <\/p>\n\n “Cyndi Lauper”
\n<\/h3>\n
\nout for the nostalgia factor. I can’t really say that I was ever a huge
\nfan, but I heard a lot of her stuff on the radio when I was younger, and I
\nwanted to see how she was doing now. I was really surprised because the
\nplace was packed for her show. I guess there are a lot of Japanese Cyndi
\nLauper fans out there. I had never seen her live so I had no idea what to
\nexpect, but she was very energetic and chatty. While living in New York
\nshe often went to some sushi bar where the guys there taught her some Japanese,
\nand so she was using all the words that she could remember, just simple things
\nlike “genki” and “daijyoubu” and so on. It was pretty cool though. <\/p>\n
\nstrange stories that I’m sure nobody really understood. Even as a native
\nspeaker, understanding was an issue because these were really tangential and
\nnon-sequitur type things to say. I guess she is in her 50s now, but she
\nwore a short skirt, and playfully flashed her hot-pink panties at the crowd a
\nfew times. It seems strange to think of someone at her age acting like
\nthat, but she was really having a good time, and so was the crowd. <\/p>\n
\nstage and pulled on about twenty people from other bands and so on to dance with
\nher. It was really wild, the crowd was really into it and everyone was
\nhaving a great time. Her show was, surprisingly to me, a really good one.<\/p>\n\n “Cornelius Group”
\n<\/h3>\n
\ndon’t know much about myself. They are a kind of downtempo, relaxed, media
\nband that sets their music to experimental type movies and such when they
\nplay. They had a pretty intricate set-up on stage with a big screen for
\nprojected video behind them. It was very nice, but this kind of music and
\n“experience” is something that I would rather be able to take in while seated,
\nrelaxing, and maybe with a drink or two. The music that they play is
\nsomething I wouldn’t mind having on in the background, but not something to
\nwhich I would want to devote my full attention.<\/p>\n\n “Pet Shop Boys”
\n<\/h3>\n
\n I’ve always been a fan of the Pet Shop Boys, but not a rabid one. The
\n first CD that I ever bought was Pet Shop Boys’ Actually, and in Japan at that
\n (when my dad brought me here for like a week when I was 14.) They also
\n had a very intricate stage setup for video projection. It was just the
\n two Pet Shop Boys themselves,
\n Neil
\n Tennant<\/a> who provides main
\n vocals<\/a>,
\n keyboards<\/a>
\n and very occasionally
\n guitar<\/a>, and
\n Chris
\n Lowe<\/a> on keyboards. They also then had two dancers, all they did was
\n dance, and two more backup singers, who also did a lot of dancing, and a total
\n Diva female singer. The others were, as you might guess, completely hot
\n men who often went shirtless. I’m sure the women in the crowd loved
\n it. \n<\/p>\n
\n and three costume changes. Very impressive. It was apparently the
\n last night of their World Tour, and they really put a lot of energy out
\n there. They also sang that interesting U2 mashup cover of “Where the
\n Streets Have No Name”. \n<\/p>\n\n Final Thoughts
\n<\/h3>\n
\nthat I picked to see also have some sort of connection to the music that I
\nremember fondly, so it shouldn’t be too much of a surprise, but it was really
\ngreat to hear the Cure’s “Just like Heaven”, Nirvana’s “Lithium”, and the U2
\nmashup cover of “Where the Streets Have no Name”. <\/p>\n
\nreally tiring. If there are some bands that I like going next year, I’ll
\ntry to go again. It is for sure a good deal for the money compared to most
\nlive shows in Japan. One other thing that I think is important is to start
\nto familiarize yourself with the bands that you plan on seeing a month or two in
\nadvance. I would have had a lot more fun had I been more familiar with
\nsome of the bands that I went to see. Still, a really fun
\nexperience. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"