August 2nd
Luna Sea
@ Osaka-jo Hall

This happened to fall on my 23rd birthday and I thought I'd treat myself to a nice present. I stumbled upon the hall when I was near Osaka castle. The place was swarming with cosplaying Luna Sea fans and food stands so I knew I was at the right place. I caught a scalper and asked him about price. He asked for 10,000 yen, which was approaching twice the price. So I started playing the "gaijin who doesn't know or care much about Japanese pop culture" routine, making sure to look like I was barely interested, but willing to buy for the right price. He lowered the price to 8000, but still I tried to haggle. After some time, he brought it down to 6000 yen, and I took it. The regular ticket price was 5800 yen, so really he only made a 200 yen profit. This wasn't even at the last minute either. There was at least 90 minutes left before the show started. I was with my friend Yuki who had other plans later, but with some time left, I took her to dinner and then said good-bye before checking out the show.

The seat I got was about average. Not that far, but not close either. Even for average seats, I could barely make out the faces of the band members, but I enjoyed it nevertheless. [The pictures above, by the way, aren't mine. They're from a magazine I picked up later. But this is exactly how they looked that night]

Halfway through the second song, this other non-Japanese guy comes in and sits in a seat a few down from me. This guy was either real gutsy or real stupid because he kept on taking flash pictures throughout the show, even though the security guys kept coming down on him like birds of prey and causing a big scene. They should have taken the camera away the first time. "Now wait a minute" I hear you say, "Looking at these other pictures, you seem to have taken a few photos yourself". True, but I'm never careless like this guy was. The reason flash pictures are disruptive to the show is that they're distracting, and it draws attention away from the show, especially with security making a commotion. In my case I'm usually very discreet, taking only one quickie, and I never use a flash. The pictures rarely turn out good, but they're only to help remember the experience, not for publication or anything like that. Anyway, other than the annoyance this guy was causing, I enjoyed the show a lot.

Of course being my first Japanese live music experience, I wasn't automatically comfortable with participating in the usual Japanese custom of back-and-forth hand waving during the chorus of favorite songs. I was used to seeing it on videos and TV, but it felt too strange and unnatural for me. I just got into it in my usual North American fashion. But after they started playing "Rosier", I just couldn't help myself and found myself doing it with more feeling than anyone in the whole place. Ever since, I've found myself doing more typically Japanese things at concerts, like sport event chants for example. It all looks silly, but when you're a part of it, it's a pretty cool feeling.

As typical with a Luna Sea show, at the end, the audience began to sing a song, this time "Be Awake", to call the band back for an encore. As I would have suspected, they do leave a note on all the seats that encourages people to sing the lines of a particular song that are written on the paper if they want Luna Sea to come out one more time. I know this isn't the band that stages this though. They all seem to be people from the official fan club who always set this up. It's probably one of those things that started spontaneously one time, but the club decided to get that same thing going again and again. After coming out, Ryuichi's tongue-in-cheek comment to the audience further reinforced this notion in my mind. Even so, it's still part of the fun, even if it isn't totally spontaneous.

August 13th
Rock In Japan Fes. 2000
in Hitachinaka
[ Okuda Tamio, Spitz, The Yellow Monkey, AJICO (UA with Benzie), etc. ]

This was the big one I'd been anticipating for months now. Despite a minor typhoon cutting things a little short, it certainly lived up to my high expectations. It was put on by the same people who publish Rockin' On and Rockin' Japan magazines (possibly my favorite music magazine right now - lots of interesting full page photographs, and oodles of info and interviews, yet with a laid back design. Check it out if you haven't already). The festival took place in a incredibly huge park in Hitachinaka (definitely the town's main attraction it's so big). From the entrance I must have walked for 15 minutes before getting to the actual concert site which was right in the center of the park, next to the area with amusement rides. Already it was shaping up to be a cool and windy day with impenetrable overcast skies, but I paid no attention as I was so stoked to be there. I was arriving from Nikko so I missed two of the early acts. One was Number Girl, and the other I can't remember. I wish I could have seen them, but it's no skin off my nose. This was the second day in a two day music festival, but the first day was mostly filled with hip hop and R&B acts (like Dragon Ash) so I opted to miss it to save myself some money and allow an extra day in Nikko. But I was there to see the real Puffy Daddy himself, Okuda Tamio as well as the first appearance together between jazzy songstress UA and Blankey Jet City's leader Benzie. I was also looking forward to seeing Spitz and the Yellow Monkey. So it was going to be a great day any way you looked at it.

This event was well publicized obviously since inside was about 40,000 people. It's the biggest event I've ever been to. Upon entering I quickly lined up at the Okuda Tamio tent and grabbed one of his red summer concert shirts. It's full of cheesy cliché catch phrases like "Ride On Baby", "Where's the Beach?", "It's groovy and far out!" and so on. They had these two others with white torso and red or orange sleeves. One said "Curry" and the other said "Ramen" with a little icon underneath. I didn't get them since they didn't even seem to mention Tamio in any way whatsoever. So I went with the one I got. In hindsight the other ones are more striking, but it doesn't matter. I mostly got it just as a piece of memorabilia.

At this point it was lunch and I was starving, but decided to postpone it so that I could get a good spot to see Tamio, who was up next. Although I haven't yet written a page for him, Okuda Tamio is really my rock idol. There is no one else in the Japanese music business I admire as much as this guy. He's such a clever songwriter with a great sense of humour that infuses everything he does. From his days with 80's semi-satirical rock group, Unicorn, to his production of Puffy, his distinctive style wins over anyone who hears it. Anyway, I did get a pretty good spot considering I arrived late. Thankfully this was a big budget festival so they had a big screen and camera crew for the other 90% who weren't lucky enough to get a spot close to the stage (I wish the Luna Sea show had that). Tamio came out and I was totally awestruck. I've seen a lot of famous acts in my life, but to see someone whom you regard as a legend, is such a different experience. Anyway, he started it off with a bang performing Puffy's previous single "Umi e to" and the crowd became all bouncy like we were on a giant trampoline. Most of the hour long set he performed songs from his latest album, Goldblend, but he managed to throw in some of his earlier hits like "Ai no tame ni" and "Coffee".

After Tamio's set I went for a beer and grabbed a shawarma from one of the many food tents. Add shawarmas to my list of foods that the Japanese have altered beyond recognition. It tasted more like a sloppy joe sandwich than the lebanese food I've become so familiar with. But food is food, and music takes priority. I soon got a spot on the opposite side of the stage for Spitz. I enjoyed the Spitz show a lot, even though I hadn't been listening to them much these past two years. Their brand of easy rock is always enjoyable. They played a lot of hits and new songs, but I could swear that they did a Pizzicato Five song, maybe I'm wrong. It sounded a lot like that old P5 song called "World Standard". Since the vocals in that P5 song sound very similar to Masamune's singing it has me wondering if he has any connection to them. I don't know much of their history so I don't know if it's just coincidence or what.

Although it rained a bit during Tamio's set, at this point in the show the wind was really beginning to pick up and a bit of drizzle was coming down, but nothing to complain about. However this seemed to play some tricks on the sound system since from time to time, Masa's usually soothing voice would get all crackly over the speakers. During one song it kept happening and you could barely make out the song. Even so the band played like true pros. One thing I noticed since the lead singer had a towel wrapped around his head, was that most of the guys in the crowd were doing the same thing too. I know this is something that dates back a long time in Japan, usually for some job where you work with your hands a lot and get sweaty. But I noticed during my time there that it had become a bit of a fashion thing. I often see guys, and sometimes gals, wearing towels around their head, but at this particular concert, I was one of the few guys who didn't have one on. Must have been because of the rain. They were selling official concert towels at the booth.

The next act was the Yellow Monkey. I wanted to see them, but honestly I had kind of lost interest in them since 1998 so I was only mildly excited. But I sure changed my tune. This set was to become on of my most memorable highlights on my entire trip to Japan. The field was packed like a sardine can with cold rain and wind whipping past at an alarming rate. Even so, the band came out, plus a keyboard, turntable player dressed in a Disneyland type giant butterfly mascot costume. Made things a bit surreal. The Yellow Monkey played the first song from their new album, and already I could tell that they've made a drastic change in musical direction. As I listened to all these new songs, I was quite impressed. I really liked their new sound. Early on in their set the typhoon was reaching its climax. But even with violent wind and rain with parts of the stage blowing off every so often, the band played on with extra gusto, drenched and weather beaten as they were. They were totally playful despite it all, and likewise the audience got totally psyched as if the terrible weather was only encouraging them more. It was like a music video come to life. I was really impressed. I lost interest in the band these past couple of years and haven't paid much attention to them since. But they won me over again and I made sure to buy their new album the next day. Good show, good music. Anyone who's reading this and likes good rock music, I highly reccomend their new album "8". Songs like "Barairo no hibi" have been playing in my head since I got back to Canada. It's driving me nuts, but they really are good.