Tokyo Music 4

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The gig we'd planned for the third night was sold out by the time we got round to buying tickets so here's something else instead.

We went over to Harajuku to see the Cosplay kids strutting their stuff on Sunday but as it was raining (and also apparently because there was a Cosplay convention in another part of Tokyo that day) there weren't many Cosplay kids around. However there were large numbers of people heading off across the bridge to something so we followed them to see what it was.

They were on their way to a stadium nearby to buy tickets for a concert by Exile and they were filling the car park, queuing for tickets, making banners etc. Apparently Exile are a popular boy band in Japan. Normally boy bands are artificially constructed things, with five young lads carefully selected to appeal to different female demographics rather than for their musical ability. Judging by the pictures on the side of the tour van Exile have taken this marketing concept to it's logical conclusion and there are fourteen singers in Exile (it's practically a choir ferchrissakes). Presumably this means that they can include somebody to cater for every conceivable female demographic - rather than just the stock five boy band character types (the cute one, the sensitive one, the bit of rough etc.) they can fill in the gaps and include some of the less popular ones to make sure they don't miss any market segment (the slightly creepy one, the middle-aged one, the one who really wanted to be an accountant, perhaps).

A quick google suggests that their strategy has been successful - Exile had three of the top ten selling albums in Japan last year and also we saw many Exile T-shirt wearing ladies around Tokyo, from schoolgirls to grandmothers.

Also included in the photos above are some of the few cosplay kids about that day and some general snaps of Tokyo street fashion in Harajuku.

Tokyo Music 3

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When we looked at the listings it happened that a Japanese artist I knew of was playing at the Pit Inn whilst we were in Tokyo. His name is Otomo Yoshihide and back in the days when I was living in the UK he was well-known on the avant-garde/free improv scene. At that time he was doing a lot of CD cut-up sound collage stuff and although his stuff was experimental and so not always successful it was, at least, always interesting. So when I saw he had organised some gigs in Tokyo whilst we were there I thought that if the 'shot in the dark' gigs didn't prove to be that great at least this was pretty much guaranteed to be interesting. Of course, as is the nature of these things, it didn't really work out that way.

Otomo talked on the website about how he had become interested in experimenting with the use of space in recent performance (having the performers positioned around the audience, amongst the audience, in a separate space etc) but when we arrived at the Pit Inn in Shinjuku the audience was seated in rows behind desks, mainly I guess to maximise the space utilisation in the small venue, but I'm not sure if it felt more like a primary school classroom or perhaps a church with pews. Probably the church metaphor works better as the 'congregation' seemed a pretty dedicated bunch.

The first set was a Zen-like sound poem kind of a thing with a combination of traditional instruments (although unconventionally played) as well as piano, marimba, electronics and some particularly listless percussion. I don't know about you but personally there's only so much Zen tranquility I can take in one sitting before I feel the need to balance my yin/yang by giving someone a clip round the ear but I was happy to see that as a psychological failing on my part and wait for the next exciting installment.

The next set, unfortunately, was even worse. Totally predictable straight-ahead hotel lobby jazz with some superficial 'avant-garde' elements such as pre-recorded sounds and abrupt finishes to tunes that seemed completely tacked-on rather than part of the musical dialogue. The band was led by the pianist from the previous set, playing her compositions of advertising-jingle melodies accompanied by her own vocal witterings. She was joined by a bass player, guitarist and drummer. At one point the guitarist briefly cut loose for about a minute or so and it was clear that he could really play and for a moment I thought that the whole thing had been an elaborate joke and now we were going to hear the real shit but after his brief foray into the world of the living it was back to the plodding jingle-jangle of before, under the watchful eye of the schoolmarm band leader.

After some discussion we decided to stay for the third set, surely things could only get better? Oh no. They could get even worse. The same quartet came out but this time accompanied by Otomo, the listless marimba and electronics players from the first set and, joy of joys, that old chestnut, a vocalist who can't sing for shit. My, how we laughed.

Otomo, Otomo, what the feck happened to you Otomo?

Tokyo Music 2

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The last band up were the guys pictured above. To be honest I don't know who they are as everything was a bit chaotic and in Japanese so if there are any Tokyo music scene aficionados out there, feel free to let me know. Musically, if you can imagine a kind of punked up Yeah Yeah Yeahs with a jazz trumpeter, a hippy chick on guitar and a lead singer overly fond of crotch-grabbing and suggestive finger mimes you'll be somewhere in the area. All in all a pretty lively set though which got everybody up and moving.

Overall an interesting first evening in Tokyo.

Tokyo Music 1

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Just got back from a long weekend in Tokyo. It was our first time in Tokyo but we wanted to check out the music scene there so we picked three gigs from the listings during the four days we were there and headed out.

First up was a gig at Heaven's Door in Sangenjaya. There were several bands on the bill but the headliners were Ed Woods, billed as a shock rock band. We arrived a bit late having navigated the Tokyo metro and having stopped for some culinary experiences on the way and came in to the small club halfway through the Ed Woods set. The music was pretty intense power trio stuff, with just guitar, amped up acoustic double bass and drums. The music was pretty wild but we wondered what the 'shock' rock element was.

Towards the end of the set the bass player decided to take his troosers off before getting down on the floor behind his double bass for a while (presumably he was doing a Hendrix and playing it with his teeth but it's hard to say). Upon emerging, smeared with blood, he then proceeded to douse himself in liquid from a water bottle. At this point, the thought flashes through your mind "Just how shocking is this shock rock thing? Has he worked himself up into such a frenzy that he's doused himself in lighter fluid and is about to set himself on fire? And, by the way, where are the fire exits?"

Fortunately the next thing to emerge from his bag was not a lighter but some soap and he started to lather himself up. He then performed a unique - in my experience anyway - variation on stage diving where instead of leaping into the welcoming arms of the crowd he instead asked the crowd to part and dived, face first, onto the concrete floor, careening across it like ...... well, like a soaped-up Japanese double bass player in his underpants careening across a concrete floor.

I'm not sure what it all meant but you've gotta appreciate a guy who's prepared to put in a bit of effort to get the crowd going.

More Tokyo music and other random stuff to follow......

Nightlife

'Young Nightlife' was the photography brief this week. Me and Helen went to a gig at the Fringe Club where there were three bands playing as part of the HK Live series of gigs. One of the features as always at the Fringe is the number of people taking photographs and videoing. It really seems that every little event is so recorded and documented nowadays. There were half a dozen photographers and two or three people with video cameras, plus people taking photos with their mobile phones etc. At the start there were more people documenting the gig than there were in the audience and at one point a kind of mini queue of people waiting to take close-up shots even developed.

We went to HK Live a few months ago and it was pretty good, especially a local band Innisfallen who were excellent, but overall this wasn't a great gig. The first artist was ST, a Hong Kong electronic artist who was by far the strongest of the three in the sense that he at least had his own sound and style and a bit of 'edge'. The second band, Marfa & Ne-af from LA, was visually the most interesting and most of the shots are of them but musically they were pretty dire. They were a 'we're crap but in a knowing, ironic kind of way so that makes it OK' kind of band. Unfortunately being knowing and ironic doesn't change the fact that they were still crap. The last performers were Snoblind - two accountants showing us their photo albums over a generic, wishy-washy electronic soundtrack does not an engaging multimedia experience make in my book, so we left.

Maybe I'm just getting too old for 'young nightlife'.