Date: October 2010
Location: Biltmore Cabaret, Vancouver, BC
Highlights/recap of the show.
The day I arrived in Van (Oct 13) I met up with some of the bands (mainly sgt. members + manager and Yusuke + Maki from susquatch). There wasn't much to do considering it was getting dark fast. We were going to explore Stanley Park but I think they were getting bored just from walking. The day of the concert, we were pretty much like roadies, carting the bands instruments to and from the hotel/the Biltmore venue. Of course they were all grateful, and the rest of the time was everyone saying "thank you, thank you" and we were "you're welcome, no problem" .... repeatedly. xD Anyhow, a few other volunteers showed up to help Steve, and we offered to get the bands pizza before the show. Kenta of susquatch works at a Pizza Hut in Japan, so we decided to go with Pizza Hut to see how different they are from one country to another. Kenta said that our pizza sauce is sweeter than what they use in Japan. I also checked out the merchandise earlier to see what I wanted, and it's mostly T-shirts that intrigued me more than the CDs. The only CD I bought was MassDre's World Is Yours EP which I asked them to sign. We sat through MassDre and susquatch's soundcheck and part of uhnellys, though we missed sgt. since we had to get pizza. Mind you, it was a good thing I did miss their soundcheck because their live is <3.
susquatch opened the show first, don't recall the exact song, but it got things moving along. The set actually started a little bit later since Steve wanted to see if more people showed up to give susquatch a chance to showcase their music. They were pretty well received, Kenta tried to engage with the crowd a bit by talking. He introduced the band as susquatch from Japan, and they were a "kinky kinky band". At first, I'm like, does he know what he's saying? Then he started saying how Vancouver has lots of "crazy pretty girls" since the bands and Steve went to eat at Banana Leaf earlier in the day and there were pretty girls there. XD He then asked any pretty girls to come give him a kiss and take him home, even though his girlfriend would be super mad if she found out. haha. Kenta introduced the song "Ghost" which was written for his great-grandmother who passed away a few years ago. The rest of the songs they played were loved by the people whom I talked to after their set. I think they played a good 5-6 songs.
^During their soundcheck.
^Kenta makes the awesomest faces.
^Me with Yusuke, love how cheery he seems to be, on stage and off.
sgt. were scheduled to play second. The whole vibe of their set was incredible, I think everybody was pretty much enthralled in their music. Hitoshi (sgt. drummer) tried to speak to the crowd, but his english wasn't so good. The people were still encouraging though, cheering him on, then all of a sudden he yells "We're from Japan and we want to be famous all over the world!" That got a few loud cheers. :D I'm a sucker for string instruments so seeing Mikiko play her violin was fricking awesome. I now have a girl crush on her XD super super pretty in person.
uhnellys played third. Now, Steve got some questions why he brought a hip-hop band to a rock indie tour when he was planning it, but he made a pretty good choice. It was a nice break from the whole rock-theme we had going on. uhnellys only have 2 members but the way they perform live is pretty incredible. Kim (lyricist, guitar, trumpet) had some pedals that made his lyrics loop, I have no clue how it all works but it was cool hearing/seeing it. He kind of had mic trouble since the mic stand keep falling off. He handled it like a pro though as the show must go on! I wasn't familiar with uhnellys music before coming to the show, but seeing them live is quite something else.
I kind of neglected uhnellys in terms of pictures but hey I was enjoying their set so much I ignored my camera. :P
Lastly, MOTFD came on stage, they opened with "ゼロコンマ、色とりどりの世界" Natsuko and Chiemi fricking rock!!!!!!!!! Their entire live was very energetic, Natsuko attempted to speak a little bit of english but she pretty much just ended up saying thank you in Japanese haha. Their second song was "かくいうもの" each of the song had awesome intros where Natsuko just rocks out, hair flying, arms waving, just pure awesomeness. Other songs that they played if I remember correctly were "ひきずるビート" "ハイライト" "このスピードの先へ" and some other. During "ハイライト" mosh pit got going, which I think was started by Steve. Midway through the song, some dude was crowd surfing, and mind you, this is a small crowd we had, so everybody was trying to keep him up and not let him fall lol. Natsuko then decided to jump into the fray, the woman plays barefoot, keep that in mind, and she jumps off the stage, onto the crowd floor and just played and played. Thank goodness there wasn't any broken glass on the floor or that would have been disastrous. xD After their set was over, we called for an encore, they came back and played "She is inside,He is outside" and that ended an epic night where everyone had a blast.
Same deal with MassDre, awesome music = camera forgotten.
After that, the bands started packing away their equipment and we helped them get the instruments and the members themselves back to their hotel. They wanted food and nothing was opened at 2AM, so we went to this 24hours Vietnamese restaurant and had pho. I don't think the lady working there was impressed, but come on that's like $200+ of business right there! We attempted to have a conversation with Kim, Mikiko, and Natsuko during our food, so that was fun. Apparently Kim is part of the Blue Man group Tokyo? Interesting trivia I guess, unless he was just pulling our legs. XD Anyway, by this time, my friend Katt and I were exhausted and considering we had an hour drive back to her place, we pretty much dine and dash. XD We got home at 4AM LOL. Needless to say, the next day was a sleep and take it easy day.
Overall, the CDs do not do these bands any justice. Their live performances exceeded my expectations beyond any measure. I came to the show mainly for MassDre, but I think sgt. won me over with their live. ALL the bands were excellent mind you, but after seeing sgt., and then hearing their music again on CDs/ipod, it's taking on a whole other impression on me. Just oh. so. good. I also love the fact that there were 2 female drummers at the show (Midi from uhnellys and Maki from susquatch) they kicked ass! You can't really compare the first tour to the second tour because each and every one of the bands that participated brought so much to their performance and considering they played their hearts out, that's all that can be asked for. I would love to see all of these bands again, perhaps in future Japan visit. =) Definitely experiences I will not forget!
HUGE HUGE thanks to Steve for organizing these tours. The numbers were lower this time around, but I hope that doesn't deter him from arranging future tours. So I guess we'll just wait and see now. Would love to see toe, Midori, and clammbon. :S
If you live in/near these cities (Vancouver, Montreal, and Toronto), are a fan of Japanese music or just music in general, and wants to experience something new, you could be part of the NMFT street team. Please contact Steve here for information. He needs all the help he can get if tour #3 is going to happen!
