Adventures in Japan

The Catch-Uppening Part Deux: Le Roque!!!

I'm gonna pull a Quentin on y'all. I'm gonna split my Summer Sonic recap in to two halves. It's just too long for one post. Plus I'm not done the last little bit yet. But will I throw in a twist at the end of this recap to make you look forward to the second installment even though said twist dulls the drama in the second part? Read on and find out!

First of all, in response to Carla's query: Yes, it was totally worth the money!

Carla had to work on Saturday, so I took off to the Summer Sonic site all by my lonesome. Lonesome and late. Always late.

Luckily a lady from Rock Rock recognized me and we chatted on the train on the way to the festival. She and her friends had custom made some Summer Sonic shirts. They were very nice, very cute and very pink. Did they make these shirts because they knew something about the availability of merchandise at festivals such as these? Read on and find out!

Okay, I'll stop with that.

Or will I?

Read on and finYeah I'm done.

Luckily I managed to meet up with Ben and his group almost as soon as the crowd of people separated me from Rock Rock girl. I told Ben how Weezer had been at Rock Rock last night (so swore Rock Rock girl) and he was a bit miffed. He had popped into RR last night and didn't meet them. He had been to RR a lot the past week. Mainly because of his sister. Ben's sister was in town, by the way. Nice girl. Very friendly. Not in the country two weeks and she had already been invited to stay over at Japanese people's houses. There were crying Japanese people when she left. Two weeks. We'll have been here for nearly three years before we're done, ain't no one gonna cry for us.

Where was I?

Right: Summer Sonic. Kishin and Yayoi (part of Ben's Big Band of Merrymaking) went to go take in Billy Talent and Alexis on Fire. I figured I'll get to see them for cheap once they crash and burn in a few years time.

Instead we went to take in The Caesars. First we stopped by the Rock Rock booth, said hello to some Rock Rock regulars and bought the first of many, many beers. We then went where our official guide told us to go, but the official guide was wrong. It was also free, so we weren't too fussed. Instead of The Caesars, Bullet For My Valentine was playing. Before Summer Sonic, weeks and months before, Carla and I thought it would be a good idea to harness the awesome power of the Intranets to listen to as many of the Summer Sonic bands as possible. Being lazy, we only got about half the bands. Bullet For My Valentine was one of those bands. My quick review of them: meh. But they had one song that I liked. Which is the song they started playing as soon as I walked in. As soon as it was finished I left and sauntered over to where I assumed The Caesars must be playing.



They were playing. They were playing some song that sounded slightly similar to the song that they're known for. Soonafter they played the song that they are known for. The crowd sang along to the chorus. Luckily, no one did the action that the song brings to mind. Sorry, that was a bit blue. After the popular song most of the crowd started to disperse, even though The Caesars were still playing. Poor The Caesars. I stuck around. My review of that song they played as everyone left: Like Jerk It Out but not as catchy. Really, The Caesars are basically this decade's Edwyn Collins but in band form. Just my opinion. Therefore, it's the right one.



Also, in my opinion Little Barrie are a pretty good blues-y rock-y band. Just three guys on the stage, but a nice big sound. Seriously, you should check them out.

I checked out Yellowcard. They were pretty decent. Pop punk with fiddle has always appealed to me. One of the leads, the fiddler actually, made the mistake of calling Osaka Tokyo. His bandmates joined the crowd in booing him. He then apologized in Japanese and everyone cheered.

After that I wandered around for a bit. I reflected on how lucky I had been in seeing the bands I wanted to see and hearing the songs I wanted to hear. Also, not a lot of line-waiting. As I thought that, I passed by a massively long line. It snaked back on itself so many times I had no idea where it started or where it was going. It wasn't for a musical act. We'll get back to this line later. "When?" you may ask. "The smell of chocolate," I reply.

HIM was amusing. The lead singer looked like a vain jerk who was dressed up in a purple crushed velvet goth type suit who knew that he was a vain jerk who was dressed like a ponce. The look worked for him. His band was... eclectic. One of the guitarists looked like Meatloaf's mentally challenged brother. With a bad haircut. Another guitarist looked like an ugly cross between Kid Rock and Axl Rose. The drummer was fat and bald and had a bad mustache. I only got to see two or three songs by HIM, but they did play my favourite song of theirs, so I my luck seemed to be holding out.



Except for when it came to my phone. Not just my phone as it turns out. At the time I thought it was just my phone, but it wasn't really the fault of my phone at all. The system was overloaded, there were just too many phones and so there was a logjam of information. Which made meeting up with Carla not all that easy. But I managed it, cuz I'm just that good. Didn't get to see any PuffyAmiYumi tho, so that sucked a bit.

Asian Kung Fu Generation was odd. They are a very, very good rock band. A very, very good Asian rock band. So they would expertly play a well crafted rock song and then expertly play another well crafted rock song. Not a lot of banter. Maybe we missed the banter as we were moving about, trying to meet up with Ben and his buddies. The sound system wasn't too crash hot for Asi Kan, could hardly hear them when near the back. Maybe the lead singer is just really soft spoken.

We thought we'd catch the end of Rammstein, just to say we've seen Rammstein, but we didn't get to see Rammstein. Rammstein. Instead of German Industrial Techno angry music we saw Minmi. Which was a cute girl backed by multiple other cute girls, all in hot pants, swinging towels around their heads. The audience was also swinging towels madly. I don't know where all these towels came from. Maybe they were gearing up for that there Hitchhiker's movie. Man, that was odd. Not at all what we were expecting. Don't really know what was up with Rammstein. I imagine they're just jerks.



I imagine it was a drug problem that kept Flava Flav away. They said it was a passport problem, but I prefer my proposal. Still, Public Enemy put on a decent show. Not that we saw all that much of it. We did, however, get to hear the sound of a funky drummer.

The drummer of Bloc Party may well have been funky buty the mix was so muddy and the sound so tinny that I can't say for certain. Easily the worst sounding mix all weekend. So of course I took the best pictures. They played that So Here We Are song, and it sounded decent at least.




Weezer was quite enjoyable, I might have enjoyed it more because I was with two huge Weezer fans. I also liked how Rivers Cuomo, the lead singer, rolled his eyes so hard it affected his voice whenever he mentioned Oasis.




The problem with festivals like this is that you don't get to see all the bands you might want to see. Not that we missed any band we really just HAD to see, but we just couldn't find the time for The Black Crowes, Teenage Fanclub and The La's.



Even from a distance, Oasis sucks.



Punk covers are just awesome fun live. An album of them might get annoying, but being there, watching the moshing, it was awesome. I'm going to see if I can remember what all they covered. Leaving on a Jet Plane, Me and Julio Down by the Schoolyard, Come Sail Away, Stairway to Heaven (right up there with Dave Grohl's cover, which is to say very good), Uptown Girl, and many, many more. You can fit in a lot of songs when you crank the tempo to 11. Me First and the Gimmie Gimmies's take on Wonderwall would clock in at under 2 minutes I'm sure. Speaking of which, my favourite cover of the night may well have been... This is how Fat Mike introduced it, "In honour of tonight's headline act (Oasis) we will cover one of their most famous songs." And then they launched into a Beatles Medley. All their other banter sucked, though. But their Hawaiian Shirts and matching guitars were totally fab!



Walking back to the train station we heard Oasis murdering a cover of (whining bout)My Generation.

What the hell was up with the people and the girls in the short shorts swinging towels? That was weird.