Adventures in Japan

Grrr

I had a post all typed up with my thoughts on some movies we've recently seen. Then the computer died and I lost it all. Rest assured, it was fantastic. But I can't be bothered to type that all up again. Short version:
Crash - liked it.
Narnia - liked it less than Crash.
Munich - loved it.

With that out of the way, I can finish off the band reviews.

The last band we saw was called Natsumen. We didn't go out of our way to see Natsumen, we hadn't heard of them at all. It's just that Aka Inu was their opening act. And how can a band be bad when Aka Inu opens for them? Well, they could be Natsumen, that would certainly do the trick.

Ben, Jon, Carla and myself were at Club Quatro. We all adored Aka Inu. Within 5 minutes of Natsumen taking the stage Jon retreated to the back of the club. We all followed within the next ten minutes.

Natsumen is another big band. There's a brass section. A few guitars. Two drum sets. You take all that, add it up, and what do you get? Noise. Keep in mind that we had just seen Aka Inu (they're noisy), Deerhoof (Noisy) and Ariampo (NOISY). I liked all those bands, their noise is good. Natsumen's noise was just noise. There was no sense of composition, no 'songs' that could hook you, and that can work BUT there was also no sense of fun, no sense of exploration. It was just a bunch people on stage playing music. Not together.

All of their songs sound like the ends of songs. The jammy, improvised, loud ends of song. But without the build up, without the beginning and middle of songs, those endings of songs don't really work. They're sound and fury signifying nothing. Disappointing ending to an otherwise awesome weekend of music.