People with meaningless celebrity status aside, around a month ago I managed to make it through both days of Osaka's main summer music festival, Summer Sonic. Though it's not as big as Fuji Rock, this years artists at SS were, in my humble opinion, far superior. We're talking about a showdown between Red Hot Chilli's, Jason Mraz, Soulwax, Tiga, Snow Patrol (all of whom I rued the missing of), along with KT Tunstall, Franz Ferdinand, The Hives, Scissor Sisters, Gnarls Barkley and The Yeah Yeah Yeahs, all who made the long trip to the middle of nowhere 1 bullet-train-hour from Tokyo, and the line-up I ultimately preferred: Tool, Daft Punk, Muse, DJ Shadow, Massive Attack, Phoenix, A.F.I, Fall Out Boy, Lost Prophets, Hoobastank, and local boys m-flo. Of course that wasn't the whole schedule; The Flaming Lips, Arctic Monkeys, My Chemical Romance, Nelly Furtado, The Kooks, Keane, The Cardigans and some jokers called Metallica and Linkin Park showed up too, but sadly the timetable resembled a Mars Volta track, i.e. a complete mess that somehow pulls itself off as art, and far too many sacrifices were made. Still, even at 24,000yen for 2 days (~US$240), more than twice the daily cost of the Pentaport festival in Korea, it was well worth the effort.
Day 1 (Click for larger image)We arrived on day one far too late, thanks to being delayed on the bus by traffic, mainly people going to visit cemeteries. This isn't a fetish thing; the weekend happened to coincide with Obon, the festival of the deceased. Japan is probably the only country where you have to anticipate things like this, with maybe the exception of Mecca. New Years gets a lot more crowded with everyone heading to temples just before or after the countdown. Kind of an interesting predicament for the younger generation, who don't have the religion their parents did, but are so caught up in the different traditions that they can't imagine not being involved. I guess it's good for cultural karma. More culture than we have back home, though I can't decide if that's good or bad.
Anyway, we luckily managed to run in and catch Fall Out Boy start, who were just awesome. Highlight had to be one of their roadies, this big hairy guy built like Jack Black complete with afro and a near complete coating of fur. Pretty sure he was their idol, and he became the crowd's when he shook his sizeable booty, topless and sunburnt, to Dance Dance. If that guy can dance on stage like Bigfoot and Michael Jackson's baby, then noone in the crowd has any excuse not to be. Sadly, most of the crowd was pretty disappointing this year. Dunno if it was the heat, but I swear it went off far more last year.
Lost Prophets showed they really can't decide who they want to be, with a brand spanking new sometimes-I-cut-myself emo look, a schizophrenic playlist that mixed sell-out punk with the oldschool hard stuff, and though they couldn't be more American, the jokers from Wales couldn't help the Britishisms between songs: "Quite good, quite good" "Cup of tea?" "having a right laugh". Still, they were better than I'd been scared they would be.
The rest of the afternoon passed far too quickly. I've only become an A.F.I. fan lately, but their set made me love them all the more. They're pretty much the photonegative of Good Charlotte - proving that American rock can sell well without selling out. There's a fine line between the two, but they tread it well. Muse, on the other hand, were a little disappointing. Having said that, it was entirely the sound guy's fault: They sounded flat and unexplosive, and Matthew Bellamy knew it for sure, because he left two songs early. Still, awesome to see Supermassive Black Hole and Knights of Cydonia live, especially the latter where I desperately attempted to rouse the inert crowd. A dozen guys & girls nearby made my day by getting into it, but the rest of them should be ashamed of themselves, not reacting to great music like that.
I've wanted to see DJ Shadow for what seems like longer than I've been alive, so the disgusting clash between Tool and the end of his set was heartwrenching. What's more, though I will choose Tool over Linkin Park every day of the week, I was still gutted about missing them. The organisers didn't seem to realise that two quality rock acts shouldn't be pitted off each other like that. Tool should have preceded Metallica on Day two, on the main stage where they belong, but oh well. People are dumb.
Shadow's set was uplifting, his beats almost superceded by his visuals, including exploding crash-test-dummy heads, and drowning George Bushs. Tool didn't fail to please in the imagery dept. either, with hellfire and hypnotic patterns accompanying the standard crazy Tool graphics. Maynard looked like an American incarnate, oversized buckle, cowboy hat and aviators on top of a pasty potbellied nutcase, haircut like a buzzsaw mohawk and dance moves like a gyrating limbo-dancing crab. So evil, and so kicking of the ass. Seen Tool three times now, and I'm not disappointed yet.
Same can't be said about Massive Attack, who despite having a dozen guys on stage to bring their electronic tracks to life in an instrumental way, any "jamming" they seemed to try felt less like music and more like construction work. The tracks that did work sounded just like on the CDs, which was beautiful, but nothing special or new. Not bad, just a little plain.
Day 2Hobbled home sore and stinking from a hundred other guys' sweat (I'm sure mine was in there too). Thought it might be a little hard to get up for the second day, but Japanese hiphop called and I answered. M-flo, two guys from Tokyo with multiple guest singers, rocked the party that rocked the party. They have some interesting querks, like never taking off their sunglasses for photos or gigs, and quoting oldschool hiphop guys on many occasions (Sugarhill Gang and Bobby Brown for starters), but they're talented both with the beats and the mike. Japanese rap sounds cooler than you'd think, certainly far more than Korean or Indian. Though Spanish has to be my latest favourite rap language, thanks to Gotan Project.
As for the rest of the day, Phoenix rocked out far more than I'd expected (who would've thought French singers liked to crowdsurf?). Zebrahead showed why they never made it big after "Get Back", and Hoobastank took a page from Lost Prophet's book, in some good sellout rock. Douglas the American-born Japanese lead singer made his grandma the happiest lady in Osaka when he brought her out on stage to wave to her hometown's locals, on what will apparently be her last trip to Japan. Deftones got a deathcircle of all the gaijin who knew them going, and carried on their tradition of interesting covers when Chino spliced Shakira's "Hips Don't Lie" into "Change".
Dear any fans of Metallica,
I didn't watch more than two songs of Metallica's before I left to get a good spot for Daft Punk. Please don't hit me. I would have loved to watch them, but I figured they may well be back to NZ sometime soon, whereas Daft Punk was bound to be the gig of the year. Plus, Metallica's *cough* kind of boring. Please don't hit me. Please.
I wasn't wrong. Daft Punk were amazing, sitting inside their Stargate-esque pyramid which at first glowed, then shone, then projected images of the earth from space...AV heaven. The best thing was all the songs they played were new versions, with the old mashed up with the new, all full of bass and asking to be jumped to. Double encore (planned, but so what) included Da Funk, which I had dreams that they would play. Whatever energy I had left at the end of two days of moshing was completely spent then and there. I don't take drugs, but the air and water felt like what I can only guess Ecstacy does - couldn't stop smiling for hours afterwards. Pretty damn sure I'll be back next year.
