monday october 13 2003
tonight I went to see an event at 20000V in
Koenji, called
FRAGILE SAMURAI
The bands had nothing in common musically. What they shared was a very theatrical approach to performing (props, costumes, absurdity, fabulousness). it wasn't punk so much as avant-garde CABARET. . . or 'carabet' ....
AS IF I'M GOING TO CARE HOW FRENCH WORDS ARE SPELLED!!!
The DJs were a red-haired queen and a giant cat. Meanwhile, twin TVs played home-made animations of the cat (NEKONOKO) and her friends.
nekonoko has a website. it's cute and you might not die if you go there. the LINKS section is INSANE-- a tantalizing glimpse at ALL SORTS of pop culture mayhem that i can't begin to make head or tail of.
The audience was like 75% art student girls and 15% drag queens and 10% crazy otaku guys with moustaches.
BAND NUMBER ONE: RED CHINESE HOTEL
This was so awesome: the singer is this out of control Gothic Tranny, Frankenfurter,
blouse-made-of-feathers, hip-high platform boots, kind of guy . . . and
he comes out and starts singing . . . . . TOTALLY MELLOW, EARNEST, PLAINTIVE,
INDIE ROCK. Like early pavement or something. How jacked is that??? For
an anti-stereotype guy like me, it was
A DREAM COME TRUE. Plus, the other guys in his band are total shoe-gazing
indie guys too!!
It's like he's an indie rocker that was given a makeover by Aliens From Planet Liberache and then they erased his memory. He just comes out on stage like , "What are you guys staring at??"
But the music was good! I went ape when they played WAITING FOR MY MAN!
the singer, Tanken, has websites also, if you would like to find out more about his band or gallery:
BAND NUMBER TWO: SPLIT MEMORY MAN
Remember last week when I was describing the effect of stage-hands unrolling
a plastic tarpulin at a live show? It's like, you
have no idea what's coming next, but you know it's going to be great. Well,
here's another 'leading indicator': space costumes with
little transparent eggs growing out of the chests.
These guys did not have one dull second - the only band where EVERY SINGLE PICTURE I TOOK LOOKS COOL. musically they're hard rock in the Def Leppard / Iron Maiden sort of way. . . .
BAND NUMBER THREE: (I think her name was EMI EREONOURA)
some lady with a serious Nina Hagen obsession: total Nina makeup, and a one-piece bathing suit made of fuzzy animal stoles sewn together.
here's she's screaming EXTRA LOUD because she's getting BONKED WITH THE MIC STAND. . ..
She just did acapella pseudo-opera noises for a while, then was joined by some noodly jazz bass player with awesome dredlocks. She was all, "ehhh ehh ehh IEIEIEIEEEE errrrr UBUBUBBBBB (taps microphone) TAP TAP TAP, wuuuh eghekraitdht, eiiiiiiiiiiiii-e-e-e UMMB bbthhhhhth."
BAND NUMBER FOUR: MECHA DOTECHIN
They mixed live punk music with pre-recorded Digital Hardcore style loops.
The singer's name is r-821. AKA Robo Honey. Robo-Honey-san had more metal in his face than anyone, but the freakiest thing about him was his BEARD. Like there were only 5 hairs but they were each 6 inches long.
A lot of the sounds they made were interesting and with a high Dance Quotient, but they kept doing that dumb Korn thing where "this is the quiet part. . . NO WAIT, IT'S THE LOUD PART. . . wait, suddenly it's the quiet part. . . AHHH NO IT'S LOUD AGAIN, AREN'T YOU SHOCKED???"
like, DUDE, if you're going to do dance music, stick to a groove and develop it with crescendos and stuff!!! if you want to listen for yourself, RoboHoney advises me that his webpage is here.
BAND NUMBER FIVE; JOUNEN
You know you have fun when a woman wearing bunny ears and head to toe gauze
medical wrappings comes out with a baseball bat, and she's got some Ronette-style
backup singers with her!!
The same band from the DEPARTMENT H show, but with hello kitty bathroom slippers this time. The audience had fun imitating the backup singers' little dance routines.
here's me and the promoter. we've been trading accessories, so you'll just have to guess who is who.
plus, THIS GUY brought a mechanical pepper shaker, complete with extension cord. the arm starts out inside the wooden case, then pops out 180 degrees and starts to shake. then he starts thrusting his pelvis. i'm not sure why.
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