Because Japan is crazy about food, there are a number of minor 'food celebrities' here. One of whom is American Ramen shop owner Ivan Orkin. I've seen him on TV a few times and a couple of weeks ago I was asked to do a restaurant review for his place. People I've told seem interested in my article, resulting in some mild kudos at work! It's nice to get another cover story too.
Working for Tokyo Notice Board I get to write about upcoming events, and I often get the urge to go to the events I promote. The first of which I tried was a Ukiyo-e demonstration today in Mejiro, Tokyo. I'd learned a little bit about Ukiyo-e at University, but I didn't have any real knowledge of the subject until today. As I often say in my blogs 'it was a very rare experience' ... but it's true! A public demonstration from a trained master doesn't usually happen ... this time the Adachi Ukiyo-e foundation decided to make a special event for foreigners to see this traditional art form first hand.
There was a limit of 30 people, but since I knew about this event early I was able to reserve a place for me & Kozue. There was a really mixed, international crowd attending ... with a lot of French people for some reason. The print master Mr. Nakata had his equipment set up on a small stage, and the Institute's Curator gave us a talk with information about the process ... answering any questions we had.
For anyone that doesn't know ... the most famous, classic images of traditional Japan come from the Ukiyo-e art of Japan's Edo Period. Visually, they look like paintings (as the originals were) but the artform is rooted in reproduction. Images were made, to be printed and reproduced in large numbers ... making the idea of an 'original' piece a somewhat vague idea.
I was most curious to see how such detailed images could be created using only paint and print blocks. Today's demonstration was of the most famous Ukiyo-e picture The Great Wave Off Kanagawa (originally by Hokusai).
Hokusai's 'South Wind, Clear Sky' (Top Right) is also very famous ... but I'd never seen 'Rainstorm Beneath the Summit' before (Top Left) which is equally as impressive. I'd like to get behind the scenes of some more traditional or modern Japanese art some time soon ... let's see if I can make it happen.
Sunday was a busy day. I saw ELEVEN bands in total, and I could have seen more if I hadn't taken an extended lunch. The morning had several clashes, with bands I wanted to see playing at almost the same time.
Like Perfume yesterday The Ting Tings had a massive audience awaiting them at the Mountain stage ...the largest crowd of the day that I saw there. I'm not sure what size venues TTT are playing in the UK, but for their 2nd Japanese show this was insane! They were more than up to the challenge of pulling off such a huge show with only the two of them. Plenty of hits, plenty of fun ... thumbs up all around.
I got to see part of MGMT's set next... and it was mostly noodling. Really indulgent stuff, and less than thrilling.
I've only discovered Nottingham's Late Of The Pier recently. About half of their songs hit the spot today. They're a bit weird influence wise ...Klaxons meets Gary Numan... but any band that plays a hand made instument consisting of three planks of wood is alright in my book.
Danceable French act The Teenagers were next over at the Dance stage. Their set was ok ...at this point I was getting bored at hearing songs I didn't know...but 'Make It Happen' & 'Feeling Better' really stood out and were great fun to dance to. Lead singer Quentin Delafon seemed to be dressed as unfashionably as possible...for some reason.
Immediately after was Biffy Clyro's set over at the Sonic stage. It's been a good few years since I've seen them live, so this was a bit nostalgic for me. Biffy burst into action from complete silence to teeth-gnashingly loud in an instant with a double speed 'Semi-Mental'. The crowd was disappointingly small, despite not clashing with any other famous bands. Their recent gig in Shibuya was also similarly empty I'm told...Maybe because BC are so serious they can't seem to make much impact here. Singer Neil Simon had a really deathly vibe about him, and didn't seem to enjoy the performance much this time. Most of the set was from 'Puzzle' ...with no songs I can recollect from any older albums. The highlight was new single 'Mountains' which sounded immense, and may well be their best song to date.
The Boom Boom Satellites were the only Japanese act I saw all day. I had been interested in them while I was living in B'ham ... although their set today was a bit same old same old. They've been around since the mid-nineties ... and haven't really progressed much in recent years. Electronic music has come a long way in the noughties... something you can see by watching someone like Justice. They've got a lot of different influences in the mix...and while it was only strictly a DJ set these guys are cutting /pasting and mixing things up beyond anyone else I've heard at the moment.
Kozue was really excited to see Devo's set... and they were plenty of fans in the audience with Devo's plant pot hat™ on. Mark Mothersbaugh and co. are properly old guys, but they can still put on a great show. Listening to their songs it was truly amazing how many bands have ripped off Devo's stuff. (We can excuse Polysics as they are openly DEVOtees)
We had to dash over to the Marine's Arena to get there to see Coldplay... we got there in time, but I would have liked to have been closer. Coldplay have really gone up in my estimations recently. 'Viva La Vida' is one of my favourite albums of the year. And despite being far too popular... they're the only band that have installed me a with a feeling of hope this year. They were in fine form in front of a packed arena crowd. 'Violet Hill' & 'Viva La Vida' have become really popular here, and suitably went down a storm. There were a few songs I weren't so keen on in the set ('Politik', '42')... but the songs I'd been waiting to hear all summer came: 'Fix You', 'Lovers In Japan', 'Yellow' to name a few. The Japanese crowd got a nice surprise in the form of a cover of cover version of SMAP's 'Sekai hitotsu dake no hana'. Chris Martin did a really good job of singing in Japanese too. Less thrilling was the appearance of Alicia Keys for 'Clocks' ...but at least they didn't let her warble all over it. The big surprise of the night for us came about 3/4 through the performance when Coldplay ran down the divide in the centre of the audience and played an acoustic set on a podium directly behind us! The crowd surged forward, Kozue lost a shoe, but we got to see 'The Scientist' and 'DWNC' really, really close. What a surprise! We totally didn't notice them setting up the podium at all. The show rounded off with 'Death and All His Friends / The Escapist' ...with a large explosion of glow in the dark butterflies, which looked like they were flying gently above the crowd. The band played for much longer then they were scheduled to play (which suited us all fine), I think everybody was more than satisfied ...I'd say it was my best festival experience so far.
The day started with boredom. In order to be able to watch the first act of the day we had to get to the dance stage a full hour early. I've been meaning to blog about Perfume for a while now. For me Perfume have the dubious honour of being the only decent pop band in Japan. The music scene here really is so awful that they really stand out against all the disposable, landfill rubbish that I have to listen to every day. Musically they're an Electropop band, and a pretty loud one at that. Essentially the band is a front for the real talent producer/writer Yasutaka Nakata who I'd noticed previously in proper 'neo-Shibuya-kei' Electronica act Capsule before. But enough of the background stuff...
Onwards and upwards. I did a fair amount of wandering around on the Saturday. I managed to avoid the scorching heat by staying out of the Chiba Marines stage, and thus had a much better time all around this year. I was drawn in by Yelle's performance at the Dance stage again next. She was a whole load of fun. Her songs sounded like playground chants with a funky electronica backing (check out Je Veux Te Voir and A Cause Des Garcons to see what I mean) I could count the amount of French musicians I liked on a fingerless hand before, so it was good to discover her...and to see a proper performance. I caught bits of Kids In Glass Houses and New Found Glory's sets at the Mountain stage next. It's a biiiiiig indoor stage, and has the worst sound of all the stages. KIGH were kinda same-old same-old E-M-O fare, while NFG just sounded like a big rumbly mush.
I lasted one song of We Smoke Fags before walking out...Band Of Horses, I kinda like but they were a bit too sombre to watch for too long. The f***up of the day award went to The Kills. Who flew to Japan to perform at Summersonic, set up their gear, and just didn't perform. Singer Alison Mosshart came onstage to a massive chorus of boos and explained their drum machine had all of it's data deleted, and they couldn't perform. Was it the truth? Who knows, but they're idiots for disappointing all their fans.
I watched a bit of Panic At The Disco's show on the big screen from another arena. Unfortunately they they were in full on Beatles mode (well, more like the Rutles) from the start. They clashed with Death Cab For Cutie's set anyway so I wasn't going to miss that.
DCFC were the best band of the day for me. I'd never seen them live before, but I've become a pretty big fan of the band. Aisa told me she was quite underwhelmed with their gig recently... I gotta say they were really outstanding that day. It may be be the 'bands only try hard in gig cities' syndrome, but either way all four guys put in a really passionate performance.
Starting with 'Bixby Canyon Bridge' Ben Gibbard shattered the stodgy, professor image I had of him, proving to be quite the cool and intense frontman. Chris Walla turned out to be quite the geek I didn't imagine him to be though! The set was a bit light on 'Plans' material ...but featured most of the best tunes from 'Transatlanticism' & 'Narrow Stairs'.
The rest of the day was spent at the main stage, now thankfully cooler in the evening. I got to see most of The Verve's set. I'm not a massive fan of the Verve, but I wanted to see them just for posterity. The majority of the set was musically interesting, but really quite depressing. Richard Ashcroft in particular seemed lost in his own hopelessness. They pulled things around in the end with a strong finale of 'Lucky Man', 'Bittersweet Symphony' & 'Love Is Noise' to their credit.
Come to think of it I really was quite lucky to see so many top UK acts in one place here. If this were England, there's no way I could've seen all of these bands on the same bill. Lucky me. Next: Day Two.
Unlike last year I managed to make it to the MTV Video Music Awards show yesterday. It was a busy day for Kozue behind the scenes, I got to enjoy the show with my friend Yuko and her sister.
The show was in Saitama, which took a while to get to, but it was all exciting for us. The Saitama Super Area was as I thought humongous, we got to watch the show from seats high up to the side of the stage.
We weren't allowed to take any pictures inside, so you'll have to make do with the official ones. The show opened with diva suprema Mariah Carey (who may or may not have been miming, I couldn't tell).
There were plenty of performances to enjoy Fergie, Simple Plan, Orange Range, manvoiced J-Pop Boss Wada Akiko, and heartfelt pop singer
Ayaka. By far the biggest winners were Exile, Japan's most ridiculous Pop band. A long-time annoyance of mine, Exile are the 2008 strain of the never-ending boy band virus, who are best described as a mix of Mad Max & East 17 sung by bodybuilding Japanese Chavs. Never have you seen a pop group trying so hard to be cool. There are seven of them, but as you can see from the photo their live show was just a mass of bodies. As well as winning 3 awards, the crowd went absolutely bananas for them. So as terrible as they are, if they make people happy they can't be all bad.
There were plenty of celebrity presenters to give out awards. Loads of people I didn't care about, but it was cool to see Rinko Kikuchi, かわいい idol Leah Dizon, Bono (just for laughs) and human barbie doll Paris Hilton. Bono was here to present an award to terrible J-Pop rockers Mr Children and gave a political style speech about the upcoming G8 summit ”あたらしい かぜ が ふく” (a new wind is coming) Bono assured us.
I declare the ICC my favourite place in Tokyo! It's very easy to get bogged down with the boring side of life in Japan, visiting the ICC today in Shinjuku reminded how cool things can be here. My interest in modern art these days in usually limited to futuristic stuff and light based installations...and this place is dedicated to EXACTLY that kind of thing! I was excited to see one of my favourite Japanese artists Toshio Iwai had a piece on display, and there was an amazing looking exhibition opening the next day with music from Ryuichi Sakamoto. So it really was a mosh pit of my favorite kind of art. There were lots of press and cameras around for the Sakamoto collaboration: 'Life - fluid, invisible, inaudible...'. I'd never heard of the co-collaborator Shiro Takatani before, but I can't wait to see the exhibition for myself.
Back to the stuff that was already on display...unfortunately, you weren't allowed to take pictures inside...so photos from their website will have to do.
I won't go through all of the individual exhibits...but Drifnet is definitely worth mentioning. It's actually a bit different to the photo here...you stand inside a small room then the visuals on the wall react to your body movements with sound. It's gotta be seen to be believed.
I'll definitely be back here soon. It's really filled me with a sense of wonder that I haven't felt from art in a long time. Compared to the modern art on display in Birmingham I think I'm really in the right place for creative art.
Good work, well done! read more
on Ivan Ramen