Tokyo Day 9: Lagitagida vs kowloon..... vs kuruucrew & ooioo
I'll be going to watch Lagitagida vs Kowloon at Shimokita ERA tonight.Keisaku Nakamura whom I met in Osaka as the support keyboardist for sgt (and toe) normally plays for the bands Kowloon, stim and Hotel New Tokyo. (Damn, he's in alot of bands!)
Both LGT and Kowloon are on Perfect Music Records. And even though Mariko Goto released 385's debut ep on her label, it appears 385 are managed by Perfect Music as well (since I met their manager last night).
Even though I'm committed to going to LGT vs Kowloon, I'd lalso love to check out the show at FEVER with kuruucrew, ooioo, MOST, Tadzio et al. I've been itching to see kuruucrew and especially ooioo (their drummer is so badass!).
Tokyo Karankoron have their album-release tour finale and one-man with secret special guests, the ever-cute Negoto at O-nest. But I've seen Karanoron numerous times and Negoto a few times as well. I'll also seeTokyo Karankoron on the final night of Swan Song Council.
Actually, 東京カランコロン are a band I'm strongly considering for NMFT vol 3 although I try to avoid bands with 5 or more members and now that they're skyrocketing in popularity I'll probably have to bring their manager as well.
there's even a 4th show I want to go to with アーバンギャルド (urbangarde) going on at Shinuku LOFT tonight.
Their PVs are always crazy and I've never seen them play live yet.
but they look like they kick ass.
I'll edit the post with a review of the LGT vs kowloon show later.... I promise.
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Despite the kickass show going on at Fever and the other great shows on the 18th, I chose to attend kowloon vs LAGITAGIDA @ Shimokita ERA. 1st of all, while lining up for the show, almost everyone in the queue was female. =) So the show hadn't begun but it was already off to a good start. hahaha. The opening act was a guy by the name of サカモト教授 (Professor Sakamoto). He's an extremely talented pianist with an incredibly quirky personality. His schtick is that he covers video game BGM songs on his keyboard while wearing a cosplay outfit and a Famicom (Nintendo) ES on his head. He brings out a bag of old school Famicom games and asks an audience member to choose one. Then he asks that person to plop the cartridge into the Famicom system on his head and proceeds to perform the corresponding BGM.
He played some classic Nintendo game BGMs solo but then brought out a session band "The Buggy Brothers" for the rest of his set. These guys were fiercely talented. I'd love to see them compose original songs instead of covering video game songs.
Super Mario never sounded so sweet. Despite the tongue in cheek nature of the performance, the sheer skill of each of the musicians was undeniable and it was a great open to the main event.
kowloon were up first. It was my first time watching this band and my impression is that they are tighter than the pod in a capsule hotel for pygmies.
Pure unadulterated dope sh*t. Everyone raves about Mouse on the Keys but I find kowloon's music much more interesting. As I mentioned earlier, Nakamura also plays keyboard for toe, Kimura Kaela, Stim, sgt, Hotel New Tokyo and more. He's a got a great deadpan sense of humor too. During an emcee break he mentioned that he also has a Super Mario song cover band. He urged the audience to come see them perform... although they never play any shows. =P
Lagitagida went on next. LGT is essentially sajjanu trading one of the 2 guitarists for a bassplayer and keyboards. Heavily prog but less experimentally insane. I think the main reason there were so many cute girls that night was because of ex-Mahiruno members Yasunori and Takehito. LGT is the new inst supergroup in Japan. Essentially a more commercially accessible version of sajjanu but still experimetal/prog as f8ck. The following clip is so sick it should come with a vaccine:
A much shorter clip:
I can't say whether I like LGT or sajjanu more. They both have their strong points... but LGT (due to Takehito) brings a pooload of hawt fangirls so slight edge to Lagitagida. hahaha.