Apart from hiking in North Alps, another big agenda of our Japan trip was the Fujirock Festival. It was Asia’s biggest open air music festival drawing in international big names in the 3 days of non stop concerts. The last and only festival I did was Glastonbury 2002, and FJR certainly lived up to my expectation.
First evening, we were united again with MUSE, who visited HK
only back in March. It was definitely on top of our to-see list. Their powerful music sored through the valley, and the 3 gigantic plasma screen, displaying some really cool graphic that amplified the meaning of every song. The song “Invinsible”, which I have shared the powerful lyrics before, was my personal pinnacle, image of mass demonstration went hand-in-hand with the words ‘Together we are invincible!”.
Second day, Kaiser Chief, set the stage alive, Ricky Wilson, the lead singer was a chubby guy on the outlook, but he demonstrated so much energy that I though he must be steroid. He jumped off the stage and launched himself to the crowd again and again, bemusing everyone but the security guards.
On the final day, we waited for an hour to make sure we are in front of the stage when Mika came on. Martina danced wildly to her idol. Chemical Brothers came on in the penultimate concert. I heard they were good before, but I was never into dance music. But it turned out to be my favorite concert in the whole festival, the techno x laser x computer graphic on the plasma screen simply brings the week’s experience to a whole new level. Green stage was turned into a gigantic dance club or a massive rave party. Their set last for 1.5 hrs and after which we were so exhausted.
Here are some advices for anyone who stumble to this post and is planning to go in future:
1. If you can afford it, consider to stay in hotels instead of camping, as the camp site is outside the gate of the festival anyway, it makes little different to your experience if the tent is just a spot you go back to at the end of the day.
2. Even if it didn’t rain, bring a pair of boots with you, the Kate Moss festival look has imply caught on so well in Japan.
3. Don’t miss the cable car ride to the mountain top, the “Day Dream and Silent Breeze” stage was a real treat for us. Plan to spend 3-4 hours there away from the crowd.
4. There was some romantic installation art in the forest board walk, don’t miss them, especially in the evening.
5. Japan has a great system to courier heavy stuff anywhere around the country, people simply sent their camping stuff ahead of them.
6. Unlike Glastonbury, we were able to enjoy hot bath in Onsen, the quality of the festival food was excellent, the toilet never overflow, have a great time!
Wednesday, August 08, 2007
Fujirock Festival 2007
Wednesday, May 30, 2007
Same Jeans - The View
But don't care about names, just press play and sing along.... I've had the same jeans on for four days now, I’m gonna go to a disco in the middle of the town. Everybody’s dressing up I’m dressing down .....
Tuesday, March 06, 2007
Muse X Youssou N'Dour
Martina and I attended not one but two great concerts in a weekend, on Saturday it was one of my favourite Brit Pop band "Muse" in Asia World Expo. Then 24 hours later we went to the world's most loved Senegelese singer "Youssou N'Dour". Both were captivating performance, Muse's live act had so much energy, within a track, their music may swing from soulful piano rythum to a high octane explosive electric guitar display. Youssou N'Dour on the other hand played Afrian Music with a variety of styles. His songs imbedded political messages of social justice. In his most memorable song of the night, he said, "This song is about Africa. People often think of only 3 things in Africa, Povery, Aids and War. But there is more to it, there is also happiness." Then he went on to sang the sorrowful song that rings in my head since.
Monday, July 17, 2006
Weekend of Music
What a weekend it has been, Martina and I attended two very different gigs in just 3 days. Friday night we headed out to Grappas Cellars with Patrick and Joanna for the Summer Jazz Festival. Four local jazz bands were on show that night with two of them led respectively by two of the most well known jazz bands in town, Eugene Pao and Allen Youngblood. I like my jazz with sax and trumpet but Eugene Pao was doing some amazing picking on his guitar that made it sound like a saxophone ready to explode. Eletrifying stuff. Allen Youngblood is your typical New Orlean Afro Blues pianoist, but unfortunatly his band came on at the very last and the previous act by Cherryl Hayes was so overran that I was struggling to stay awake, nonetheless, he played so much good tunes that I can enjoyed then even when half asleep. Jazz gigs are so great when you are so drawn into the music that you don't realise you were even there, when the tempo suddenly changes, for a split second, you don't even know where the hell you are. Well Friday night was one of those nights.
Then Sunday, we turned 180 degrees for the gig by Black Eye Peas. I don't listen to much Hip Hop but for the last 2 months since we got the tickets, we always "pump it on the sterio" and "shake our hums". Well the BEP concerts were a great party, they didn't just sing, they were performing and the audience were not just listen, they were participating. We had a hell of a time there.
More from Freeyasoul on :Jazz Music
Monday, August 30, 2004
WOMAD 2004
WOMAD 2004 Returns!
Just got back from WOMAD Singapore 2004. It was a bit of a disappoint since last year. Not enough Latin America music and the both the Africa and Arabic selection are too commercial for my liking. Though Talvin Singh and Sultan Khan put up 3 great performances. Talvin Singh plays Indian mix Electronic from UK and Sultan Khan plays authentic classical Indian music. Their collaboration session on Friday night was very moving. Sultan Khan's Saturday session bought back so much memory of my India trip. Then Talvin was DJ an excellent Club session
