The Other East

If I’ve learned anything about concerts in the United States, it’s that shows never ever ever start on time. Ever. Bands in Japan tend to start on time, but when they come here they can’t start on time either. La Carmina and I were actually a bit late, we rolled in at about 3:20. The doors were supposed to open at 3 and that that hadn’t happened. We wandered around the spacious venue for a while and found Lilac, who had asked me to come shoot this show. We also met up with Uzuhi, one member remembered me as that guy who got thrown out of Don’s Hill. Yeah…that’s me.

At around five the first band took the stage, it was a traditional Okinawan band. They weren’t terribly exciting material wise, but they knew what they were doing. Aside from that though the lead singer struck me as extremely happy and energetic, he really really seemed to be having the time of his life and it was impossible to resist enjoying watching him perform. It wasn’t a terribly exciting set, perhaps this wasn’t the proper event for this band, but it was definitely fun.

The second band, Happy Fun Smile, was an entirely different experience. They had the normal instruments you’d expect from a western rock band but they also had a guy on sax, a guy with some sort of full drum set rig he was wearing, and two vocalists (male and female). They humorously sung old-style Japanese pop songs before things got really weird and the male vocalist jumped down into the crowd and started teaching people how to dance, and before long there were 30 people in a circle doing a traditional Japanese dance with little prompting or instructing.

Well I guess I can’t say it was weird, it felt weird at first but it quickly just became rather charming. It was a bit odd watching a white guy in painter’s coveralls singing old Japanese songs but its apparently hard to resist a dance circle because the circle was about as big as the venue allowed, for those for which there was no room left and for those too shy to join their was still enjoyment to be found in watching the spectacle.

Soon enough though it was time for who I had personally come for; Lilac. I had met Lilac’s guitarist and lead vocalist before the band had been formed at the MUCC concert in NYC last year. I was shooting this show for them, and really interested to see how the group was developing. The first time I’d actually seen the group perform was at “We Love Rice V.2” earlier in the year, just a few months into the band’s lifespan. The band still hasn’t been together for even a year yet, but as they took the stages fans were screaming the member’s names.

So much of the Jrock the American scene is familiar with is either pop rock or some variation of metal, but Lilac is definitively neither of those things. This is hard rock, I could compare both the instrumentals and vocals to Vamps but it would be easier to just check out some of the videos of this concert for yourselfcourtesy of videographer Oscar Matos.

It was easy to see why when the band came on stage, most of the fans were screaming Hitoshi’s name. He’s extremely dynamic on stage; he sported a gigantic grin the entire set and frequently ran around the stage interacting with his bassist and drummer. Three person bands sometimes look a bit awkward on stage Hitoshi had enough charisma for about 10 people on this evening; power stances, dramatic arm sweeps, playing his guitar(which had its own character, used to the point that the varnish has been rubbed off) behind his head Hendrix style, etc

Dare I say that I enjoyed this brief set more then I enjoyed Vamps in Baltimore? This band which hasn’t even been together for a year? It may sound like ridiculous hyperbole, and I’m not sure the video conveys it, but there was electric in the air.

The headline of the show was Gurigula’s American concert debut, I had never heard of the band before this event was announced and I didn’t know of anyone else who had. La Carmina and I assume that the name is a Japanese pronunciation of “Caligula.” I kind of figured that this would be a rough sounding independent group, but I was wrong. Independent, maybe, but rough? Most certainly not.

This band had a retro sound with a modern aesthetic. That distinctive early 90s visual kei sound was alive and well here. Perhaps evolved, and slightly more tuned to modern tasted but you could definitely hear a root in bands like Luna Sea and Die in Cries . If you can imagine a harder incarnation of Die in Cries, you may be able to get an idea of what this band brings to the table sound wise.

The bassist and guitarist unfortunately didn’t have much stage presence, for most of the set they just sort of stood there and played. Occasionally the guitarist placed his foot up on the speaker, but generally there wasn’t much crowd milking going on by these two.

The lead singer though, had a flair for the dramatic. I believe he spent more of the set standing on top of the speakers and a large Kyo-style(Dir en grey) box that he brought out then he did standing on the stage. It wasn’t long before he was rolling around on the catwalk at the center of the stage with audience members screaming and reaching out for him. You only get to have your American debut once and he made it count.

There was a lounge/bar/dance floor down stairs that was being DJ’d by actual D.J.s, not just guys picking songs. Sadly though this room was pretty well empty, the crowd and energy was upstairs with Lilac and Gurigula. That’s a shame too, because I spent some time in there between the set upstairs and enjoyed it.

Uzuhi, arguable one of the most successful Japanese-American acts (they have a full USA tour going), was also playing tonight but sadly La Carmina and I couldn’t stay to see their set. As I mentioned before the show started late, an hour and a half late, and we had dinner plans with some of the Tokyo goth crowd that happened to be in New York.

People who don’t go to Japanese-American Jrock shows really are missing out, I can’t emphasize that enough. Its usually cheaper, and these groups really do care about the local scene and spend a great deal of time before and after sets interacting and befriending their fans. Some of these bands are really good too, I guarantee you won’t feel you’ve wasted your time and money if you went to say a Lilac or a [geist] or a Uzuhi show. I personally feel they are a lot better then some of the obscure Japanese bands the Jrock/VK scene likes. If anything these shows also end up being great social events. Support your scene! Come meet people!

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Tags: Jrock, lilac, nyc