2011/07/01 - ROCK'A'TRENCH 「Active Rock vol.1」 GUEST: tobaccojuice | 代官山UNIT

Jul 06, 2011 17:31

This was a sorta impulse buy, because I do like ROCK'A'TRENCH's old stuff.

Well, I also wanted to try out a new livehouse.




Daikanyama UNIT this time around! Also my first time in Daikanyama.


  


At the livehouse! I reached there too early (was a C-series ticket holder again), so I went into a nearby shop selling quirky stuff to bum.


 


Doors opened at 5.30pm and the show was supposed to begin at 6.30pm. However, they had announced that there'd be a special acoustic session starting from 6pm with some members from each band, so I headed to the stage earlier.




Goods booth on the way in. Didn't feel compelled to buy anything (except those silicone wristbands - am collecting wristbands of bands/brands I like - but they didn't have any anyway). The place was surprisingly empty and I was able to stand somewhere in the middle of the floor.

At about 6pm, the guitarist of ROCK'A'TRENCH came out (I didn't know who he was at first. Don't judge me... I like a band for their songs, not their people). He talked awhile about how this was the last show of their Active Rock series, and about how lots of things have happened along the way (like the disasters and all). Some people in the audience were giggling in the middle of his MC, and I was wondering what was so funny. Maybe it's an inside joke. Anyway, I think his band members pushed him onstage as a joke, while they were doing preparations. So he was all, "Okay I'll start on this song, we'll hit the chorus, then you guys will all clap and then the special unit will come onstage. Deal? I don't know what they're up to for the performance, but all I do know is that they've gone into the studio to practice."

He ended after the first chorus, and the next act strolled into the stage. It was comprised of two members from ROCK'A'TRENCH (vocals/guitar and bassist) and two members from tobaccojuice (drums and guitar). The vocals introduced them as The Sunglass Man (that's literally what he said - ザ・サングラス・マン), because all four of them had donned shades. The four of them settled down on their chairs, and the vocals sang a random note. I was reminded of how much I like his voice. It's clear and is mid to high range, but still carries with it a round-ish quality. My musical diet nowadays consists of so much pop punk that I've forgotten what a full-sounding voice sounds like <3 Both songs they did were Bob Marley covers. The first song was "Redemption Song". After that, the vocals talked a little and commented how he's been looking intently at each individual person's face, and how it was awesome that we couldn't tell that he was doing that because of the shades -_- The second song they played was "No Woman No Cry". The vocals stopped after the first line was asked why people were laughing. I didn't hear any laughter, strangely, so it must be girls in the front. Ugh. He went, "Okay, there's no way we'll be stopping a second time", but as soon as he went into the first verse and the rest of the instruments kicked in, they had to stop again because the bass was playing at the wrong key ^^;;; Apparently, the sunglasses were now at fault because then they couldn't see properly (yea, totally self-inflicted hahaha). They took them off for awhile, but put them on again in the end and tried again. Thankfully, no further hiccups and the acoustic set ended.

tobaccojuice

One of the first things I noticed was that all the band members were wearing a hat, and the hats actually stayed on during the entire performance. The only people I remember who wear hats during performances are Kuboty and the guitarist from 山嵐 (whose hat kept dropping anyway haha). But tobaccojuice don't do aggressive performances, so I suppose they can play their music and look oshare while doing so. The vocals/part-time guitarist looked quite like a hippy, and my thought process for the drummer was: "Hey he looks kinda like Mizushima Hiro." -> "Hmm his smile looks like 板倉俊之 from インパルス." -> "I KNOW WHO HE LOOKS LIKE NOW. HE LOOKS LIKE MATSUJUN." (For a period of time in my life, I thought Mizushima Hiro and Matsumoto Jun looked alike anyway hurr.)

But how the musicians looked aside, I remember liking the first and the last song (last > first though). There was a song in the middle that I felt bad for feeling sleepy at, because the vocals was putting in so much emotion and going crazy on stage (not in a rockstar-aggressive way. More... experimental?), but I just can't really appreciate those stuffs :x I'm the kinda person that needs lyrics in a song, no matter how good or bad. Don't do well with instrumentals.

ROCK'A'TRENCH

This is the first time that I'm in a packed livehouse, yet am still able to put my bag safely on the floor and not have to withstand any pushing. I was very amazed. Up till now, I've been resigned to the fate of being pushed around in livehouses and have crowdsurfers pass over my head, especially if I were to stand smack in the middle of the floor. It was a surreal feeling. But if anything, as bands who are semi-popular and vaguely shiny are wont to have, they do have squealy fangirls -_-

I was hoping to hear some of ROCK'A'TRENCH's older stuff (i.e. anything before the "Music is My Soul" single, because that's where I stopped following them at), but the only "older" song they played was, predictably, "My SunShine" :/ No setlist, because I don't know their other songs, and don't feel too motivated to painstakingly search in Youtube and match them up. All I remember is that "My SunShine" was played first, and "Music is My Soul" was played third.

The fourth song was pretty interesting in terms of its rhythm. It had a middle eastern feel to it, and the audience was clapping along to most of the song. Wasn't a simple rhythm to dance, listen, and clap along to - I actually had to concentrate haha. Which reminds me that I still can't get used to the way people here stand still and move their arms in a robotic way like a maneki neko during the choruses (does not apply to punk/rock though). But I suppose people enjoy their music in different ways, and they're probably looking at me and going "WHY IS THIS GIRL MOVING AROUND SO MUCH???" so all's fair.

The vocals talked about sone memories he had of cake being smashed in his face during his birthday (I think was it when they did a one-man here or something? Dunno). He then introduced the other guitar dude, who asked us how tobaccojuice was. He talked about how 2 months ago, he had seen tobaccojuice's vocals in Kichijoji (doing something, but I couldn't catch what he said). The vocals added that he had spotted the tobaccojuice dude in Shimokitazawa sleeping in a carpark. The baton got passed to the bassist, then the keyboardist/trombone player, and finally to the drummer. The drummer commented about how the drums were facing a strange direction (towards the other members), and how it felt like he was talking to the other members instead of to the audience. Attention finally returned to the vocals who talked about how this series of performances were replacements for the shows which they were supposed to do in March. They weren't sure if they should carry on with them, but felt that they had wanted to use music to encourage people to move forward with life. The band was collecting donations and had created stickers as a small gift of thanks for those who donated. It was amusing because the guitarist chipped in by saying, "We've thought carefully about where to situate the donation booth! It's at the lockers area, somewhere you'd definitely have to pass through if you want to go home." XD

The set ended, people called for an encore (omg hates shrilly fangirls). The band came out and they announced the release of their album on September 9th, after a 2 year long wait. The album's called "Bohemia", and the staff tried using the laser display the album name. But it kept rotating in the wrong direction, and we gave up waiting for it to be right (it corrected itself right at the end of the encore haha). The album was supposedly to create a feeling of "freedom", which was the reason for the choice of title. An album release tour was already in the works, and was called "Bohemiaism". They played a couple of new songs (but of course I couldn't tell them apart because they were all new to me). But one of the new songs was called "君へ" ("To You"). After this was the last song for the night, which was a pretty upbeat song.

I left the floor and milled around a litlte to check if they had wristbands for sale (which they didn't). Debated if I should ask the tobaccojuice drummer for a photograph, but felt bad because I wasn't there to buy anything. Did not take said photograph, and went upstairs in search of the donation booth. Joined a queue, which turned out to be for the donation booth. Got the siggys of the three members there who were tending the booth (bassist, guitarist and keys/trombone). Was stupid and let them sign on the back of the page where the GLORY HILL dudes had signed previously (the bassist flipped the page over and looked puzzled at the other siggies on the other side, but just signed anyway). Now I can't tear the page out and stick it somewhere since it's double-sided :( I should really buy a book for autographs. I like the keyboardist/trombone dude, and wanted to take photo with him. He said okay, but the staff came and was all "Sorry, there are other people in the queue.. Please try to move along". RAWR. Shook his hand, and left. I could have waited a little for the queue to disappear (and it did), but I didn't want to look like a crazed creepy fangirl, so I left the livehouse, sans photograph. Sigh.




I've only this to show for it. Not too bad, but I don't think I'll be seeing them any time soon to get my photo. We'll see about that :/

But yes, it's a really different feel from the type of lives I usually attend. Body needs a break once in awhile. Old. Hurhur.

Next live: 2011/07/05 - Goodbye yesterday vol.43 - BACKWARD REGION 「This Is Our Challenges」 RELEASE TOUR - BACKWARD REGION, 22nd RIOT, One's second son, 歌うアホウドリ | 東京 新宿ACB

concert, live report

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