SCANDAL at PlayStation Theater, New York City 09/05/2018 REPORT!

Image from SCANDAL's official Facebook

10 years after their first concert in the city, Japan's all-female rock powerhouse SCANDAL finally returns to New York! This is part of their "Special Thanks" tour of North America, for fans who don't often get to see them in a live setting. What follows is my show report, as I've done after all five shows of theirs that I've attended (the previous four in Japan). I had a VIP ticket to this one.

What did that VIP ticket buy? Well, early access to the venue and merchandise, and most importantly, a meet & greet with the band! SCANDAL never do this in Japan, so I couldn't pass up the chance.

You can get an idea of the makeup of the crowd from the above pic of the line. This was the two sections of the VIP line - I was told initially that the other section was General Admission and was a little confused when they were let in first, but no, they were the VIP's too. They're people just like us!

Unlike the past four SCANDAL shows that I've been to, this time I was by myself. I'm fine with going to concerts alone and this is not my first time doing it, but I had nothing but my phone to take my mind off the oppressive heat while standing in line. (The photo above may look like it's indoors, but it's more like an open air garage - actually worse than being on the sidewalk because there's no wind!) I was already drenched in sweat before entering the venue, which didn't help my nervousness about meeting the band. "Luckily" there was still about a 30 minute wait inside before getting to them, in air conditioning.

I'm going to do something I normally don't do here and post a photo with myself in it, because it's probably a once-in-a-lifetime occasion:

Yes, I'm a huge doofus, literally. They look great while I look like the Jolly Green Giant. And what do you do with your hands in this situation?! That's a dilemma I hadn't considered! I had to laugh when I first looked at this picture afterwards (at myself, certainly not them!). I'm 6'4", but I look about 7 feet tall in this photo. It's like a bad Photoshop job. But no, it's real. And it's proof that I met SCANDAL and I am really happy to have it.

There - all fixed!

Everyone had about five seconds at the meet & greet, which I expected. I had come up with some short things to say that I thought they'd understand in English like "welcome back to New York!" and "you guys rock!" and "have an awesome show!" I'd given up the idea of trying to say anything in Japanese because I knew I'd never pull anything out of my head quickly enough. But in the end, all I even managed in English was "Hello!" while walking in and "Thank you!" while walking out. They repeated both back to me with big smiles and waves and were very friendly - they seem like nice people! They'd probably have been ok with me saying a few more things, but I was a little star struck.

After the meet & greet, I kind of expected I'd be handed an "exclusive gift" that I'd seen advertised for some of the US shows, but no - no one got anything, and the staff knew nothing about it. (Other people online seem as confused about this as I am, so it's not just me.) Well, since I was at least satisfied that I didn't miss something, I shrugged it off for the moment, still happy to bask in the afterglow of having just met the band, and took my place on the floor.

This is not much different from where I was when I saw them in Nagoya, about 4 people deep and right between Haruna and Mami. Very close! I didn't think I cared about being so close this time because I've been that close before, but when I saw the space available, I couldn't resist. And once the show started, I was glad I ended up there.

Image from SCANDAL's official Facebook

The venue itself seemed pretty full from where I was by the time the show started, although I couldn't really tell if the crowd filled all the way to the back wall.

Unlike at their Japanese shows, photos were allowed at this venue - though with only "non-professional" cameras, which means no interchangeable lenses. (And no video.) My phone is the best non-professional camera I have right now, so it's the only one I brought with me.

The show started on time and began with a thunderous rendition of "Shunkan Sentimental". A real crowd-pleaser and tone-setter right from the start, and a good sign for the set list to come! In fact, no need for suspense - here's the full set (from Scandal Heaven - I didn't write it down myself):

01. Shunkan Sentimental
02. Awanai Tsumori no, Genki de ne
03. Stamp!
04. Your song (English ver.)
05. SCANDAL BABY
06. Platform Syndrome
07. OVER
08. FREEDOM FIGHTERS
09. Morning sun
10. Departure
11. Koe
12. Sisters
13. Koisuru Universe
14. Electric Girl
15. LOVE SURVIVE
16. Take Me Out

Encore:
17. Shoujo S
18. DOLL

Great choices, I thought, and a decent length to the show - although it felt very short! It was a rock-heavy set, which suits my tastes. And SCANDAL, unlike many bands, fully embraces their history and never seems to tire of playing their past hits, even while mixing in new ones.

They blasted through the first four or five songs without a break before finally pausing for a short MC. Their energy level right from the start was very high, jumping around as much as I've ever seen them, and they seemed to be in a good mood. The MC segments, if you're wondering, were very short, because they don't speak a lot of English. But they (mostly Haruna) did their best, sometimes mixing English and Japanese, sometimes speaking only Japanese but using hand gestures and sound effects (which was funny!) to make a point. But none of the few MC segments were longer than a couple of minutes.

They did mention their previous New York show several times - the first overseas show they'd done - and said because of that, playing here felt like "coming home". At one point, Haruna asked if anyone had been at that first show - when one fan raised his hand, she asked, "are you a liar?" I personally discovered them just about a month after that show - maybe it was even reading about it that turned me on to them - so I've been a fan for nearly as long as they've been around, but just missed their NYC debut.

Since a New York show by SCANDAL is not exactly an everyday thing and I'd basically paid extra to be close to the stage, I decided to do my part to give them a good show and make it worth the trip for them. I've been in bands and it really is true that the band can feel (and see) the energy from the crowd, and it affects the effort that the band puts in and the way they feel about that show afterwards. So, especially being that I was alone and not worrying about what anybody around me thought, I went pretty much all out with as much energy as my own now middle-aged, lanky body could muster up. (I wasn't middle aged yet when I first started listening to them!)

Image from SCANDAL's official Facebook

I was drenched in sweat again by the middle of the set. Luckily I had brought my old SCANDAL towel with me, and bought a second one at the show to swing around. (I don't want to fling my sweat at the rest of the crowd.)

The first five songs in the set all seemed pretty well known by the crowd, and many people even knew what they were supposed to do - if you've never seen a Japanese band live, there are specific actions for different songs that everybody does in unison. Jump at certain times, wave your hands at certain times, yell "Hey!" at certain times, clap at certain times. In New York, obviously not everybody knew those things, but a lot of people did, and those of us who did led the rest of the crowd.

I felt a little bad for the band during "Platform Syndrome", "OVER" and "FREEDOM FIGHTERS", though, because clearly most of the audience just didn't know them. I do know them but I didn't know what to do during them... so I just did my best. A lot of people just stood around listening, but I think those are some of SCANDAL's best songs ever, so I was still in full bounce mode. I guess most of their US fans just haven't bought those albums. If you haven't, do it!

"Morning Sun" and "Departure" felt like a break for both the band and the crowd, and I definitely needed it. I've noticed that they often put a couple of slow songs in the middle of their longer sets, probably for just this purpose. It's also when I was able to take the few pics that I did - it was one of the few times peaceful enough to do it! Again, I felt like "Morning Sun" was probably over some of the crowds' heads - did some people just stop buying SCANDAL albums after "STANDARD"? But I love that song. I'm not as into "Departure" but I know some people are, and more people seemed to know it.

The back half of the set kicked back into overdrive (no pun intended) beginning with "Koe", which I failed to recognize at first and the crowd took a strangely long time to react to. (In Japan, this song always causes an immediate eruption. According to the band's own fan club poll, it's their second-most popular song there, next to "SCANDAL BABY".) I think the band might have slightly altered the intro, but it's hard to remember. When we all did finally recognize it and began rhythmically clapping during the first verse, Mami smiled, looked around at the crowd and nodded as she sang.

Image from SCANDAL's Line blog

"Sisters" came following a short MC in which Haruna dedicated the song to New York City (I'm not quite sure why), and without an acoustic guitar she created a new quiet electric intro that led to a funny moment when an audience member blurted something out just as the intro began. Haruna abruptly stopped, looked at the audience member and said "Really??"

Throughout the set, being so close to the stage and one of the tallest blades of grass, I got plenty of eye contact from both Mami and Haruna. And whenever Haruna looked at me, she smiled - no doubt because I'm a big, goofy guy who was going nuts. I've been this close to them before but never seemed to catch Haruna's eye; I think this time I was just able to give her something fun to watch. Especially in the songs where not many other people were doing much.

And I like to think I was partially responsible for the little burst of extra energy she seemed to muster towards the end of the show - she was really going crazy herself by the time "Love Survive" and "Take Me Out" came around. I don't think I've ever seen her jumping so much, and the only time I've seen her scream and come to the front of the stage so often was in Nagoya. She was uncommonly aggressive, especially during "Take Me Out" - a song that I have no real feeling for on the album. But it just goes to show how songs can take on new life when played live, as all of the band were bouncing around the stage like Super Balls. It was an awesome close to the main set.

Image from SCANDAL's Line blog

The encores were expected, but the song selection was a surprise. I didn't expect them to do anything with choreography on this tour (not sure why... playing in America plus getting older plus generally de-emphasizing choreography over the past few years, I guess). So when they launched into "Shoujo S", probably their most famously choreographed song ever, I just about lost my proverbial shit. It was the extended version with the solos for everyone - the only time Rina was really able to do anything directly for the crowd, but one of several moments when Tomomi was able to show off her frankly amazing skills on bass. And yeah, they did all the choreography they've ever done for that song live (which is a bit less complicated than the video, but not much), and they still look like they love doing it.

Image from SCANDAL's Line blog

Closing with "DOLL" seemed appropriate but was still unexpected - normally they have only one towel-waving song on a tour, and I'd heard that "Electric Girl" served that purpose on the recently concluded Asia tour. But "DOLL" is the original towel-waving song, and it was their major label debut, so closing with it on this tour is kind of a love letter to the fans, and seemed an intentional book-end to their two NYC shows 10 years apart. By the end of the song, I could barely even keep my arms in the air. I will say that I was the only one in my area of the crowd waving a towel, but goddammit I didn't care. That's what you're supposed to do during that song! I know the band appreciated it.

Image from SCANDAL's Line blog

The band did an extended goodbye like they do at one of their big special shows, and when they walked off stage, I could see them high-five each other backstage. They may always do that, but like everything else at this show, it looked particularly forceful and with real emotion behind it.

Overall, this was the most raw and most into it I've seen SCANDAL in some time. I wrote in my last show report from Tokyo in 2015 that they'd almost become too polished for a live house setting, but at the NYC show they seemed to embrace the casual venue and let it all hang out. And no one can connect with a crowd like they can. Seriously, no one. Even across the language barrier. Rock music is a universal language anyway.

Let me close by saying (admitting?) that after all these years - and it has been a lot of years now - SCANDAL can do no wrong in my eyes. Trust takes time to build up, and I admit that they almost lost me a few times, what with their occasional forays into rap and pop. But I've grown to trust them completely as a rock band - after 10 years, it's obvious that there's no one more genuine. They've come a long way and done a lot of different things since that first NYC show in 2008. And I know that whatever they do in the future, I'll always be a fan.

As usual, a couple of random notes that didn't really fit in elsewhere:

• The actual sound at the show wasn't great. This was almost certainly a venue problem, not anything the band had control over. If you were there and it was your first SCANDAL show, just know that they usually sound better from a technical perspective. In fact, their great live sound is something I've talked about in my other show reports.
• The merchandise available at the show can be seen on the SCANDAL official Facebook. They also had "HONEY" CD's, but nothing else extra. (If you're going to a later show and don't have it, buy "HONEY"! It's great!) I personally bought the XL black t-shirt and a towel. I recommend buying a towel, unless you have a SCANDAL towel already. As mentioned, there's always at least one song, and in this case two, where you're meant to wave your towel around.
• Haruna's short hair actually looks pretty badass live. It bounces around and gets in her face and makes her look even more like a rock star, if that's even goddamn possible.
• I was pleasantly surprised by their tour outfits! Last time in the US, they wore what looked like street clothes. Their current outfits suit their image better, and look more "designed" and coordinated. I don't ever expect them to go back to stuff they wore in the distant past, but their current outfits are an improvement over jeans, overalls and football jerseys.
• The old Squier signature guitars were mostly absent - though I was happy to see Haruna break out "Skullsilver" for the encores. I think she still likes it! Mami only played her black Strat, from what I remember, while Tomomi played her navy blue P-bass and her white Yamaha BB2024X.
• The band has to bill themselves as "SCANDAL from Japan" here, because of a certain other Scandal that's been around a lot longer in the US. Unlike some people, I don't mind this and I honestly doubt the band does either, because the American band is still active and has been since the 1980's (and there is no better example of the 80's than that link). I probably would have preferred the simpler "SCANDAL Japan", though (similar to "X Japan", who took that name for the exact same reason). The "from" just makes it sound like it's part of a sentence. It's kinda weird, but ultimately doesn't really matter.

This is my fifth SCANDAL live report - read them all!

• SCANDAL at PlayStation Theater, New York City 09/05/2018 REPORT!
• SCANDAL at Tokyo International Music Market 10/21/2015
• SCANDAL at Fujita Hall 2000 (Nagoya) 10/25/2014
• SCANDAL at Tokyo NHK Hall 11/07/2013
• SCANDAL vs. Budokan (Tokyo) 03/28/2012

There's music everywhere! Surround sound music formats from 8 Track tape to Blu-Ray

My latest video's the first audio subject I've tackled in a while: surround sound music. I've always had a curiosity about the 1970's quadraphonic era - I lived through it but didn't really experience it at the time. But since then, the industry's released more and better surround sound formats over time, and I look at everything from the quad era up to today's DVD and Blu-Ray audio to see if anything's really worth listening to. (Spoiler: yes!)

This video was actually really difficult to make, not to mention my most expensive video to date. Making videos about sound is not easy - who knew? Tricky to talk about surround sound when you can't actually see it or hear it through YouTube! But hopefully it's an interesting video nonetheless.

PERFUME at Hammerstein Ballroom NYC 09/04/2016

This past weekend, Japanese electro superstars Perfume paid their second visit to New York City. And WOW, what a show.

Let me take a step back for the uninitiated. Perfume is still not very well known in the United States, and it's easy to look at them and think they're some kind of cheesy pop group. They are not.

Perfume describe themselves as "idols with artistry". Produced by Yasutaka Nakata of electro group Capsule, their sound crosses from pop to trance and house. But their sound is only half the story. Every one of their songs is accompanied by a visual overload of futuristic lighting design and stage effects, as well as incredibly intricate and difficult synchronized dance routines. All done in heels. Respect!

Think Daft Punk, if both members of Daft Punk were constantly doing a mix of synchronized hip hop dance, ballet and martial arts moves all concert long. In heels.

They're a true sensory experience like no one else. They make other electronic groups' live shows seem like a bad joke. They have literally redefined the skills required to entertain as an electronic act. Whenever I just listen to one of Perfume's CD's, I feel like I'm missing something. I don't feel like I'm really getting the point.

This is the point. Full-on performance art, just a lot more fun:

That's not my video - in fact that's from their 10th anniversary concert (and may be taken down eventually, so hopefully you see it first). That was shot at Budokan, which is actually a small arena for them in Japan - they often sell out stadiums in their home country. They are YUUUUUGE.

In New York, they've played Hammerstein Ballroom both times they've been here - a much smaller venue than they're probably used to. I saw them both this week and in 2014 - there's actually an official disc of the "WORLD TOUR 3rd" 2014 NYC show:

(also ripe for a record label takedown - enjoy it while you can. Then buy the actual disc.)

I really hope they give this week's show the same treatment, because it was even more visually impressive and it was also the last show of the tour. Drones, lasers, LED costumes, projection mapping, they threw the kitchen sink in there this time around. There are a few fan videos floating around on YouTube - I don't like to embed fan videos, but feel free to search.

I didn't write down or memorize the set list, and I haven't been able to find a good source for the show on the 4th. But here's the set list for the 3rd if anyone's interested - it should be the same or similar:

Navigate
Cosmic Explorer
Pick Me Up
Cling Cling (Album Mix)
Miracle Worker
Next Stage with YOU
Medley: Relax In The City / Toumei Ningen / Spending All My Time / Fushizen na Girl / Twinkle Snow Powdery Snow / Computer City / Imitation World / Sweet Refrain
Baby Face (Performed with English lyrics)
STORY
FLASH
Dream Fighter
Fake It
Polyrhythm
Jenny wa Gokigen Naname
(Juicy Fruits cover)
Chocolate Disco (2012-Mix)

Encore:
STAR TRAIN (Album Mix)

I don't know a lot of their songs by heart yet so I was a little disappointed they didn't play the few that I do know and really like: Game, Party Maker or edge. (They played two of these in 2014.) But, it's a tour promoting their latest album "Cosmic Explorer", so most of the songs were from that. Otherwise, they played a few of the songs that made them famous, which I can't fault them for.

Ah, what the heck. Here's Party Maker again, probably my favorite version of it that I've seen, from the 4th TOUR IN DOME disc:

That's just fantastic. Have you ever even seen a show like this from anyone else?

At the show this week, there were a couple of long MC segments, as is common for Japanese groups, and this time it was almost entirely in English. Nocchi and Yuka-chan are both getting very good at English, and were even able to carry on a conversation with the crowd. A-chan is a little shakier - she's obviously learning but she had to recruit a Japanese-American member of the audience (his name was Ken) to translate most of her comments. This led to some unintended comedy as Ken often wasn't ready and even once admitted to "zoning out" while he was supposed to be listening. Nocchi, who was on his side of the stage, eventually had to give him cues to keep his head in the game.

I'm always amazed at how they can do what they do for hours on end. If you look at the set list carefully, and imagine a couple of long MC's thrown in, you can see that they do give themselves breaks every once in a while. But still - the amount of energy they put into a single song is more than most artists put into an entire show, and that's regardless of genre. And they barely break a sweat. And they do it, again, in heels. This point can't be emphasized enough.

I'm normally more of a rock person myself, but there's just no way to look at what they do and say "eh". They are probably the only group of any kind that makes me say "whoa, look at that!" whenever I see them. And that's true almost whether or not I actually like the song they're singing. (Do they actually sing live? Sometimes. Yes. Not always. The singing's not really the point.)

I'm really not sure how long they can keep this up - they've been around for quite a while now, and this has got to be physically demanding. They said at the show this week that their goal in America is to make it to Madison Square Garden (with all of us). Here's hoping they can do it soon.

ONE TIP: If they somehow make it back to Hammerstein, get tickets on the floor. Both times I've been in the second balcony, and while the sound is good (and loud) everywhere and it's a lot closer than you'd ever get to them in Japan, it still can feel a bit like you're watching the show from outside. Like most Japanese bands, they have no opening band and they start on time. So you don't need to worry about standing around for hours waiting - there was plenty of space only about 20 feet from the stage as late as about 7:45PM, with an 8PM start.

I'm officially a hipster - joining the vinyl resurgence

Reading my own blog post on the vinyl records I've still got sitting around inspired me. Setting this up was my day yesterday:

And no, that wasn't a planned tribute to George R. Martin - it's a cosmic coincidence.

Still gotta hide some wires, but I've got a turntable system again!

That's a Monoprice hybrid tube amp down there - a steal at $149, though it does have some transformer hum and the Bluetooth is basically useless unless you have low bit rate files. (It works fine for my wife and her older mp3's, but it skips and pops periodically with my 256k and higher files. Small buffer, I guess.) But look at those tubes!

The turntable's a cheap old Teac P-595 that's been sitting in my attic for years - I think the last time I had it hooked up was when I was in college at NYU and working at Zapp Records on Bleecker St., maybe 20 years ago. I did do the smart thing back then and put the best cartridge I could afford on it - an Audio Technica AT331LP. I'm probably going to replace this whole turntable pretty soon, but it still sounds pretty good right now. That old stylus could be digging holes in my records for all I know, though.

The speakers are old Pinnacle PN5+ bookshelf speakers that have also been sitting around, though these in my basement. Love to repurpose old stuff again! These were basically as good as it ever got for bookshelf speakers, and they still sound amazing. (You should buy a used pair on Ebay - they regularly go for $50! Just make sure you check the model number - PN2's, PN4's, even PN8's just don't sound as good.) When I was in high school and college, I worked at a stereo store, so I got to know all the good deals. These speakers were about $150 per pair and they sounded as good even at that time as some others that cost ten times the price. All my co-workers had them, at both stores I worked at.

I've bought a few new records since the post that inspired this, including that replacement copy of The Beatles' "Magical Mystery Tour", which I got in Las Vegas at the Beatles Love show. This was actually the first album I ever remember listening to as a kid, when I was about five years old, so the choice here was definitely intentional. That original copy tragically met its end in a temper tantrum I had as an eight year old, in which a giant pile of records was turned into so many shards of broken black plastic. This reissue looks and feels exactly as I remember, including the big booklet and gatefold sleeve. (I remember the original one had a big green apple on the album label, though.)

There is something real about the vinyl renaissance. Having any music on demand all the time is convenient, but it's cheapened it; it's made music background noise. Playing a record brings back what it was like to really listen to music, as an active thing. It makes music seem special again. I remember when it used to be a big deal to go out to a record store and come home with a new album, then sit down and really listen to it. That record was the only thing on your turntable - you weren't going to press a button and switch to something else if 15 seconds of a song was too weird, fast, slow or quiet for you. Your attention span had to be longer.

This isn't just a nostalgia thing, it's not really about sound quality and it's also not somehow about the Rube Goldberg-like complexity of the process. It does take a little more effort to listen to a record, but every part of it's enjoyable. It's not just mashing part of your iPhone screen and hearing something pop into your earphones; even just picking up and putting down the tone arm on a turntable is a satisfying feeling. That's what it's about, and why I think this is going to last - it's about bringing back the enjoyment of listening to music.

I guess I need to start shopping at Urban Outfitters now. (That's a joke.)

Seeing a band at a Japanese "live house" - Yen Town Band at Zepp Tokyo 10/22/2015

My wife's been a Chara fan for many years, and she's been a fan of the film "Swallowtail" almost as long. In that film, Chara plays a prostitute who becomes a singer as her little group of gangsters tries to go legit, opening up a live house (rock club) in the process. The house band is known as "Yen Town Band".

It was a fictional band created just for that movie, but this year they're going out on tour. It's kinda like Spinal Tap, except Chara's a real singer and it's not a comedy band.

My wife and I saw them at Zepp Tokyo on October 22. I'll talk a little about them but since I don't know all that much about Chara, I thought I'd use this post to also talk more about the process of going to a Japanese live house show. It can be a little daunting and really confusing for a westerner, because it's so different than how these shows work in the US.

SCANDAL at Tokyo International Music Market, 10/21/2015

So I saw SCANDAL for the fourth time in four years on this trip, which is pretty unbelievable, to be honest. I never plan it out; they just always happen to be playing when my wife and I go. This time they were doing some kind of special show for the annual Tokyo International Music Market with Androp, who I'd never previously heard of, and FLiP, the guest opening band.

By now I've been to several Japanese concerts but this was my first "live house" (aka club) show as a member of the general audience. (I'd previously seen Aldious as a guest of the band). It was at Zepp DiverCity Tokyo, not to be confused with Zepp Tokyo (where the "Everybody Say YEAH!" DVD was filmed), although they are literally a few hundred feet apart. (We went to Zepp Tokyo the night after for Chara's Yen Town Band, although that's another post.) Both venues are in Odaiba, one of my favorite areas in Tokyo, and within walking distance to our hotel, which was pretty awesome.

Zepp DiverCity is right behind the giant full-size Gundam that the area's sort of famous for. It's literally inside a mall, with a giant food court right next to it. How many rock clubs have a food court? It feels kind of like going to a 1980's mall multiplex. We did have to wait outside for the show, though - and I'll write up a lot more about the general Japanese club show process and experience in my Yen Town Band post. Things were pretty chill at DiverCity because the crowd wasn't actually that big, but Zepp Tokyo was a lot more hectic.

We got our tickets to SCANDAL from e+, the official ticket seller, and by the time we did we had a pretty high number, so we were lucky to get pretty close to the stage (about 8 heads deep) with a railing to lean on. The venue was not full, which was surprising for a couple of big bands. I don't think SCANDAL advertised this show all that much, and anyway their fans would know it's a small show and probably a short one. Still, these days you don't get a lot of opportunities to get really up close at one of their shows without getting very lucky, so I'd have thought the place would have sold out.

As always, photos inside the venue were not allowed. I tried to grab a snap of the stage but the venue staff were staring at me the entire time - I was right at the side railing with security sitting right next to me (and I'm a westerner so I draw more scrutiny). Luckily the band themselves posted a few shots to their blog and Facebook:

The band looked exactly the same as they did at Rock in Japan Fes. 2015, if you can't tell by the photos.

Some thoughts on the opening bands:

FLiP: To be honest, I didn't know who they were the entire time they were on stage! I've heard of them and seen pictures, but I don't know their music and I'd never seen them play. They rocked pretty hard, though. They feel a lot more like an American indie rock band than SCANDAL does these days, and I dig that. They're raw and unpolished, but in a good way. They only played three songs, but they extended the last one for some audience participation, with the drummer coming out to rile up the crowd the same way Rina sometimes does for SCANDAL.

Androp: There were actually quite a few people in the crowd who were there just for Androp - I saw a lot of Androp t-shirts being worn, and more than a few people left after they finished. But I just didn't get it at all. To me they sound like any generic Japanese rock band you could name; they're a walking stereotype. I suppose their distinguishing feature is supposed to be that they mix electronic music and rock (that's "genre-defying", apparently), but a lot of bands have done that over the past 20 years - it's not unique. I found their melodies unsatisfying, their songs mostly boring, and their stage act predictable. They're like a Japanese Jesus Jones.

SCANDAL
As for the main event, let's start with the set list:

M1.Stamp!
M2.EVERYBODY SAY YEAH!
M3.DOLL
M4.Shunkan Sentimental
M5.Shojo S
M6.Kagen no tsuki

MC
M7.Sisters
M8.Your song
M9.Image

ENCORE
EN1.Awanaitsumorino, genkidene

When I saw SCANDAL on the STANDARD tour, they practically blew the house down with their opening song (the title track to STANDARD). "Stamp!" does not have that same effect, and in fact the mix was strangely quiet - I'm used to them being very loud but this was almost like listening at home. Thankfully they got louder as the show went on. I will say that the crowd was into it from the start - now that I've seen a few more Japanese bands (in fact seven bands in two nights on this trip), I can definitively say that SCANDAL's fans are easily the most nuts about the music. SCANDAL somehow can get the whole place jumping in a way that no other band can.

From "EVERYBODY SAY YEAH" through "Shojo S", it was like the SCANDAL of old. In fact I was a little surprised at how many old songs they chose to play at such a short show, but I was happy that they did. "DOLL" served as the towel-waving song at this show, and luckily this time I managed to buy one so I finally got to participate. It's surprisingly tiring!

All of their old songs sounded heavier than they do on the albums, and I think "DOLL", "Shojo S" and "Shunkan Sentimental" sounded better than I've ever heard them before. They were very crisp and had that nasty attitude that the band used to have but that you rarely hear from them anymore. Haruna's voice has also just gotten better and better since her pre-Budokan vocal troubles, and she's easily hitting all their high notes now with no problem at all. Maybe for the first time, I felt like I was really seeing the same band sing these songs as I saw in their original promotional videos.

Even the choreography for "Shojo S" looked better than I've ever seen it - and it's always one of the most fun things to watch anyway. Haruna obviously loves to do it - I wrote in my Budokan report that she seemed a little over it, but this time she got completely giddy when they started doing those kicks, and all of them were in perfect unison and really put their whole bodies into it. With a short show, no need to save energy!

I missed a bit of the MC but what I did catch sounded like the standard stuff they say at every show, with nothing extra except a couple bits about the HELLO WORLD documentary and their upcoming arena tour. They hadn't prepared any little skits or special announcements for this short concert. Haruna dominated the MC; I don't even remember the others talking at all. Rina fans would have been really disappointed by the entire concert - she was basically invisible from start to finish. At smaller shows the band seems content to just let their leader do all the talking.

The second set was all newer songs, although they all sounded really good - even "Sisters", which is... not my favorite. It works a lot better live than on a recording - if you've seen the video, it really is like that (except their concerts have a lot more guys in the crowd). It's a song tailor made for pogo dancing. And they played it perfectly.

"Your Song" was used for audience participation, as it was last year when I saw them in Nagoya. The "whooooa" parts were extended, with Haruna coming out to fire us up, but it wasn't quite as energetic as Nagoya and it was also a bit shorter (I wrote last year that I felt like Haruna led us into many more "whoas" than planned, just because she loved it). She also hit a couple sour notes on her guitar duet with Mami, which I could see her frown a bit over before shrugging and laughing it off.

Overall it was a really good set for a short show, although I'd always rather see "SCANDAL BABY" in the set list somewhere, and preferably as the encore.

Some random thoughts:

* It was fun to see them in a live house setting, but they really "feel" like more of an arena rock band at this point, unlike FLiP. They're just really polished and professional, and they project seemingly beyond the walls of a live house.

* The rest of the band is always consistent from show to show, but Haruna seemed happier, more relaxed and more confident at this show than at any other I've been to, including Budokan. Maybe it's the effect of getting the braces off?

* SCANDAL's live and recorded personas are definitely diverging. Their releases over the last year have been pretty poppy, but live they are still a really straightforward rock band. In fact, at this show I felt like they had even finally found a way to channel their younger, more aggressive selves a bit to better fit their older songs.

I have a feeling this might be the last time I see them for a while, barring something unexpected - I don't have another Japan trip planned for next year, and anyway my luck's going to run out at some point. I've now seen them play at least one of every type of show - arena, hall, live house. (I guess I haven't seen them play a festival, but that's ok with me - festivals are always a nightmare.) I wish I could have seen another of their big arena shows, but if my last time turns out to be seeing them play these songs this well, and this close to the stage, I can't really complain.

This is my fourth SCANDAL live report - read them all!

• SCANDAL at PlayStation Theater, New York City 09/05/2018 REPORT!
• SCANDAL at Tokyo International Music Market 10/21/2015
• SCANDAL at Fujita Hall 2000 (Nagoya) 10/25/2014
• SCANDAL at Tokyo NHK Hall 11/07/2013
• SCANDAL vs. Budokan (Tokyo) 03/28/2012

Foo Fighters at Citi Field 07/15/2015

Been almost a week(!), but above is some video I shot at the Foo Fighters' recent show at Citi Field on July 15.

I've been a Foo Fighters fan since the beginning - I still remember the video debut for "Big Me", and I actually came home from work early so I could watch premiere of "I'll Stick Around" back in 1995. (I was a Nirvana fan before.) That first album's still great, but it was "The Colour and the Shape" that sounded as if it was speaking directly to me and what I was going through myself at the time. Since then I've felt like Dave's a brother of mine. If I have a current rock idol, someone I try to emulate myself, it's Dave Grohl.

But this was my first-ever Foo Fighters show. I was a little embarrassed when Dave called out the first-timers in the crowd by sarcastically saying "we've only had a band for like 20 years, but you know, it's cool." I can't believe it's been that long.

The Foos had a pop-up store in the Lower East Side of Manhattan that happened to be only a couple blocks from the store my wife and I own. So we went for the whole experience, buying all of our merchandise there first.

My wife outside Citi Field in her "Broken Leg Tour" t-shirt.

The front of that shirt - I bought one too. Not that Dave could really hide the fact that he's got a pretty horridly broken leg, but he's embraced it fully on this tour, maybe even to the point of excess. To be honest, the first time I saw his now-famous stage throne, I threw up a little in my mouth. It seemed so pretentious. I would have preferred something a little more understated... like maybe this IKEA chair. He did joke about it (he called it "ridiculous" even though he designed it himself), and gave a full PowerPoint presentation on his leg break and the throne's creation.

That's Dave in the hospital on the monitors, during his slide show. And on his throne in real life.

Here's the set list for the show (from setlist.fm - I removed all the snippets and extraneous stuff):

1. Everlong 
2. Monkey Wrench 
3. Learn to Fly 
4. Something From Nothing 
5. The Pretender 
6. Up in Arms
7. Congregation 
8. Walk 
9. Cold Day in the Sun 
10. My Hero (Acoustic)
11. Times Like These (Acoustic)
12. Under Pressure (Queen & David Bowie cover)
13. Let There Be Rock (AC/DC cover)
14. All My Life 
15. These Days 
16. Outside 
17. Breakout 
18. Next to You (The Police cover)
19. This Is a Call 
20. White Limo 
21. Arlandria 
22. Breakdown (Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers cover)
23. Best of You 

Encore:

24. Stay With Me (Faces cover) (with Chad Smith) (Taylor Hawkins on lead vocals)

It was a good set. They've got a lot of great songs so no one is ever going to be 100% satisfied, but it hit all the necessary notes and threw in a few surprises. My one little disappointment was a cover they didn't play - I know at previous shows they had played "Tom Sawyer" by Rush, but at Citi Field they replaced it with "Next to You". (Dave let us n00bs know that the Foo Fighters are the "world's highest paid cover band.")

I'm usually not a fan of acoustic stuff at rock shows but one of the highlights on this tour has to be "My Hero", the chorus of which Dave sits back and lets the crowd sing to him. And it's pretty clear that we are all singing it to him. (Just listen to it in the video above.) Say what you want, the man deserves it. His leg's shattered in a million friggin' pieces, and he's coming out there every night and giving us close to three hours of music with as much effort as two-legged guys half his age.

At times it did seem a little more than even he can carry, though. I knew from videos I'd seen that his raspy voice is never really as precise live as it is on the albums, but he had practically lost it completely by about midway through the show at Citi. And after about the 15th song, you could sense a little energy drain, at least until the big finale with Chad Smith of the Chili Peppers. I finally had to sit down myself during "Outside", and I was up and down from then on. But "White Limo", "Arlandria" and "Best of You" are three of my favorite Foo songs, so they ended big.

This was probably my third or fourth outdoor stadium show, and it's no big secret that the only worse way to experience a rock concert is by staying home. The sound at Citi Field was pretty terrible, and at times Dave's voice was barely even audible. Even though we were on the field level, this was the furthest I've been from a band at a show since I saw (coincidentally) Rush in 1986 at Brendan Byrne Arena in New Jersey, when we were literally in the top row of the furthest possible corner from the stage. (At least for Pink Floyd and Monsters of Rock at Giants Stadium, we were on the floor.) I can't imagine the view, or lack thereof, of those few hardy souls in the upper deck at Citi Field.

But it was fun, I had some great food and a great time with great company (my wife!), and I finally got to see one of my all-time favorite bands on what's no doubt going to go down as a historic tour for them. Nooooooooooooothing to complain about here. Thanks, Dave, for making the effort for your fans.

Kimura Kaela's KAELAND "Poppin' Park" - Yokohama Arena - Japan 10/2014

This is probably going to be kind of a rambling show report since it's been more than a month since I got home, but I'll try to share my experiences as best as I can.

My wife and I have been Kaela fans since close to the beginning - I've written about her here before. She was huge for a while in Japan - basically as big as any of the big Japanese pop stars that for some reason are more famous than Kaela in the States. Not many people even in Japan can go just by one name - say "Kaela" there and everyone knows who you're talking about. Ayumi Hamasaki had nothing on Kimura Kaela back in 2006 or 2007. But Kaela was as much rock as pop (and she started in an awesome garage band, which Sony would prefer you didn't know about), so she's got a lot more street cred than most of the country's pop divas.

It seemed like she sort of fell off the face of the Earth for a while - Wikipedia seems to show that she's been releasing stuff pretty regularly but it also shows that not many people have been buying her recent albums. (The last one I bought was "+1".) I think she basically stopped doing any PR or much touring - she was in full-on mom mode for a while after getting married and having a kid or two (I honestly don't know how many, haven't been following her lately).

She announced two back-to-back shows at the quite-large Yokohama Arena that happened to coincide with us being there this year, and people went nuts. Both shows sold out really fast. This was billed as a 10th anniversary "greatest hits" kind of show, and I also got the feeling it was almost like a soft comeback. Like she was announcing to Japan that she was ready to be a full-on star again, with all that that entails.

We managed to get seats to the second show when they opened up the last level of tickets, and they were pretty crap seats:

We knew that going in though. We were actually in the second row of the top level, but there's a big wall between levels so we felt kind of like we were watching the show from outside. The show was really happening below and in front of us. Everybody in our section was totally lame; the entire first level and floor were fist-pumping, jumping maniacs, but the whole row in front of us just sat motionless through the show and most of the rest of our section did too.

That photo should also give you an idea of both the size of the arena (it holds 30,000 people - though probably less for this configuration - and it was eventually full) and the size of her stage setup. It was easily the biggest indoor stage I've ever seen in person. It was almost absurd, and out of scale with reality. She was so high up that I actually felt bad for people in the front, because there's no way they could see anything except a black wall. Just look at how much higher the edge of the stage is than the crowds' heads. Kaela did use that full width, though, and the stuff on the sides lit up during the show - it was pretty impressive.

That photo is the only one I got inside because it is of course completely prohibited to take photos at Japanese concert venues and many announcements were made to that effect, worded so sternly that they made my wife laugh. (Something like "your camera will be confiscated and your memory card destroyed".) I really wish Japan would catch up to the US in this area - it's free marketing, guys!

We got there a bit late and of course all the good merchandise was sold out. They had XL size t-shirts! Never have I seen this at a Japanese concert. I would have totally bought and rocked one of those shirts. But I had to settle for a towel, which ended up not even getting used. Kaela apparently doesn't have any "towel songs" like some Japanese bands do, which I didn't realize.

Kaela seemed to arrive a bit late (from the sound of it, by helicopter) and the show started about 20 minutes late as a result. I don't recall any big entrance, I think she just ran out onto the stage in the darkness and then the lights came up. Her outfit was 100% tie-dyed, which was supposed to be "pop" according to her but all I could think of was 1970's Cher.

As for the show itself, here's a set list I found elsewhere (small pic of her in the tie-dye outfit at that link too):

01.Butterfly
02.リルラ リルハ
03.Ring a Ding Dong
04.L.drunk
05.Ground Control
06.Twinkle
07.OLE! OH!
08.Jasper
09.リリアン
10.You
11.ワニと小鳥
12.A winter fairy is melting a snowman
13.sweetie
14.Snowdome
15.キミニアイタイ
16.What ever are you looking for？
17.STARs
18.マミレル
19.Make my day!
20.BANZAI
21.Magic Music
En1.Today Is A New Day
En2.sonic manic（新曲）
En3.Super girl
En4.happiness!!!

A couple of those songs are new - she announced her upcoming album "MIETA" at the show. One of the new songs was pretty good, but the other really sounded like Katy Perry.

(I don't only mean that in a bad way. Her voice sounded great at this show, with amazing range and perfect pitch. I detected no auto-tune or lip-syncing either.)

But she also played pretty much all my favorite songs except for the Tamio Okuda-penned "Beat" and "1115". She didn't play any guitar at all as she used to do when I followed her more closely, but that's alright. I understand she's a pop star now and this was also the "pop" version of the two Yokohama Arena shows. The previous night was titled "Rockin' Zoo" and who the hell knows what went on there, it could have been a full-on orgy of punk complete with a mosh pit and Kaela smashing guitars and spitting up blood on stage for all I know. (Hey, time was she might have actually done those things, and she does still wear NOFX patches on her hat.)

In fact my favorite song of the whole show was "Jasper", which is weird because it is practically disposable as a studio track. You never know what's going to sound good live. First, it's got a really driving beat that really builds in intensity in person - you can feel it. Second, they really kicked up the light show at this point in the concert - pretty sure this was when they first broke out the lasers. And third, she's just got this really mesmerizing way of moving. I actually kind of forgot how good of a dancer she is in general. She's got a style that's all her own; she dances like she's made of rubber or something, like she's boneless.

She of course did a few long MC's and told a bunch of jokes and made the crowd laugh a lot, because one of the things people like about her is how weird she is. She bantered back and forth directly with audience members a bunch of times, which was unexpected given how much the stage separated her from everyone. I think she even dealt with a heckler at one point! It sure sounded that way anyway, but she dispatched him utterly with a series of smiling one-liners. She never looked phased.

Oh, but she did cry at the end. I feel like it wouldn't be a proper Kaela show if she didn't. On the one live DVD of hers that I own - "Live Scratch" - she bawls uncontrollably for literally about four minutes.

Anyway, there will be a DVD of both of these shows too, no doubt separated somehow to milk the most money out of us customers. It was actually announced at the show, so I'll be watching for it pretty soon.

03/25/2015 UPDATE!

The DVD/Blu-ray is out!

And Victor Entertainment has released this trailer/preview:

They don't show it there, but yes, Kaela did play guitar during the "Rockin' Zoo" day. That first night had so much more energy than the show we went to! I really wish we'd gone on both days. Our "Poppin' Park" show did have more of my favorite songs, but it was super-mellow compared to day one.

SCANDAL at Fujita Hall 2000, 10/25/2014 live report!

Another trip to Japan, another Scandal concert! This is my third time seeing them, and this time they just happened to be playing at a university festival while my wife and I are here. Before you read my report, be sure to check out Rina's blog post about it.

All three shows I've seen have been very different. Budokan was a huge, special arena show. NHK Hall was a regular hall tour show, more intimate but still a pretty big production. Tonight's show was very casual. The tickets were cheap, the light show very basic, the outfits coordinating but neither matching nor intentionally "sexy". Imagine a big American band playing a county fair and you wouldn't be far off.

But... we were in the 3rd row! ("4" at Fujita Hall 2000 is actually row 3 - more on this in a sec.)

The show was in Aichi prefecture, which made it kind of a trek from our hotel in Tokyo. A ride on the Tokaido Shinkansen to Nagoya, then the Nagoya subway (to the last stop!), then a bus (to the last stop!).  Fujita Hall 2000 is in kind of a strange location, sandwiched between the university hospital and what looks like a dorm. Charmingly hand-made signs showed us the way:

Doors opened at 5 and the show started at 6. We hit the merchandise table at around 4:30 - there wasn't much (and just a single table!) and towels were sold out. I bought a quite interesting hardcover photo book and the shopping bag to put it in - that was it.

The book has a lot of pictures of them over the past year - it's similar to the 2012-2013 book I bought last year, but it has stuff all the way up to the Yokohama Arena 360 concert, including photos from the hall tour I saw them on last year. I've never seen these photos before, anywhere.

Scandal crowds are always pretty interesting - here's the one shot I took outside Fujita Hall:

We looked for our seats and ended up just as confused as everyone else in the hall - there's no row 1, and the seat numbers for your seat are printed on the back, facing the person behind you. Half the hall ended up in the wrong row - I actually think the hall was designed so that the row you're in is printed on the back of the seat in front of you, but at some point they changed it. Many announcements were made to try to clear things up, and we were directed to the third row (with a "4" printed on the back of our seats).

You're not supposed to take photos during Japanese shows (they will confiscate your camera/phone if they catch you) but I managed to snag this one of our view just after we sat down:

We were a little further to the side than I'd hoped, but you see how close we were to the very edge of the stage. The awesome thing was that at various times, Mami and even the other girls came right up to that edge, directly in front of me - I was maybe six feet away from them. Of course I had the best view of Mami most of the time - she is awesome on stage. She just loves what she does.

SET LIST (from memory):
Yoake no Ryuuseigun
Taiyou Scandalous
MC
Awanai Tsumori no Genki de ne
Kagen no Tsuki
Osaka Lover
MC
Image
Satisfaction
DOLL
Your Song
SCANDAL BABY

Encore:
MC
Everybody Say YEAH!

It was a short set - the two other shows I've been to were both about 2 1/2 hours long, and this one was about 75 minutes total, including the break before the encore. It would have been disappointing given the amount of work (and money) it was to get there, but if you've never been so close to a band in concert before, you have no idea what you're missing. It's a completely different experience. It was worth it for that alone.

I could see every scratch on Mami's black Strat pickguard. I could see the suede texture and yellow stitching on her Doc Martens. I could almost read the tiny "Seymour Duncan" on the Hot Rails pickup on her Stratomaster. She made eye contact with me a bunch of times - the best was during the opening riff of SCANDAL BABY, when she came out to the front of the stage and smiled directly at me as she played. That's obviously their most iconic song, so that was pretty special. That memory's going to stick with me for a long time.

At the end, both Rina and Tomomi also came over to the edge of my side of the stage to wave goodbye, and there was plenty of eye contact there too (I'm tall, American and hard to miss at a show like this). Haruna never did make it to our side, which was a little disappointing, but 3 out of 4 ain't bad.

The set itself was pretty densely packed with good live stuff, although the choice of opening song was interesting, and I still don't think "Kagen no Tsuki" is much of a crowd-pleaser (it was better tonight than at NHK Hall, though). The Dreams Come True cover "Osaka Lover" was also kind of unexpected, though they have played it before - but they had to explain what it was to the crowd during the MC afterwards. Nobody really knew what to do with their hands during that song, which was sort of funny - most of their songs have what amounts to defined crowd choreography.

I was a little disappointed that there was no "Taiyou to Kimi ga Egaku Story", which always puts the crowd in a frenzy, but I guess they had to cut something for such a short show. "Doll" served as the towel-waving song on this night.

Their new song "Image" has the makings of a great up-tempo live song but it's not quite there yet - it's new and they're still learning it. I look forward to it on the Hello World tour, though - I'm sure it'll be fantastic. It is a hard rocking song.

"Your Song" was the designated audience participation song, and Haruna got really into it, which was fun to see. The "whooooooa" parts of that song are designed for a live crowd to sing, and on this night Haruna led us into literally about 20 refrains in a row before finishing the song. (I truly believe it was more than originally planned, because she just couldn't stop!) She seemed genuinely surprised by the strength of the audience in the early verses and did something I've never seen her do - she came out to the front of the stage and did some Dio-esque double devil horns as she led us into the chorus in the song's latter half. I thought she could not get any more badass than she already is, but she proved me wrong. She's totally metal!

The MC's were pretty short but they talked about their upcoming new album and single, the aforementioned DCT cover and tribute album, and Haruna's good mood tonight. If you read my NHK Hall report you know that I thought she seemed borderline angry, but there was nothing like that tonight. She was smiling throughout the show (and not just during the MC's), to the point that Rina actually commented on seeing so much of Haruna's teeth. (Tomomi said Haruna's smile was the "best thing in the world.") It sounded during the MC's like Haruna may have actually had a cold, or just a tired voice, but she sounded fine when singing and she was definitely really into this show.

They weren't quite as loud as the other two shows I've seen, which may have been a blessing in disguise for us tonight because we were pretty much right in front of a giant speaker stack. I was hoping we'd still have eardrums at the end of the show, and we did... and then I was kind of disappointed by that! Scandal is normally one of the loudest bands I've ever heard in concert, but tonight their volume was pretty average - so I guess your mileage may vary if you go to one of their smaller shows.

Oh, and I can't close out without mentioning how they looked (it is Scandal, after all):

First of all, yes, Haruna's blonde. Again. But her hair's still long, and she looks better than last time - picture Olivia Newton-John:

It actually fits Haruna well, and looks "right". You'll see it eventually, if you haven't already. She had it parted on the side, and the front is shorter than the sides and back, as above - she must be wearing extensions in their recent 6th anniversary photo.

Mami's hair is long again, with front bangs, and it was tied in back. She's also back to blonde, with some streaks. (Also different from the anniversary photo.) So as in the "Harukaze" era, we now have two blondes in the band.

Tomomi and Rina looked pretty much like always. Rina still has long hair and bangs (same hair style as the Budokan show), which I think suits her.

All four of them were wearing black and white coordinating outfits, though not matched. Tomomi had a leopard print one-piece jumpsuit. Haruna had an oversized (striped?) sweatshirt with skin-tight pants. Haruna really does not look so skinny in person - she's one of those rare people that the camera subtracts 10 pounds from. Mami was wearing a spotted top with matching spotted sarouel pants, which I usually hate, but she pulled the look off. Rina was wearing a dress, as she usually does.

I don't know if I'll try to make it to a show like this again, but it was worth it just for that memory of Mami playing SCANDAL BABY directly at me.

This is my third SCANDAL live report - read them all!

• SCANDAL at PlayStation Theater, New York City 09/05/2018 REPORT!
• SCANDAL at Tokyo International Music Market 10/21/2015
• SCANDAL at Fujita Hall 2000 (Nagoya) 10/25/2014
• SCANDAL at Tokyo NHK Hall 11/07/2013
• SCANDAL vs. Budokan (Tokyo) 03/28/2012