Miércoles 16 Dic 2009, 3:57

Fri 14 Aug – RISING SUN ROCK FESTIVAL 2009 in EZO

Considering I slept on the floor of a train from Tokyo all the way to Sapporo to come to this, I had set high expectations for this festival to be great, or otherwise I would have been pissed off that I slept 20 hours on the floor of a train to come to something I didn't have fun at.

Well let me tell you something. For the amount of fun I had at this place, I would have WALKED from Tokyo to Sapporo to go see this festival. Seriously, I have NEVER in my life had so much fun at a concert. The people I met, the bands I got to see, you cannot put a price tag on what I experienced at Rising Sun Rock Festival.

Now I'm only going to review the bands I actually saw live because well…how can I review a band I didn't see live?

The first group I saw was Ken Yokoyama. I hadn't listened to Ken Yokoyama prior to coming to this event, but what I got was a rush of Japanese punk that I never expected. I honestly cannot imagine any other group to kick off Rising Sun Rock then Ken's band.

I also have to give Mr. Yokoyama a thank you. My futile attempts at the Japanese language made me bite off more than I can chew, and let to an awkward situation where he more or less tried speaking to me in Japanese, to which I looked like a deer in the headlights. Other festival goers would call me by "Ken" after that show. People would run up to me and take photos with me, and I even made some great friends from that embarrassing moment. But by that point, I embraced it. I was thousands and thousands of miles away from home, and I loved my new title as "Ken".

The next group was Polysics. It was like getting slammed into a wall of electro-rock at Mach 5. I considered their performance as one of the best performances of the festival. The amount of energy that came out of this band was INCREDIBLE. At first, it's the most ridiculous sounding music ever, but it quickly becomes addicting, and you cannot stop listening. Plus, it was a treat to see Polysics rock the pilot outfits instead of the traditional orange jumpsuits they normally wear when they tour outside of Japan.

My buddy and I grabbed dinner at this point, but we managed to catch the tail end of STRAIGHTENER's performance. Maybe it was only because of the songs I managed to catch, but this group reminded me of a 90's college rock group. Since I was far enough away from the stage that everyone wasn't rushing to the stage, there was actually room to dance (to which I got my groove on with some other festival goers).

So after that show, me and some "Ken" fans headed over to see 9mm Parabellum Bullet. This group is probably the group I listened to the most leading up to my trip to Japan and Rising Sun Rock Festival. I heard them on Nano-Mugen Compilations and seen various performances on YouTube.

I give this band the award for worth the research. This group put on a FANTASTIC show. The show's energy just spiked in the beginning, and never came down. I went and bought all their studio albums at the merch counter the next day cause of this performance.

Then we got to Guitar Wolf

Some may not agree with me here, and I might be saying this just because I'm such a hard rock aficionado, but I've often had fantasies about what the perfect rock 'n roll show would be like. I no longer have these dreams because now I just point to Guitar Wolf's performance at Rising Sun Rock Festival this year and say "This is my idea of a perfect rock show".

I would also like to thank the bass player for punching out the drunken dick-head in front of me one song into the performance. Thanks to you, I moved up to the barricade and got to see you guys, front row.

These guys are the epitome of bad ass rock 'n roll. And they pushed themselves to the limit to entertain us (lead singer collapsed after the last song). To which I salute you.

I'm STILL having a hard time deciding who put on a better show between Polysics and Guitar Wolf.

The last show of the day for me ended with 10-FEET, it was originally supposed to be Maximum the Hormone but they had apparently canceled.

10-FEET's performance was something akin to seeing Sum 41 or Blink-182, only without the suck part of those bands. What amazed me though was that people acted crazier for 10 FEET than they did for Guitar Wolf.

Also this is the only show I've been to where I was crowd-surfed…BACKWARDS. I got separated from my friend at this point, and when we met up after the show, he looked like he just got out of the shower. He was covered in THAT much sweat (since he was still up at the barricade).

Despite our desire to go see Yoshinori Sunihara at the techno stage (read: offer from friends my friend and I met), we simply did not have the energy to go to one more concert. We barely made it back to our tent that night.

The next morning, we woke up and saw BEAT CRUSADERS. I think this is the only time in my life I've ever said "Lets go to the concert first, then grab breakfast".

Next to the pillows, BEAT CRUSADERS were the band I knew the most about going into this Festival. And my reaction? Disappointment.

Maybe it's because I was still riding the energy high from the previous night, or maybe I just expected too much from them. It was still a great show, but I felt something was missing.

With our friends from the night before, we saw Dragon Ash, Unicorn, and The Birthday from the area away from the general standing area by the Sun Stage. Just simply enjoying the weather and each others company. When it hit me.

I was experiencing what most tourists NEVER experience when they come to Japan. And I just felt so blessed by this experience. Yes back in Tokyo I had gone clubbing, met gorgeous women, and was staying in a four and a half star hotel, but that all can have a price tag put on it. This cannot.

At midnight, Asai Kenichi came on. At first my friend and I thought he was a member from the legendary group BOOWY but later found out he was from BLANKEY JET CITY. The time slot RSR gave to Asai Kenichi was PERFECT. His blues-y rock sound was PERFECT for midnight.

Finally, the last band I saw was the pillows. Now, the pillows are the only band at this event I saw in the United States. And comparing the two concerts are like night and day. The US show had crazy FLCL fans bum-rushing the stage. This show, everyone was chilled out (though that may or may not have been due to the fact they went on stage @ 0430). But most importantly, they played practically NOTHING from FLCL.

It was great to see a band in their element, and not just cater to what the audience wants to hear (in some ways, Polysics did this too).

Perhaps the defining moment of this festival was when the sun rised up over the stage. It was amazing, and I will never forget it as long as I live. That image of the sun rising over the stage as the pillows played HYBRID RAINBOW will be permanently emblazoned in my memory.

This was my first rock festival, and hopefully, not my last. I would give anything to relive that weekend over and over again. Hopefully, I will get a chance to return to see Rising Sun Rock Festival in the future.