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Opeth in Shibuya tonight

acase — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 07:01:21 +0000

Tonight is the night for Opeth!

Between bands at Loud Park the above Opeth ad could be seen on the giant screen. I purchased my Opeth ticket before Loud Park so the Opeth show wasn’t news to me, but it was fun to see the advertisement anyway.

Purchasing concert tickets in Japan is a breeze (if you can read Japanese). Simply walk into any convenience store (we have at least a dozen within a five minute walk from our apartment), go to the ticket vending machine, type in the name of the artist, venue, or date, push a button to print your receipt, take it to the counter, and pay at the register. There are no lines to wait in, internet sites downed by everyone logging on at once, or $20 commissions to Ticketmaster like in the U.S. I was back home with an Opeth ticket in my hand less than 10 minutes after they went on sale.

The above picture is of the flyer for tonight’s gig that I received at Loud Park. The CD on the left I received at Loud Park for filling out a one-page survey (in Japanese) for Arch Enemy. Unfortunately, there is a guy talking (in Japanese of course) between the songs. He is interesting to listen to once, but I have no desire to play the CD a second time with the thought of having to hear him again in order to listen to the Arch Enemy tunes.

Arch Enemy, by the way, is using my photos on their website. It would have been nice had they asked first or at least linked back to the source. Better yet, they could offer me a photographer’s pass to the next gig they do near my location so I can take photos from less than a mile away. In fact, I will send Arch Enemy, or any other band, all of the photos and video I have of them (63 pics and video in the case of Arch Enemy) in their original, high-resolution, not-yet-resized-for-the-internet format with rights to do whatever they like with them for nothing more than a photographer’s press pass to one of their future shows I can attend. And I will give them, free of charge, all of the images and video I take at that show as well.

Slayer in Tokyo, Japan – Part 3

acase — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 07:51:36 +0000

This entry will wrap up the Slayer series. I will probably have another post or two on other Loud Park 2009 acts in the future.

Tom does a fine job of singing the most morbid lyrics with a smile on his face.

Kerry didn’t have spiked arms on this evening, like he has when I have seen Slayer in the past, but he looked great anyway.

World Painted Blood was still a couple of weeks from being released when Slayer played at Loud Park in October of 2009. Tom didn’t have the lyrics down for the new songs so he looked down at cue cards when they played about three new tunes.

Slayer @ Loudpark – Part 2

acase — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 07:01:40 +0000

More Slayer photos and video can be found in my prior entry.

The above picture is obviously a mistake. I must have been hit at the moment I took it. But I like the results. A photo like this conveys Slayer more clearly than a sharp image.

Dave Lombardo has been back with the band for a while now. I thought his stuff with Grip Inc. was also very good. For some strange reason, they scheduled his signing session at the same time as Children of Bodom’s live set so I didn’t get to meet him.

Here is the other video of Slayer that I captured, “Seasons in the Abyss.” Enjoy!

Slayer @ Loud Park

acase — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 22:43:53 +0000

Slayer was the headliner for day two (Sunday) of Loud Park.

Tom Araya, Slayer’s bassist and vocalist, didn’t speak very much, which made sense given that most of the crowd wouldn’t understand him anyway. Some others (Rob Zombie for instance) seemed completely clueless to the fact that everyone in the world can’t understand English.

The above photo was taken at the moment when Tom said oyasuminasai (お休みなさい) at the end of the show. He, and the Children of Bodom keyboardist Janne Wirman, were the only non-Japanese artists to go beyond arigato in Japanese.

I have seen Jeff Hanneman live in the 80s, 90s, and now at Loud Park in 2009. He is not aging well (unlike Megadeth members who look better now than they did twenty years ago). As someone appearing on a stage in front of thousands, more than a hundred nights a year, he should really take better care of himself. He can barely waddle from one side of the stage to the other. If I ever see Slayer again I won’t be surprised to see him come out in a muumuu next time, instead of an XXXL jersey, at the rate he is going.

My favorite part of the above photo is the guy’s foot in the air. When I was in the front row for Outrage it was fun to see the crowd surfers once they made it to the stage. They would bow to security before heading to the side and back into the crowd. Within a few minutes the same guys would be bowing once again to the security guards.

Slayer bids farewell to the Tokyo crowd in the above photo. Hanneman appears to have already made a quick exit to get first dibs on the post-show buffet.

I believe the only song Tom gave any kind of description of before playing was “Mandatory Suicide” which you can see in the video I shot below. This was not an easy video to take as the crowd was going nuts around me. Luckily I was a foot taller than most of them. If you look closely you can spot Hanneman’s Heineken logo guitar. The guitar actually says Hanneman instead of Heineken though. A light beer should sponsor a weight loss program for Jeff and then give him a guitar with their logo on it. Sorry, enough of the Hanneman being fat comments and on to the video…

Outrage アウトレイジ @ Loud Park 2009

acase — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 11:32:01 +0000

As I mentioned before, I found out about Loud Park via Outrage’s website. I purchased “Blind to Reality” way back in 1989 while in Japan. I’ve listened to their first four CDs countless times since. I’m not nearly as fond of their subsequent releases, but I am hopeful that their new CD, “Rise,” coming out in November will be great.

Before Outrage came on stage I landed a ticket to their signing session (サイン会). I was so happy. Not only was I finally going to see Outrage, live, but I was also going to get to meet them afterwards. I made my way to the front row before they started. Unfortunately, this meant crappy sound and no photos as security in front of the stage were all over me every time I pulled out my camera (despite the fact that the signs said no professional cameras which should exempt my little TZ7).

As you can see from the top photo, I got the picture off just before the security guard put his hand in front of my camera, but the picture came out horrible in the process.

Photos weren’t allowed when the drummers (including Shinya Tange, above, and Dave Lombardo the next day) met fans and signed autographs. Why? I have no idea. Nobody did. It was just a rule that had to be followed. I grabbed this one from far away and that is why it is lacking in quality.

My only other attempt at photography while Outrage was on stage didn’t come out well either. That’s Yoshihiro Yasui, the Outrage bassist.

Even with flash turned off, I was not allowed to take pics with the band or even of the band during the signing session. Oh well. The signing session was quite fun anyway as I was able to meet and speak with all of the members of Outrage. I had actually had prior internet conversations with Yousuke Abe, the Outrage guitarist, and Shinya Tange, the drummer. They remembered me which was cool. They also liked my Metaltown t-shirt.

They were signing everything in English. I asked Yousuke Abe (阿部洋介) and Shinya Tange (丹下眞也) to sign their names in kanji, too, and they were happy to do so. One funny thing about Outrage is their songs are all in English and Naoki speaks to the crowd in English even though they only play in Japan. They only spoke to me in Japanese though.

When Naoki grabbed the microphone to begin their set he said something like, “It’s time for us to show you our samurai spirit.” I already had a smile on my face before he said that, but hearing those words made my smile even bigger.

Outrage was great, of course, although I would have liked to have heard tunes off of “Blind to Reality” and “The Great Blue.” Their set list (セットリスト) was something like this:
Megalomania
You Suck
Under Control of Law
Death Trap
Rise
Fangs
My Final Day
Madness

I’m not sure if Outrage was in control of the music before they began to play or not, but I thought it was really cool that they had an Opeth song just before the Immigrant Song which started their set.

These last two photos I did not take. They are from Shinya’s blog. I include them here since my pics of the band are so poor.

I liked Shinya’s shirt too (although I didn’t have time to tell him). Riot was a great band back in the day and “Restless Breed” was one of their better efforts–not as good as “Narita” and “Fire Down Under” but still classic.

I’ll be seeing Outrage again when they play in Tokyo next time. If you are reading this Shinya, let’s get together before or after the show. I noticed you said in your blog that you went to Shinokubo after Loud Park to eat and drink. I’m walking distance to Sinokubo so if that’s your spot I’m there.