5/5
Sakanaction Days
One of the biggest bands in Japan, Sakanaction, are concluding a six-month tour in their native Land of the Rising Sun with two shows in Yokohama's K-Arena. One of the biggest venues in the world, built solely for making music. Oh, and the portmanteau for "fish" ("sakana" in Japanese) and "action" have sold out both shows of this 20,000 seater stadium. And it's easy to see why, as Ichirō Yamaguchi, Motoharu Iwadera (Mocchi), Ami Kusakari (Neesan), Emi Okazaki (Zakki) and Keiichi Ejima (Ejii) brought out their big guns. Like their latest monster hit 'Kaiju', with the Godzilla green coloured corridors and 'Exit 8' yellow adorning many of the fans t-shirts descending on the awesome arena in a city that neighbours Tokyo. Or their signature 'Shintakarajima', as cheerleaders came out with pompoms like geishas with traditional fans for 'サカナクション - 夜の踊り子 '. And the fans loved it as they stamped their SAKANAQUARIUM cards. All the way to the closing 'Night Fishing Is Good' from the band's sophomore set 'Night Fishing'. Ensuring emotion for everyone in attendance who grew up with the Sapporo supergroup.
Eight wonderful albums adorn Sakanaction's career, eighteen years after their major label debut. Their last album being the awesome 'Adapt', coming out of corona in 2022. Their latest killer 'Kaiju' song serves as the soundtrack to the amazing anime 'Orb: On The Movements Of The Earth'. And the band that are soaring as they are touring have never stopped casting their lines out into open water. Even brilliant bassist Ami Kusakari released her own acclaimed album of ambient beauty in her inspired instrumental 'Garden Studies' at the beginning of this calendar. These studies were on sonic display as fans took their seats enveloped in a mesmerizing and meditating mist that even the 'Seeing Sound, Hearing Time' epic exhibition of the late, great Ryuichi Sakamoto would be proud of. Honestly, you could have sat there in a perfect peaceful state all night, but once Sakanaction came on stage to rapturous applause, it was time to go fish. And what better way to 'GO TO THE FUTURE', in opening, than with an act that's been doing exactly that ever since they pushed music's envelope with their dynamic debut album of the same name? Perfect penmanship graffiti greeting us with on-screen videos that met live streams seamlessly.
An amazing aquarium (this is the SAKANAQUARIUM after all), that actually looked like one as a video screen displaying an amazing actor and dancer (the revelatory Runa Miura) played out like a movie (directed by the great Yusuke Tanaka) after this show's opening credits introduced the band, separated the stage into a rectangular tank. And when it all operatically opened up, it was like that inspired IMAX scene in the best movie of this year, Ryan Coogler and Michael B. Jordan's 'Sinners', when the cinematic widescreen turns full for the final showdown. Words can't put into justice just how good this show was. How inspired it was. Yokohama is known for fireworks in the Japanese Hanabi Summer, called 'Night Flowers'. But even J Dilla would have been proud of these light works. Lasers pointed all across the arena and at one point framed an inspired Ichirō in a holy light that his incredible voice matched. Iwadera's influential, great guitar. Kusakari's beautiful bass. Okazaki's outstanding piano play. Ejima's definitive drumming. The famous five of Sakanaction work best together like bait, hook and line. And when they came back for an epic encore to DJ 'Music', behind their 'Shintakarajima' laptops and Elton John worthy glasses, you could see there was another level to these alternative rockers who know how to make a crowd move with electronic pop. The new wave is here to stay. The final show is set to turn Yokohama's K-Arena into "SaKArenaction" tonight. Time for some action. TIM DAVID HARVEY.
Set-list Picks: 'Kaiju', 'Shintakarajima', 'Night Fishing Is Good'.
No comments:
Post a Comment