Friday October 10th was the Street Dogs show at the “Club Sound” half of In The Venue. I rolled in a little late because of work but got there just as Flatfoot 56 was getting setup.

I’ve never heard Flatfoot 56 before but being at a punk show and seeing the lead singer onstage with a scally cap and a bagpipe player setting up next to him is a good sign. And I wasn’t disappointed, they rocked! I only wish I was more familiar with their music so I could shout and sing in time with the band. But even not knowing the lyrics there were plenty of songs that were easy to sing along with. These guys fit in perfectly in the sub genre of punk occupied by Dropkick Murphys, Street Dogs, The Briggs, etc.

It’s something about Street Dog show but every time they come to town I find a new band to get interested in. They have great choices in tour partners. Since the show I’ve been listening more Flatfoot 56 and learning more about them. Turns many classify them as a “christian punk” group which makes some sense listening to specific lyrics. But it's not really that overt, I don’t think many people would realize this without being told. It’s just good punk music.

And I have to say something to those who have a problem with “Christian Punk” music, some say that the beliefs of religion go against the anarchist nature of Punk.
-First is the hypocrisy of having a closed mind for judging music based off the members' individual beliefs, yet claiming you know more about punk.
-Second is the fact that believing in a higher power does not contradict punk mentality. As the Street Dogs lyrics go:

Not without a purpose and it's not without a fight
Another poor kid caught up in a fire fight
I don't believe in Jesus but I pray to God tonight
Not without a purpose, not without a fightIt’s these kind of pretentious kids that think you have to follow specific rules and wear specific clothes to be a punk that piss me off at shows.

Anyway I took a break after Flatfoot 56 to grab a beer in the bar. It’s great having a bar at a venue that doesn’t require an additional $10 cover charge (lookin’ at you Saltair). The problem is that they run people out as soon as the last song of the last band is played. In the Venue has a big problem with this due to their double booking. Shows are early and you can only get drinks during the performance, with no time to rub elbows afterward. Keep it mind if your watching a pub band and want something to drink along with it while you’re at In the Venue/Club Sound.

Next up was Time Again, another great band I recently discovered while they were touring with another band. I had Time Again’s last CD which was good but not one of my favorites. Since then I notice their sound has drifted more towards my type of punk and their latest album is great. Their show was awesome and full of energy. I only regret it took me some time to get out on the floor because I hadn’t finished my beer yet.

Finally Street Dogs were up. Every time I see them the crowds double in size. The first few times the crowd was so small it was an intimate showing but I couldn’t help feel that a band so great deserves more attention. Well the word is getting out, they’re packing Club Sound now and it’s only a matter of time before they’re forced to move to bigger venues while in Utah.

I’m probably a bit biased in my opinion of the show, after all they are officially my favorite band. I used to be a huge Rancid fan, then became a Dropkick Murphys fan before moving to Street Dogs (I still love the other guys though). If this sounds at all like you and you weren’t at the show you need to start watching the local shows for when they come back. And in the meantime buy up all their CDs at their site, if you’re still not sure their music is on last.fm so go listen to a bit.

Remember that this is Mike McColgan, the original singer for Dropkick Murphys, so the live shows are as great as the CDs but multiplied 100 times for how energized and involving they are. And this show was no different. Mike knows how to involve the crowd and make everybody feel a part of the show. Meanwhile he’s got so much energy himself he’s constantly roaming from one side of the stage to the other getting the crowd participating and he literally climbed up one of the speakers onto a narrow ledge lining the wall and sang from the rafters above the band.

Well that’s enough gushing, but if you were there you'd know what a good show it was. It’s just so great when a band keeps coming to town and every time make it better and better. If you weren’t there you really missed out on one of the best shows to come to our remote neighborhood.

New CDs:
(And again major tanks to the bands for selling CDs at $10 and having older CDs for sale too)


State of Grace


Knuckles Up


Jungle of the Midwest Sea


Darker Days

Thursday the 25th was the Children of Bodom show at Saltair. I don’t think I’ve ever seen so many dudes with long hair. And they’re still charging 5 fucking dollars for parking, I thought it was ironic that when I got to the ticket counter they had a jar for tips. Thanks for providing the service of handing me a piece of paper though a window, you want tip then go ask the parking guys, they got my last $5.

Between the Buried and Me didn’t interest me too much, I’m not sure where they’re from but they seemed like local band. The lead singer reminds me of a friend of mine, but it was interesting to see a lead singer that spent some time on keyboard during a metal show. However his growling clashed with singing parts.

The Black Dahlia Murder had good stage presence, I might be more into it if this was more my kind of music. The lead singer could really growl but it mixed well with actual singing and wasn’t just a constant rumble like Cannibal Corpse or some death metal group like that.

I noticed behind the floor divider was a poster setup for Hot Topic, I’m not sure if they sponsored the show or if it was left over from another show but fuck Hot Topic. When are they going to give in and realize they’re just a load of corporate bullshit?

Some girl and her date went up into the vip balcony but were there just to bee seen. In two songs the dude left the show; fucking posers. But I have to admit the girl had spectacular legs. She spent most of the Children of Bodom set posing up in the VIP balcony and looking bored. Sorry honey, we're here to see the show, you might seem less two dimensional if you were getting into the music as much as everybody else.

There was also a guy giving out free CDs of his band’s music. Good Idea and I think it’s good for local groups to get some exposure but then the dick ass security took his CDs from him. “Sorry this is a concert, it not a place for music.” Apparently.

Children of Bodom brought in their own soundboard they had to switch to for their set. A nice setup, hooked up through a windows laptop which seems different to me. Seems most people hookup Apple computers to their sound gear. One thing I’ve noticed is that I seriously think the sound is mixed for people wearing ear plugs now. I go to enough concerts that I don’t want to screw up my hearing so I wear them anyway, but the sound is better with them in. If you adjust the ear plugs right it filters all the excess noise so you can actually differentiate the singer and instruments.

COB opened with America, Fuck Yeah which is hilarious, everybody knew the song but I doubt anybody ever actually listens to the lyrics. Alexi Laiho T-Shirt was perfect for the occasion, ”Smoke Crack and Worship Satan”. And it’s good to see a band’s keyboardist get some good play time, in so much metal music people focus all their attention on the Guitars, they overlook how much skill the other members of the group have.

Children of Bodom just kept going without much break to rest in between songs. The crowd tried to keep up but by the end of the night everybody was drained. A lot of people took off before the encore and I think half of it was just fatigue. But it was a great show, although afterwards I was “all metaled out”, for the drive home I was striving to listen for anything that was a bit more toned down. About the only thing I could find on my playlist was some bouncy jpop but even the punk was a bit too exhausting after a couple hours of that show. Can’t complain, but I was happy when it was over and I could rest.

CDs Bought:


Nocturnal


Blooddrunk


Hatebreeder


Tokyo Warhearts

Bummer. The Sep 16th – Rancid, Less Than Jake show got canceled because "The bass player broke his shoulder and was in the ER."

Sucks for me, I was looking forward to the show. But I'm sure it sucks more for Matt Freeman.

Buying tickets I noticed that Smith's Tix was pricing was $20+$9 in fees. 24tix was $20+$4 in fees. All the more reason to not to buy from Smith's Tix; they're a rip off and they give you the wrong time for the show to start anyway. My sister was literally brought to tears forced to wait outside knowing she was missing Polysics because Smith's Tix told her brother (with the tickets) the show was at 7pm when it was at 5pm.

I'm not sure about Smith's Tix policy for canceled shows but 24tix refunds the money back to the credit card automatically sans additional fees.

Edit: 24Tix refunds the service fee too!

I just happened to catch that Lewis Black was going to be performing here Sat 23 Aug but as soon as I found out I made sure I had tickets reserved for the show.

The show was a Kingsbury Hall, a good larger venue perfect sized for a show like this. I guess it could also be good for pop music style performances but I’m not sure how good the acoustics would be for a show like that. It’s usually for plays and other things that don’t have the intensity of pop music performances.

At the door into the show Lewis Black goods were being sold; T-shirts, CDs, a vinyl, and a bobblehead?! Much to my appreciation was all of Lewis’s previous albums! I love artists like this, so I grabbed a couple CDs, but they didn’t have the newest CD! How messed up is that? Although in their defense it’s a VERY new CD and they have probably been on tour the since before it released.

First up was John Bowman to warm up the crowd, and he did a good job, very funny. It’s good to see a comedian that is quick enough improving jokes when asking audience members what their job is that it makes you wonder if they’re plants so he can do certain jokes.

Lewis Black came out after a short intermission and was in full form. Anybody who has heard his act knows that he’s a bit… excitable… easy to anger… energetic. Anyway he was great, “flipping out” where it’s entirely justified (seriously, sometimes it’s a wonder our country is still running), but keeping himself in control enough to deliver the jokes.

Having purchased the new CD the day after at the local CD shop and comparing, I think the live show was definitely better. There was some similar jokes but with the elections coming up soon it had a lot of topical political jokes that weren’t part of the CD. I’d say about 50-75% of the show was new material that isn’t on any of his CDs.

And it was so upto date that Lewis was already working in the Obamma+Biden ticket which I hadn’t actually heard yet (it announced early that morning).

And unbeknownst to me I guess Lewis had actually lived in Utah for a few months and being familiar with our back-asswards quirks here was delivering a lot of great material specific to the state that perhaps only works for those of us who have lived here with the same issues.

Anyway, an excellent stand-up comedyshow. At first I balked at the high ticket prices but it was all worth it; this isn’t Joe Schmoe who was a background extra in “Suddenly Susan” playing at the Chuckle Hut. This is Lewis Black!

CDs Purchased:
(Got his whole Discography now!)


The End of The Universe


The White Album


Anticipation
Purchased day after.

GBH, Whole wheat bread.
Perhaps the last show for a month or so GBH came to Utah with Whole Wheat Bread supporting. Not a lot of advertising for the show and really only old school punk rockers are familiar with GBH. They’re a great band but not really known to the teenage crew that grew up listening to Green Day.

First opener was Dirty Vespuccis, a local punk band. They were all right but not really too impressive, a guy I know would be coming down hard on them for the lack of complex guitar work, but that’s not really what defines punk music. Although it makes a great addition to a good band.

The websites said doors opened at 6:30PM but people weren’t let in until 7:00PM so Dirty Vespuccis played as people filtered in. My second gripe about the Avalon is that they always leave the benches out during shows, taking up 80% of the floor. Maybe next time Iron & Wine comes to Utah he should play here instead of Saltair so that people will be able to sit down. As for Punk shows it sucks if the crowd is of any decent size since the pit is crammed to the front and everybody else is tripping over benches.

Next up was Negative Charge, they had good energy and the lead singer was good at interacting with the crowd. If with a large dedicated crowd I bet they could really work up a great show. Unfortunately Avalon was being jerks and when they were down to their last song they cut the power and forced them off the stage. Nothing is worse that a concert where the show is being rushed so the staff can go home early besides it’s their fault they opened a half hour late.

Krum Bums were up next and even though I don’t remember I totally recognized the band so I must have seen them in the past; I just can remember where, there are too many shows in the . Again, a good lead singer that can engage the crowd make a great live show.

Whole Wheat Bread was last up before GBH. I really like the band but they leaned more on their hip-hop and rap songs than the punk songs. I love genre crossing songs and bands but with a band like GBH that is traditional hardcore punk I think more punk songs would go over better. Still they cracked good shows did a bit of freestyle rap and made lighthearted enough to crack jokes about the fact that they really stand out in the world of punk. They also had a new bassist, they sure seem to go through them quick. Hopefully they can lock one down long enough to start establishing a niche for their music. And I hear they’re doing a lot of extra work backing up rap artists like Lil Jon so they’re pushing more into both sides of the Genres the play.

I was picking up some CDs in back and had a talk with the roadie for GBH and he was saying the one CD they had for sale actually wasn’t very good by the band’s own admission. Apparently the rights for all their previous music is tied up by other labels to the band themselves can’t get the CDs at a discount to sell to fans at shows and make some money. I grabbed a t-shirt to contribute anyway but it pisses me off that copyright laws have brought this kind of mess to the music world. If a band can’t even sell their own music to their fans so they can keep touring and making more music then there is a problem with the industry.

Many argue that copyrights are to protect the people who make music but they are to protect the people who OWN the music. The two are rarely the same and the consequences are just as bad with the owners stealing from the artists as they are with listeners stealing the music online.

GBH put on a great show and for a punk band as old as they are they still put many of the young modern punk bands to shame. GBH is a good example of a band that keeps on kicking no matter how much time has past. And Collin Abrahall doesn’t let on that this band has been playing since the early 80s, you’d think that they were just able to step between 1982 and 2008 a will to play in both times. They played a lot of their great punk favorites and the show was only marred by a fight that broke out in the pit that was disruptive enough cause the band to stop playing and threaten to end the show then.

Not surprisingly the same little skinhead club that has caused disturbances at past shows like The Tossers was here too, throwing sucker punches from the sidelines of the pit. I know the mosh pit can get violent but there is a difference to throwing punches at other people in the pit with you and standing on the edge throwing punches into people in the pit. The most pathetic thing is that whenever an irate pit goers pulled one of them in they would immediately leave the pit so they could fight from the sidelines.

But frankly I’m tired of good bands threatening to leave Utah and never come back because of these guys, we already lost all shows by Dropkick Murphys because of this kind of shit. Any venues reading this, if you see guys with shaved heads, short sleeve tucked in button shirts, suspenders, and rolled up jeans above combat boots, do yourself a favor and turn them away at the door. It either that or you’ll be needing to call police in to stop a fight during the show. For any fans at a show, if you want to see the whole show make sure you point out the skinheads causing trouble to security beforehand. It sucks to have to single them out but it’s the same 3-4 guys at every show that cause a fight at every show they’re in.

Except for the “sucker punch” gang the show was great and it’s good to see a classic punk band come from 4000 miles away to play some good music (even if they threatened not to come back because of 3 jackasses).

CDs purchased:

As The Tide Turns

Negative Charge

+ and a GBH t-shirt

Goldfinger at the Murray Theatre

Wow, where to start. I almost didn’t go to this show . I like Goldfinger, Less Than Jake, and Big D and the Kids Table, plus I want to see Suburban Legends. But I wasn’t in the mood for a show, it was one of those days I sat down after work and just couldn’t get off my butt and move. But everytime I let lazyness tell me what to do I end up regretting it so I dragged myself up and figured on spending $25 to chill in the back of a theater.

First off, I’ve never been to Murray Theater for a concert before. As far as I knew they only did hypnotist shows and weird things like that. Turns out it’s probably the best venue in the valley!

They don’t own their own parking lot to over-charge for. There doesn’t need to be because there’s plenty of parking in the surrounding area, especially if you don’t mind walking a block or two. I was late so I don’t know if the show started on time but it seemed to judging by how much of Suburban Legends was into their show. Getting in wasn’t like trying to get on a plane, I paid, they let me in; no pat-downs, idiotic rules, or cavity searches. The venue is small but not like Burts Tiki Lounge small. It’s like the Tower Theater, a 50s-60s movie theater with the chairs removed. The stage space is decent for the artists to dance around, room in back for the sound board, side areas for shwag, clean restrooms, limited drink vending in front, and tiered floor so you can be in the pit in front or stay in back and see over the heads of pit goers. The show moved from Saltair to here and all I can say is Thank God! And as John Feldman of Goldfinger pointed out...
No barrier!

So Suburban Legends was already onstage when I got there. The lead singer was good, I’m surprised he used to just be the trumpet man, left, came back, and became the lead because he did a great job leading the group. The music is a bit on the Pop-Punk side but good. And I noticed that the band was popular with the teens in the show and there were a lot of them. I’m getting to where I feel old at the shows I goto now, but fuck it. I was listening to LTJ and Goldgfinger when these kids were in elementary school.
It was my show not theirs.

Big D and the Kids Table and came out next. They had recently been here but they brought up the rear of another marathon 4 band show so people we’re dead by time they played. This time they still had a fresh crowd to play to so people were a little more lively for the show. They played a lot of their newer songs but still threw in all of their old favorites. I’ve noticed more and more artists adding in visualizations to their shows in the form of video shown on projectors. It’s distracting in a way but at the same time it provides more depth to songs where the images match the lyrics. Done well it’s pretty cool and Big D used it well. Plus I didn’t know they had a music video for their cover of The Specials' Little Bitch featuring a ton of other punk/ska bands.

Anyway after Big D and the Kids Table were off I checked out to see what CDs were available. Suburban Legends had a lot of their CDs out including ones that are hard to find through normal online means. Big D and the kids table didn’t have too much. I already had all the CDs they were offering. Less Than Jake had a few CDs, they’re moving over to their own new label so they had re-issues of a couple older CDs. Goldfinger had a few of their’s but none of the older CDs. Come on guys! I have these already! Bring the hard to find stuff!

While I was grabbing the CDs I didn’t have Less Than Jake came up and started signing autographs. I’m not big on collecting autographs but it’s a nice bonus if they want to do it. Although it always seems artists are never as excited as they make out when they finally start autographing. Except for DragonForce who were really chatty during signing it seems most artists just sign while they carry on their own private conversations ignoring the fans in front of them. I don’t know the psychology of it, maybe they’re just tired of having to go face to face with so many people, some who are true fans and some who just think it’s cool to get a signature. Of which I saw many people who got just got their ticket stubs signed:
I know you don’t always have money to get a CD but if you’re going to get an autograph splurge and buy a CD, even if you already have it. It supports the artists even more and I’m sure they appreciate it more than if you want them to sign a piece of paper you’re likely to throw away when you get home.


In an odd aside the other celebrity I saw was Elizabeth Smart. I swear to god, she was wearing a green shirt! I was going to ask the burning question, “Why didn’t you just walk out the f-ing door!!” But maybe she would have been offended.

Next was Goldfinger and all I can say is WOW. I remember from years ago that Goldfinger put on a good show but I had forgotten just how good they were. They easily tie or pass my favorite Street Dogs for the number one band to see live. It’s hard to believe John Feldman is 41 years old because he was tearing things up more than anybody at the show. The energy was simply amazing and he was loving not having a barrier, crowd-surf/singing, inviting everybody on stage for two songs (to the point they had to clear the stage to keep playing without getting overcrowded). It really was amazing, it made it one of those shows that will be talked about years from now among friends, “Goldfinger is coming to town?! That’s awesome! You know I was at the 2008 show at Murray Theater. They don’t allow shows like that anymore…”

Speaking of which, at one point the drummer Darrin Pfeiffer came out and interacted with the crowd. All good fun, splitting the crowd in two and having them rush together like the fight scene in Braveheart into a giant mosh for the end of a song. Then daring the wildest guy in the audience to some up and eat a twinkie wedged in his ass crack. Two came up and fought “rock, paper, scissors” to be the one. One guy lost but the other stayed up incase the first lost his nerve. To my surprise Darrin actually dropped trou and stuck a twinkie between his bare ass cheeks while standing on a stage monitor, and as expected “Mr. Tough” guy lost his nerve and pussed out. But his understudy manned up and put his money where his mouth was…
…or the ass twinkie where his mouth was. But he did it!
Goldfinger finished up by coming out and doing the classic anti-war Nena cover of 99 Red Balloons as an encore. Amazing show!

In between shows Goldfinger came out an signed Animal Liberation Front pamphlets for people so I figured what the hell and went to try to get another CD signed. John signed the CD and a pamphlet, Charlie Paulson didn’t sign the CD but signed an ALF DVD. But since Charlie signed the slip case for the DVD a little swap and suddenly I had the CD signed by both members of the band (Kelly LeMieux and Darrin, weren’t out signing).


Now I respect everybody’s beliefs so if they want to educate people about the horrors of meat packing plants, I’m not opposed; but I’m going to keep expressing my belief and eating meat guys. And no I’m not going to watch the DVD snuff video. Processing meat is gross and sad but I’m sure they do a better job than I would trying to slice a steak out of a cow.

While waiting for Less than Jake there was a little scuffle in back when a guy tried to steal a CD and the seller had to stop him. The problem is that it happened right next to the sound engineer rack yanking out a lot of plugs. If you’ve seen the mess of wires behind a sound mixing console you’ll know why this delayed the show till it could be fixed. If you ever see anybody stealing from the artist tables, or just fighting people for the hell of it, stop them and haul security to haul them out. They’re ruining your show that you paid money for, and stealing that money for the band you just gave it to.

Less Than Jake always puts on a great show. The only thing is that after 3 very energetic bands people were getting a little tired by this point and it was hard to keep the crowd going. Again it was a good mix of old and new songs (sorry no Jen Doesn’t Like Me Anymore this time either), but not quite the onstage spectacle as they were at Saltair a year ago . However they did bring on stage an older guy introducing him as a man who knew what it was like to get laid back in the 70’s when sex was real. So they invited up the nastiest skankiest girl up on stage to dance with him to get him excited like it was 1970. There were plenty of potential girls in the audience who fit the bill quite well but as much as they want the attention they don’t want it THAT bad. There was one girl however who was willing to go up and go back down so to speak. I noticed her before, stereotype nymphomaniac personality: very outgoing , with a constant need to be the center of attention. I wasn’t surprised to see it was her going up on stage, she was also one of the many who went up when Goldfinger was one but she didn’t go up to sing with the band, just to go up and stand front and center and soak in everybody noticing her (and I guess it worked!)

Anyway they really got in on up on stage, I couldn’t believe it, it didn’t stop with dancing and moved on to the reverse cowboy and almost simulated 69. Even the band was shocked by how far they were taking it. Between that and the ass twinkie earlier I’d be surprised if the more prudish Utah goers would complain and cause issues for the venue.

But a great show all in all. One more thing, more bands need to work in confetti cannons into the show like LTJ did. Or take some guidance from Japanese groups who are a master of the confetti cannon.

New CDs

Rump Shaker


Infectious


Let's Be Friends and Slay the Dragon Together


Hello Destiny


GNV FLA


Goodbye Blue and White

Flogging Molly
Saturday July 19th was Flogging Molly day at Saltair. I was determined to make it this time since the show sold out last time and I didn’t get to go. At Saltair the chance of selling out is smaller since it’s such a large venue; but as a venue I hate Saltair.

To start I didn’t buy a ticket before hand, I hate paying the additional 20-40% in “convenience fees” (Who’s convenience? Certainly not mine!), so I buy at the door as much as possible now. Saltair threatens to tow you if you don’t park in their lot which doesn’t sound legal to me but either way the venue is in the middle of nowhere so parking is non-existent and you have to pay their $5 price gouge. Then I had to wait about 15 minutes in line to ge t a ticket and thought I was going to miss the opener. The doors open at 7pm and I didn’t get there till 7:45.

Low and behold I got inside at 8:00 and the opener was barely taking the stage; thanks again Saltair for posting the completely wrong time on the ticket. Erratic Erotica is a unique local band that I had never heard before. They really do cross a lot of genre boundaries, I’d best describe it as indie piano rock? Anyway it wasn’t really my kind of music but I think a lot of people in the present pitchfork/indie styles of music would be really into it. Meanwhile there is no A/C so it was hot and sweaty just sitting in the back waiting for the next act. I checked and the CDs at the shwag table were ok but Flogging Molly doesn’t have many CDs to put out anyway. Still I would have expected to see something as far back as Alive Behind The Green Door .

The area behind Saltair has been greatly improved with a fenced in, sod covered hill to sit on to chill out. Considering they had a concession stand running it would have been nice to have a hamburger and chill if it weren’t so dammed hot. The “Bar” at Saltair is still piss poor. I’ve seen tailgate parties that had better bars than the bar they were charging $5 for. They seriously just bring in igloo coolers with 8oz bud light cans they sell for $5. I need to remember to buy a “Beer Belly” for Saltair events.

Finally Flogging Molly came on after sunset and got the crowd going again. As hot as it was they did a great job getting the crowd to ignore it and have a good time. As would be expected they focused more on the faster, more upbeat of their songs for a quick paced concert. They did play a lot of crowd favorites including some slower songs but even they were sped up a bit but the excitement of the show.

Finally the band left the stage and all of the more clueless people started filing to the exits. Here’s an important concert tip:

If the band leaves the stage and the stage crew/roadies don’t start tearing things down; there will be an encore. Especially if the roadies come out and start retuning instruments.

Dave King came out and played few minutes acoustic before the rest of the band came out to join them and they brought the show to a close with two more songs.

New CDs bought:
(The only two FM CDs I’m missing)

Whiskey on a Sunday


Float

Well I’m on vacation in Japan right now, and I was searching through concerts to see what was playing while I was over here. But it’s hard because not many Japanese users are entering events (come on step it up!) so I was searching through the homepages of a some Japanese artists and it turns that Sun 8 Jun, Biyuuden starts their farewell tour while I’m in country.

I like 美勇伝, they’re one of the few Hello Project groups left with worth paying attention to, and as expected their being disbanded to make way for another cookie cutter 12 year old idol group. But I have a chance to see an “idol concert” and one of the few remaining ones that’s worth going to.

First off I was amazed at how normal the crowd was. I was expecting wota as far as the eye could see when in actuality it crowd looked about as normal as could be expected. It was definitely and Akihabara crowd, not trendy jetsetters but that’s ok I feel more at home around geeks and nerds anyway.

There were actually girls there, most were pretty attractive too, maybe they were trying to pickup on some big hearted geeks but I think most were actually there for the concert. And amazingly I even saw some smaller kids their with their parents (what parent will let an 8 year old girl go to a show alone?)

There was a table out front with shwag for sale but it was all fan-boy stuff like glossy, pictures, towels and t-shirts designed by Biyuuden. It will be a cold day in hell before I pay $40 US for a 8x10 of any artist I listen to. Plus the line was huge and there were NO CDs for sale. Am I crazy or isn‘t this about music in the first place.

I spent the 30 minutes before the show checking out the crowd since this was my first show of this type and first show in Japan. First off it wasn’t like the punk shows I’m used to, auditorium seating with assigned seats. And during the show everybody stays generally where they’re assigned.

Second, pen lights and glow sticks abound. One guy in with me on the second floor ~$40 seats had about $60 worth of penlights he was waving around. Here’s a tip my friend, next time spend that money on the ticket and you can be down in front close enough to catch spit from the singers.

Third, there was obviously a fan club element that has never existed in any concert I’ve been to. All the 1st floor front row seats seem to be dedicated to fan club members who have been to every show within 100 miles for the last 3 years.

Finally, for all the flak wota get for doing weird dances in public to their favorite idol, within the concert there was a unity and brotherhood feeling that was very familiar from every punk show I’ve been to. It may not be a skinhead picking you up off the floor before the mosh pit tramples you but the same feeling of being together to enjoy music was there.

When the concert started I realized that many of the people around me were “sleeper wota”, as soon as the music started it seemed like I was the only one who didn’t when to add in the “WHOOOOO!!!!” after certain lyrics. However I did feel comforted that some people around me just sat in their seats watching the whole time. I guess that puts me in the middle:

The “sitters” -> Me and the “Cheer/stand-up clappers” -> “Wota dancers”

And I happened to be seated next to a trio of “trve” fans who not only knew all the wota dance moves for every song but were imitating the girl’s onstage moves when there wasn’t a dance to do. But even then it was actually pretty fun with them, they were in their element having a blast enjoying the music they love. Isn’t that really what all of us should be doing at the show of any artist we love? They even included me in with the final hand clasped bow at the end of the show.

As for the show itself, I have to admit is was one of the best shows I’ve been to. Entertaining, funny, well paced, and if you ever get the chance to have a trio of gorgeous Japanese girls sing and dance for you I highly recommend it.

There were a lot of costume changes with one or another girl talking to the audience while the others changed. And a nice interlude where Biyuuden did a hilarious puppet show on screen while everybody had a chance to rest. And all the best songs were covered (well, all my favorite songs) along with a few that I didn‘t recognize at all, plus a three song encore. And at the end Rika brokeup and started crying while thanking the audience. I doubt that it was staged or forced but either way it seemed heartfelt and since this is the beginning of their farewell tour before they disband it felt sincere.

A great show, a fun night, worth the $60 I spent for the night ($30 ticket + $30 capsule motel), and from now on I promise not to judge wota without consideration anymore.

Those goofy little dances they do don’t seem out of place during a concert with all that energy in the air. I suppose if you take a “mosh pit” out of a concert it looks a little out of place too. Or all those guys a power metal shows with their hands in the air giving “the claw” or imitating the guitar chords. I guess we all look like fools unless the music is on; but in our elenment we all just add to the energy of a live performance.

CDs bought:

NONE! WTF Hello Project!!! I don’t need a towel with an idol’s picture on it! How can you listen to that!!