I Just Can't Put My Finger On It

Scene in Yamagata City, a photo by dtk_guy on Flickr.

I passed by this shrine in Yamagata city as I was making my way to Music Showa to see a friend's set at a concert. The shrine itself is an odd creation with a concrete building, with touches of traditional Japanese architectural style, standing ahead of a traditional wooden construction shrine building. I didn't stop to take a second look at the striped safety cone standing there in front of this architectural mash-up so I'm not quite sure if it is a permanent fixture or not. I'm really not sure if this scene is absurd, funny or just plain wrong. In a way I can't put my finger on it to say which of those it is.

As for the concert in question, it was an interesting affair. A lot of the people in the audience were high school students (the guitarist for HALENCH MUCUS asked for a show of hands and quite a few went up). I didn't know anything about the acts on the bill save for the band my friend plays in (they play a sort of "emo" thrash rock with a touch of influence from the Japanese psycho underground movement) so I had no expectations with respect to what I was going to be listening to. In general the acts were bands that would fit the standard mold of Japanese indie rock: power pop/rock units with the standard lineup of guitar, bass and drums. All were competent musicians and some were better than others. The headline act called Est Infection (no, I don't know why that name was chosen) was a trio of high school students just finishing their third and final year. Given that they were all graduating, and most likely going separate ways, this concert was their last one together. It goes without saying the set was emotionally overwhelming for at least one member of the band. There was a fair bit of chatting and reminiscing between songs so it was touching...to a certain point. I would have rather they kept the chatting short and sweet and focused on going out with a bang. But that's just my opinion.

The one thing that struck me as odd about the concert was that the audience more or less just stood still. Applause came after the routine "Arigato" at the end of every tune...never right after the final note had been played. I couldn't put my finger on the reason for that either. In general I have found audiences in small venues to be a reserved lot but this group was so much more so. I talked about this with the fellow who drove me back to Yonezawa and he didn't have any theories on it other than it being something to do with the demographic; an audience with a lot of high school students in a dry concert hall. We had both been at a concert in a bar the previous night and things there had been significantly more livelier. The other factor I observed was that the headline act wasn't playing the kind of music I'd identify as being easy to dance or party to. They were skilled musicians who leaned towards what I'd call "shoegaze" rock. It's great to listen to, it's well arranged and it's thoughtful but it's a far cry from anything George Thorogood ever played (I picked him to make my point because I was listening to his songs today). The sign on the door of the concert hall which said "No diving off the stage" pretty well told me that not all Japanese audiences are polite and reserved. There have to be some crazies out there somewhere...