Blog - Muteq at Star Pine's Cafe
Muteq at Star Pine's Cafe
On Friday night we headed to Kichijōji Star Pine's Cafe for the event Muteq (nothing to do with Montreal Mutek btw), featuring PINE*am, Fantastic Explosion, New Castle, Vasallo Crab75 and Hot fun in the funny face.
New Castle
We got there around midnight as the show was starting. New Castle was doing a mini-live, the two guys playing and singing. They gave me a really great first impression! Their live sound was very techno-pop with somewhat of a pico-pico sound, and lots of nostalgic-sounding bits. Actually I was told that most of the songs they played were covers of old Japanese hits, figures!
I ended up picking up their first EP, "New Castle no e.p.", produced by Hair's Ai Satteaux and out on his Aquarius label.
New Castle has a monthly event called "shu-shu!" at Shibuya Soft every first Wednesday.
Vasallo Crab75
I had first got a taste of Vasallo Crab75 at Japan Live (recent live report), and indeed they give a pretty good show. They have a very tight and perfect sound, and also sing in flawless English. They reminded me of U.S. and Canadian indie rock bands I used to see in the late 90's.
Hot fun in the funny face
As sort of transpires in their name, they're a kind of summer party band and gave a fun show. They do sound very mainstream though, sort of pop/R&B. It was probably because of the setup at Star Pine's, but they sounded quite noisy and unequal to me (some instruments being much too soft, and the guy's mic too loud), but their personality shined through and the audience was in party mode.
PINE*am
Then PINE*am took the stage, for the first time in Japan in 2 years (last time was I think at Usagi-chang Night Fever!! vol.0001)! They were wearing the same matching outfits they wore on G4 "Attack of the Show" with the fluffy wrist bands, and gave a great show, playing many songs covering their whole discography. As a bonus they played "Get A Choco", my favorite song from the new album! They spoke of their recent U.S. tour in a mix of Japanese and English.
Towards the end, Tsugumi's bass started producing uncontrollable noise and they stopped the last song after the first chorus. "It's rock!!" Yup! :)
Next, they're off to the U.S. again in August for an east coast tour and also several dates in California. Don't miss them!
Fantastic Explosion
Fantastic Explosion sure lived up to their name. I had never seen them live before and had no idea what to expect. I already owned their latest album "Return of Fantastic Explosion" though, which I love. Their infectuous club sound and energy immediately got most of the audience dancing, but as soon as they got on stage I was already laughing at their kind of secret agent looks with their matching logo T-shirts.
The show is more performance than anything else, the songs being sync'd with video made up of B-movie clips, old Japanese commercials, and 60's-Batman-ish spinning titles. Nagata Kazunao (Transonic, ex-Enban) played electronics (beeps, bleeps and samples), Yoshida Tetsuto jumped around and punched a cymbal with bare hands, while the 3rd guy (not too sure who he is) grooved in front of some device.
You can listen to a sound clip of "Chocolate" here at Musical Taste.
Posted on July 3, 2005 at 13:00 | Tweet
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