Blog - Usagi-chang Night Fever!! vol.0003

Usagi-chang Night Fever!! vol.0003

Last Saturday was the great annual Usagi-chang Night Fever!!, which was being held for the third time. I went with friends Miwa and Haruna.

Once again I feel that the label has outdid itself with a fantastic line-up. While it would be usual at an all-night event that people get there late and leave early, the place was packed from start to finish. Putting Aprils first and YMCK last was sure a good tactic, though most of the acts were really great and I couldn't help but excitedly look forward to the next while enjoying each of them.

The small venue, Marz in Kabukichō (Shinjuku), where the event has been held every year so far, had a main stage and also a mini stage, set up in front of the DJ booth on the side. The live shows alternated between the two stages with no waiting time in-between, or only for some occasional funny entertainment by Inocchi☆ (this year too claiming he's the label's boss, to all newbies' confusion) and Young Tongue's Kei.

Aprils

Aprils first took the stage around 12:30, Imai and Iguchi wearing yukatas. We got to hear a bit about their recent trip to Taiwan where they performed at the Formoz festival (YMCK was also there, oh, and so was William!), telling how their beloved red keyboard went defective and wouldn't switch sounds anymore. We also got the large Gloomy panda which didn't manage not to cause a bit of damage, as on his way to his designated spot he smashed the poor red synth to the floor (it's a tough life!) which still seemed to work alright. :) They played a version of "sekai o koete" feat. Tetrapletrap-F, in which he's said to speak some Chinese in his video part.
Their set was very similar the one at their release party last month, though a bit shorter.

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Micro Mach Machine

The girls are cute, and were also wearing yukatas, but unfortunately I'm not so much into the gabber-meets-cute-vocals concept. I like their new site though, and find it funny that the members' names are Zach, De-La and Rocha. I'll sure give their upcoming album a spin (if it does ever come out).

Sonicberry Favour

Girl-boy club pop unit from Nagoya. Not so much pico-pico sound and they didn't seem too sure they were at their place, but it all went fine! They sort of remind me of the most pop years of Les 5-4-3-2-1 ("La Ronde"). They seemed to be having fun and left me with a good impression. The live guitar's sound was EQ'd too low though and I wished it could have been heard more clearly.
Singer Yoshimi was cute and wore the same dress (and wings) as on their recent "fairy e.p.".

macdonald duck eclair

Did they always rock like this? When I think of macdonald duck eclair, I think of cute, rather quiet pop songs, and I am sure I distinctively remember hearing and understanding singer Michi's whispered but well-pronounced French lyrics before. But this time the sound was drowned in Futamata-san's heavy guitar noise. Not that's a bad thing at all though, the show was great, and the sound was very good except maybe that Michi's voice could have been a bit louder.

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EeL

EeL sure gives one fun crazy show! This was the second time I saw her, last time being a year ago at the same event. This time too, she had a big crew on stage, most of which just seem to be hanging around (such as new member "Monolith" who was worth a mention for some reason), while guitarist, drummer, maybe the synth guy, and herself are the only ones really getting busy. This time she also looked like a real rocker with her recently permed hair, and that's exactly what she did: rock! Probably the show with the most audience reaction of the whole night, even though she's from Kansai she does have a real fan base in Tokyo (some guy shouted repeatedly asking her to come over more often).
The show involved a lot of stuff-throwing, including records, a guitar cord, fake cash, a large U.S. flag, much more stuff that I can't recall,... and Miwa who was next to me received a bowl of instant Kitsune Soba that landed on her shoulder. It became my lunch the next day, thanks to EeL and her crazy posse! :)
Near the end, some people from the audience climbed on stage and it was then true madness!

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MissWonda

MissWonda was my most anticipated show of the evening. Mika looked beautiful and so did the stage, with nice lighting and video. Most songs from the album were performed, plus another beautiful one, I think all in French, which hopefully will surface somewhere soon.
All I have to complain about is that I'd have liked a bit more live instruments (I'm not sure the synth/iBook guy was really doing anything, and Mika's live voice was barely audible behind the effected pre-recorded vocal track). Especially the acoustic guitar was very welcome though.
Nevertheless I was pleased visually, and it was great to experience MissWonda's adult-pop-with-a-pinch-of-pico-pico songs in a club atmosphere.

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Hazel Nuts Chocolate

The instant MissWonda's last song ended, a voice from the mini stage went "Would someone teach me how this thing works!!!"
Hazel Nuts Chocolate, aka Yuppa-chan, was in the house for a short but lively performance, alone with the dreadful DJ equipment. She gave the audience a choice between "1) a talk show, 2) a listening session of her upcoming album, 3) a live show", needless to say nobody would have had enough of #1 or #2, but she was surprised that nobody raised their hand to these two even as a joke.
So she sang about 3 songs from her upcoming album "Cute" while ex-member Wanda, who seemed to be very drunk, fooled around with the mixer.
I'm getting to like Henachoco more everytime I see her, and the new songs sound great! I'm now definitely looking forward to her new album out in two weeks.

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YMCK

Always a new trick or two in their bag: Midori had a red dress with black vertical stripe that I don't remember seeing before; in the middle of a song (when Midori messes up with the guys' instruments) Yokemura removed the cartridge from his Famicom and blew into it; and... Nakamura cut his hair! I think he looks better with short hair.
Of course they gave a great show like always. No song I hadn't heard before, but the count of songs that I've heard live but haven't been released yet is at about 5! MC Inocchi☆ said if we're lucky we may have a new album before the end of the year. They can't keep us waiting much longer.

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The event left me with MissWonda's great "Arabesque" stuck in my head for the whole next day.

MC's Inocchi☆ and Kei called all [remaining] artists back on stage and closed the night the usual way, shouting "Usagi-chang Night?" and the audience responding "FEVER!!!" with a fist in the air. chotto dasai,.. but it feels good inside. :)
Update (13:18): A picture of the "fever" moment can be seen in label boss Aki-san's diary.

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Unfortunately, this great night ended with shock and sadness, as I walked back to where I had left my dear Chevrolet bicycle just to find out it had been stolen!!! And I thought this place along the west side of the tracks would be safer than Kabukichō...
So instead of a quick ride home to be in bed about 6:00, I spent a while at the kōban with a half-asleep policeman, filling a form and then stamping my fingerprint all over it (as I had done previously in a similar incident), and then I took the train home around 6:40.

Next, I'm about to start a "where's my $'#)!"'$ bike!?" club with Digiki!

Whether my bike will come back or not, I don't know for sure, but I sure don't have much optimism at all. So I better start looking for a next one, until when I'll ride the old rusty orange folding bike...

Posted on August 30, 2005 at 10:05 | Tweet |

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