Blog - Sally Soul Stew live: report

Sally Soul Stew live: report

Last night I went to Shibuya's Chelsea Hotel (a small-sized club) to check out Sally Soul Stew live, both celebrating the release of the album and also Sally Kubota's 20th debut anniversary.

First, here's a mini-biography, right from the top of my head, for those who don't know Sally. (Shibuya-kei 101 graduates can skip.)

Sally Kubota (a man, don't double-check) is a bassist that's been active in the music scene since the mid-80's, and has went through a variety of genres and bands. In the late-80's, he was in a neo-GS band called The Phantom Gift. In the early/mid-90's he led a band called Les 5-4-3-2-1, there he wrote and produced songs ranging from French pop to idol pop to club music, and the whole was classified as Shibuya-kei. The unit's former singer was Hitomi and was later replaced by Matsuno Arimi (formerly of idol group Ribbon). After Les 5, Sally also had a band called Pillow Talk 4, said to be a mix of neo-new-wave (neu neu!) and psychedelic rock, together with Kojima Mayumi and surf guitarist Naka Shigeo.

In 2007, Sally is back with Sally Soul Stew, a name he had used at least once a long time ago for a song on a compilation. The album "uchū de Rendez-vous ~Rendez-vous à l'univers~" self-covers songs mostly by Les 5-4-3-2-1, a few by The Phantom Gift, and features a bunch of guest female singers. All the styles Sally has played since he began his career are found mixed up together.

There was first an opening act by The Young Folks, a neo-GS band featuring three members of The Strikes, plus a girl bassist who also did some singing. Their set was rock'n'roll and fun, reminding of The Beatles (as The Strikes' early-90's album artwork does).

After a bit of DJing, Sally Soul Stew came on stage! Sally looked great in a vertical-striped jacket and checked pants, he stood in the center with his signature Rickenbacker bass and white coiled cord. The backing band was Great 3's drummer Shirane Kenichi and three members of Hicksville: Mashiro Megumi (on chorus/vocals), Nakamori Yasuhiro and Kogure Shinya (both guitars)... but instead of naming their current bands, Sally presented the members by their neo-GS band names, Shirane and Kogure of Wow Wow Hippies, Nakamori of The Hawaiis and Mashiro of Paisley Blue.

The show saw Sally perform most songs from the album, and featured a bunch of the female vocalists featured on the album, including of course Les 5-4-3-2-1's former vocalist Hitomi, but first on stage was just Sally and the band, and they performed Sally Soul Stew's Theme. Then the show went on with guest singers coming up in turn, each singing a few songs.

Hitomi (ex-Les 5-4-3-2-1): uchū de Rendez-vous (aka Rendez-vous à l'univers), Jazuru kokoro (aka Le cœur qui jazz) and otoko no ko onna no ko (aka Un garçon et une fille)

Kuminko÷Grape (budō÷Grape): Dance senka (aka Les 5-4-3-2-1 et leur style de danse) and Non! Non! Non!

Kojima Mayumi: Heart ni OK! (I think), The End of the World and mahō no Tambourine
For these three songs, the band's guitarists were replaced by The Phantom Gift's Napoleon Yamagishi.

Hayashi Ito: ??? (I remember the song but gotta figure out the title and fill it in later) and Miracle Manège (aka Le manège magique)

Juicy: HeyHeyHeyHey (which included a long solo part where she played the flute)

The guest vocalists were all great, and it was wonderful to see Hitomi on stage singing some of Les 5's best songs! Kuminko÷Grape was especially very cute and funny, I think I wouldn't even mind seeing Les 5 come back with her as a 3rd generation vocalist (as a 2nd choice after Hitomi, of course).

Then, all guests got back on stage for a finale and sang Heart ni OK! together, and also getting the audience to sing "OK!". Of course, the band got back on stage once for an encore of one song, they played Tunnel tengoku.

There was quite a bit of dialog throughout the show, but mostly announcing each member's upcoming activity, no kind of announcement of anything to come from Sally Soul Stew. Was this just a short 4-month come-back? I hope not!

Unfortunately I couldn't manage to take good photos from where I was standing, and the selection you see here are the best ones, you can view the rest (and larger sizes) at Flickr.

Posted on May 6, 2007 at 15:31 | Tweet |

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