Blog - Pure Pop Fes vol.1: report

Pure Pop Fes vol.1: report

Tonight was Pure Pop Fes vol.1 at Basement Bar in Shimokitazawa, a fun event focusing on pico-pico and techno-pop. I went there on my own but ended up meeting friends Craig, Hase-san (who played keys for Aprils) and Yumi-chan, Akiko-chan, and even making a new friend who seems to be a big fan of Arcorhyme.

The place was really packed from start to finish! A bigger venue would have been better, but it was a good time though.

First on stage was Furil, a girl-boy "dreamy pop" unit who I saw for the first time. They sang and he played guitar over a backtrack. The girl was cute and I liked her voice, but overall it wasn't quite my thing.

Next up was Hazel Nuts Chocolate with a very energetic set! Yuppa looked younger than I remembered her, perhaps because she changed her hairstyle. She was accompanied with Motocompo's Dr.Usui who played distorted guitar, that really rocked! Yuppa no only sang but she also played keyboards over her backtrack. She opened with "Love + Piece + Icecream", and also sang "Hello", "koi wa kyurukyuru", and some 3 or 4 others. Awesome set! Maybe there was one song that I didn't remember hearing before, so perhaps that was a new one. When someone in the audience asked when her album would be released, she said "it's a secret!"... Let's hope it will be soon.

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Next on stage was relatively new techno-pop vocoder idol Aira Mitsuki, who I was really looking forward to. I hadn't really heard her songs yet, but I knew her style was very much like capsule and Perfume who she says she loves. She was a pro, the robot dances and the smile. For most songs she was accompanied by two cute girl dancers. The 2nd song was her latest single "China Discotica", and during that segment the dancers wore red Chinese-style dresses, with those rectangle sunglasses like on the single jacket.

Then there was a part with Aira (...still can't figure out which is her first name) alone on stage, standing behind a Korg synth where she sang her cover of Cornelius' "Star Fruits Surf Rider", that was good! She deserves some credit for actually playing some of her vocoder chords on the synth live (not all of it though). She then sat on a chair and sang the calmer "Darling Wondering Staring", both songs will be released on a Tower Records-only single limited to 2000 copies.

The two dancers then came back on stage, this time wearing different long dresses and holding huge lollipops, again very cute. Aira sang "Candy Light Mode" (from first single "Colorful Tokyo Sounds No.9") and another song, and that was it.

Unfortunately I couldn't take photos of her set, I was getting cold looks from some people around me when I was going to grab my camera and I chickened out... I hope Craig will post his!

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Last up were Aprils, always giving a great show! I have seen them a few times meanwhile, but it had been almost 2 years since I saw a full show with their full band. They played a full set with their regulars, and also the theme song from "kaede New Town". The big surprise this time was their Perfume parody song "Stainless Girl" that appeared on the web site for April Fool's! The show was complete with an encore (Yano Akiko's "Metropolitan Museum").

On my way out, I couldn't resist buying Aira's two first singles, and I got a free signed poster! Yay! Here's her clip for "China Discotica".

Larger sizes and more photos at Flickr

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Update (2008/5/2): Craig has posted his review of the show, with some good photos!

Posted on April 27, 2008 at 02:30 | Tweet |

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