Blog - Barfout! Club Authentica / bice live: report
Barfout! Club Authentica / bice live: report
Tonight I dropped by Supper Lounge Obi in Shibuya, located just above club Womb, to see bice live. She was performing a short set part of event Club Authentica presented by magazine Barfout. I was a bit surprised to find my friend Nick, I had told him of the event but I didn't expect finding him there, he had even arrived earlier than me. :) The small lounge space was still fairly empty, but more people arrived until the show began around 20:30.
First was a short set by a band called TEX & the Sun Flower Seed. Their sound was sort of laid back ska (=reggae?) with a touch of J-rock/pop. All musicians were very good and while it's not a genre I usually listen to, I don't mind something like this once in a while. The trombonist, who sometimes played pianica, gave a nice touch to their sound.
Next up was of course bice. Staff brought large panels of photos of herself playing guitar and bass, a funny way to compensate for the lack of musicians on stage. :) She performed alone, accompanied by a backtrack streaming from her Mac, and playing keyboards or guitar while singing. She played a total of 5 songs, all from her new album "kanaerarenai koi no tame ni".
Set list: teisen shimashō / lily on the hill / in lovers time / red balloon / 100nen go ni wa futari wa inai
For the 1st and 4th songs she played guitar, the 2nd and 3rd on piano, and for the last she just danced while singing. The show had a good balance of up-beat and slower songs. "lily on the hill" was the best, she performed it solo on piano with no backtrack.
Also she talked quite a bit between the songs, and explained how what made her decide to release a new album (after 6 years since the previous) was that Konishi Yasuharu called her up to meet her, and tried to convince her to do so. At first she refused, but when she got back home she realized that she had a bunch of good songs, so she decided to do it!
She also presented her brand new clothing line called eme. T-shirts with the logo were on sale at the show.
At the end of the show she announced that those who bought the album there would get some free goodies (a sticker maybe?) and could get an autograph. I hadn't brought my CD from home, but I went to show her that I had her album on my iPod and she kindly signed a flyer for me. Oh, and she was very cute by the way. :)
A quick bice story: Many years ago (around 2002 maybe) my good Swedish friend Jesper had found out about her and really loved her. While he was in Japan he even went and interviewed her, if I remember right! So Jesper found out about her genius many years before Konishi-san did. Maybe he should consider becoming producer. :)
Larger sizes and more photos at Flickr
Posted on August 8, 2008 at 00:29 | Tweet
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