Blog - Softly! 5th Anniversary: live report

Softly! 5th Anniversary: live report

Last Tuesday, towards the end of Golden Week, I went to Shibuya O-nest for an event celebrating label Softly!'s 5th anniversary. I'm just a casual fan of the label, not so familiar with most of their artists, but I was there mainly to see The Aprils and Hazel Nuts Chocolate. The other bands playing were first announced as Melting Holidays, who I was really looking forward to, and Sugimoto Kiyotaka of orangenoise shortcut, who I was also curious about. Unfortunately Melting Holidays canceled and were replaced by a rapper called らっぷびと (Rapbito).

I got there 30 minutes late with a bad surprise waiting, Hazel Nuts Chocolate had gone first and the instant I walked in I heard the last note and saw them walk off stage...! I'll have learned my lesson: shows in Japan start on time. (I've learned that before but sometimes you forget until you get a reminder like this.)

I heard from my friend Naoto there that HNC had played mostly new songs from the upcoming 3rd album still in the works, even skipping regulars like "Love Piece Icecream" and "Hello". Oh well I missed a good show but at least I had seen her not too long ago, and probably will do again in not too long.

Next up was The Aprils who gave a great show in full proportion. They had a bit more gear than usual, especially VJ/dancer Nakama-kun seemed to have more responsibilities than before and had a bit of trouble keeping up, but all ended going fine. He had 4 laptops set up on tall stands at the back, acting as sync'd stroboscopes.

They opened with 2 brand new songs, then a cover of La Casa Azul, and then continuing with regulars. Actually they said it had been 2 years since they played "Time After Time" live, it's one of my karaoke favorites. When the huge panda showed up near the end, Nakama ran to remove a few of the laptops to put them in a safe place. :)

Set list: Drive My Carpet (new song) / Shine x Shine x Shine x Shine (new song) / New Yma Sumac (La Casa Azul cover) / kirameki Moon Diver / Time After Time / Pan-da / kaede New Town

Next up was Rapbito, some of his tracks were actually pretty good. However I couldn't help but think "Why this guy at this event?", and "Why not first?? That way I wouldn't have missed HNC!"

Next was Sugimoto Kiyotaka of orangenoise shortcut. He started his show saying things like "C'mon say HO---HO!", making fun of Rapbito a little, and provoking a lot of laughter. He played solo on his piano and sang. He was really good!

But the best was kept for the end, when he called all 6 other members of orangenoise shortcut (guitar, bass, trombone, trumpet, chorus, drums) for a surprise set! They actually just played one disco-ish song that was really great, and then left the stage to come back for an encore with the song "Number 5". Softly celebrating their 5th anniversary on May 5 (5/5), and being that this single was the label's very first release, they just had to be there and play this song. It was my first time seeing them, but this made me really want to see them again, so I hope they'll get back to being fully active soon. All the guys looked really like nice people too, always smiling and looking like they were having a great time.

Larger sizes and more photos at Flickr

Posted on May 10, 2009 at 02:16 | Tweet |

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