Blog - SUNAHARA Yoshinori live report

Sunahara Yoshinori live report

Last Wednesday I went to Liquid Room for an event part of the venue's 5th anniversary series, mainly to see Sunahara Yoshinori!

I have been a fan of Marin (Sunahara's nickname) since the late 90's and ever since I came to Japan I had wanted to see him but this was my first occasion. He hasn't released an album since "Lovebeat" (2001) and hasn't been active as a live performer, until this year when he came back with a soundtrack and a series of shows. He's also been teasing about a follow-up original album but still no word on when it might be released.

First were three other artists, agraph (MySpace), Asa-chang & Junray (MySpace), and rei harakami (MySpace). It was my first time seeing agraph and Harakami and they were both great, their sound fit really well in this event. Asa-chang's set stood out most, and it was a bit different from last time I saw them, Asa-chang talked a lot more this time, making the audience laugh between about every song. Once again I was impressed by U-zhaan's amazing tabla playing. During Harakami's set the two joined for one joke-ish song(?) in which Asa-chang sang rather out of tune.

Sunahara Yoshinori's set came last, and it was the most impressive of course! The stage had two tables placed symmetrically, with a laptop and other stuff on each, but we couldn't see the secret sauce on them because of a little wall around each.

There was some great video projected throughout the show. It all started with music and video showing a very wide strip showing first black & white photos, then color photos and then video, including some Pan-Am and other typical Sunahara imagery. There we credits announcing Sunahara and his helper manipulator as they arrived on stage. Great impact! People really seemed to have difficulty to believe that Sunahara would really show up, as it's so rare to get to see him live, so all were relieved when he arrived. The thin video strip then opened up to full size, again with great impact, it would stay that way for the rest of the show.

The show contained about 4 songs from "Lovebeat", a few older ones, and some unknown new songs.

Partial set list (what I knew): ... / Earth Beat / Balance / ... / Lovebeat / 747 / Hypnotize / ... / The center of gravity

Sunahara spent the whole time playing with some mixer, and after each song ended he would reach the right of his table and "play" for the next to start. I think only for "747" he played some lines live on a keyboard, I sure wish he'd have played some more. The known songs weren't really rearranged, they just seemed with a slightly different mix and some added echo, etc. Still it was a great experience to hear these with huge sound and seeing the guy himself on stage.

The end was a slight disappointment, as people called for an encore for a few minutes, and Sunahara came back on stage to say that he hadn't prepare any encore... What?? Just do!!! :) But hey... I can't say that I wasn't fully satisfied already.

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Sunahara Yoshinori can be caught live again tomorrow (August 9) at the World Happiness festival (Tokyo Gig Guide), and then at Rising Sun Rock Festival (Hokkaidō) on August 14.

Posted on August 8, 2009 at 14:10 | Tweet |

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