Blog - Weekly revue: 2018 week #31 (July 28 to August 3)

Weekly revue: 2018 week #31 (July 28 to August 3)

Food: - Beef soup curry at Tapir, Shin-Ōkubo
- Dinner at Yaoyu

Music events: - On Sunday July 29 was a show of SOLEIL at Yoyogi Zher the Zoo, celebrating singer Soleil's recent 15th birthday! The opening band was The Pen Friend Club, a young band that plays evergreen songs of the 60's (The Beach Boys, Roger Nichols, etc.) as well as their own originals. Being that SOLEIL's music is also greatly inspired by music of the same era, it was an excellent match! The two bands also have in common that they use glockenspiel, and members who use Rickenbacker bass/guitars (one of Sally Kubota's favorites). Despite being presented as the opening act, the 8 members of the Pen Friend Club played a full set!

Then SOLEIL played, this time accompanied by drummer Sankon Jr. (of Ulfuls) and chorists Lemon and Hoshino Michiru. The set included most songs from first album "My Name is SOLEIL", and also two brand new songs (they were great!) from forthcoming album "SOLEIL is Alright" of which details were announced at this show. The new album will have songs by Takanami K-taro, Yokoyama Ken (Crazy Ken Band), Microstar and many more.

Just before the encore, members of The Pen Friend Club came on stage singing "Happy Birthday" in their beautiful voices while bringing a cake. For the encore, the band came back as just its three official members with Soleil on drums. They first played their usual instrumental session, which always evolves a bit every time especially in terms of drum solos. Then they proceeded to play two more songs, "Guitar in Love" and "Pinky Fluffy", with Soleil singing while playing drums! That was a very fun show! And now I'm really looking forward to the new album, it will be released on September 19. Check out the teaser clip below.

The Pen Friend Club set list: Darlin' (The Beach Boys cover) / River Deep - Mountain High (Tina Turner cover) / Love's Lines, Angles and Rhymes (The 5th Dimension cover) / Tell Me (Do You Really Love Me?) / Don't Take Your Time (Roger Nichols & The Small Circle of Friends cover) / The Monkey's Uncle (The Beach Boys cover) / Fun Fun Fun (The Beach Boys cover) / Wichita Lineman (Glen Campbell cover)

SOLEIL set list: Theme of SOLEIL / Marine I Love You / Summer Wink / Apple Princess Go Go! / koi no Happy Date (Ishino Maki cover) (original "Gotta Pull Myself Together" by The Nolans) / Love Letter in Blue Ink / Captain Scarlet theme song / Pieces of Candy / New song: "Late Summer Silhouette"? / New song: The Beginning of Love / Do You Believe In Magic? / Are you happy? / So Long My Fourteen / Theme of SOLEIL (Reprise)
Encore (w/ Soleil on drums): Session / Guitar in Love / Pinky Fluffy

- I went to event "Torimatorimae" presented by Dr.Usui & (M)otocompo at Roppongi Varit. The artists playing were idol group Ikoku no Palpitante (produced by Dr.Usui), Nosa Reina, shoegazer rock band Jan flu (whose new album was mastered by Dr.Usui) and (M)otocompo. Nosa Reina sang 5 songs from her latest cover album "Endless Party" karaoke-style, and was accompanied by two dancing cats named the "Neko Cats". Very cute performance. :) Band Jan flu had a very cool sound with a hint of nostalgy. (M)otocompo did a set with 4 members, as fun as always.

After the show I had Nosa Reina draw a caricature of me as a rabbit ("Nosa usagi"), and also I bought (M)otocompo's latest single (a download card) which included the opportunity to have a photo taken with a member of my choice, so I picked drummer Hirano Kinoko. :)

Nosa Reina set list: Robot (Sakakibara Ikue cover) / Nuance shimasho (Kōsaka Miyumi cover) / Niagara ondo (Ōtaki Eiichi cover) / Dancing Hero (Eat You Up) (Oginome Yōko cover) / kūdō desu (Yurayura Teikoku cover)