Blog - Weekly revue: 2020 week #4 (January 25 to 31)

Weekly revue: 2020 week #4 (January 25 to 31)

Food: - Tomato mutton keema curry at Tapir (in Snark Liquidworks, Nishi-Ikebukuro)
- Lamb meatballs, fish & chips and sausage at Bespoque, Higashi-Nakano
- Tuna everything at Maguromart, Nakano
- Cake at Kies, Nishi-Ogikubo, while reading issues of Beikoku Ongaku!

Music event: I went to Haruko Tajima's first solo show! Titled "New Wave Gyaru", it was held at Shibuya WWW, one of my favorite venues. I had been a fan of Haruko since hearing Francis avec Haruko (her unit with Francis aka Ori Makoto), which was a year or so before the release of her album "Holy Holy Holy Holy" which was full of good tracks. And since then she seems to have gone a long way, with new album "kawaiiresist" which has yet more personality. Anyway, so this time was actually my first time catching Haruko's live performance (except with Francis), and it was an amazing one backed by DJ and VJ throughout. The show started with an animated opening movie that was really cute and awesome, in which Haruko gets abducted by aliens (lol!), and I hope it will show up online some time to see it again.

The show mainly featured Haruko singing over her tracks, well mixed by DJ Nonono. Instead of only singing her main vocal track, during some bits vocals are left in the mix and she sings harmonies over that. There was an appearance by MC Wassyoisamba for "Chifure GANG" (watch the video below), and also the gyaru dancers from the "Happy Duty" video who all contributed to make the show even more fun. Then at one time Haruko ran around giving away fake dollar bills to the audience using a toy that makes them fly very fast (YMCK had done the same in their "Family Circus" show in November). While most of the show was songs from the last two albums, she also treated some older tracks like "Biosphere kara ai o komete" and "Mongolian Death Worm Waltz" (from "Haruconium").

It was really cool that this first big show turned out to be a success! I'm always looking forward to what she'll be up to next.

Set list: Flood Of The Vibes / Selfie / More than human / Lipstic / Osozaki Gal / My Era / Chifure Gang feat. Wassyoisamba / Happy Duty (w/ Gyaru dancers) / Holy❤︎computer / SUN Jewel / Flood Of The Vibes (DJ Nonono Remix) / Human Rights Max Princess / Miracle Controller / Biosphere kara ai o komete / Ending / Astral Gal
Encore: Tik Tok Angels (w/ Gyaru dancers) / Mongolian Death Worm Watlz / Let's Lie Down
Closing: Oyasumi Higher Self
(Spotify playlist by Haruko of most of the songs)

Exhibition: Randomly found an exhibition with Mazinger Z and Grandizer robots, in Nakano Broadway!

Music release news: Haruko Tajima, Keith / The Arbors (Readymade mirai no ongaku), Pollyanna, Crazy Ken Band, Controversial Spark, "Silent Running", Maika Loubté