Blog - Weekly revue: 2020 week #7 (February 15 to 21)

Weekly revue: 2020 week #7 (February 15 to 21)

Food: - Fried fugu (and also pizza and several other great dishes!) at Guerrero, Shimokitazawa
- White omrice at Usagi, Aoyama

Music events: - On Sunday February 16 was event "Tricolor Ch." presented by The Lady Spade in collaboration with Usaxa. The event also featured several other artists including Yoshida Tetsuto, Matsunaga Temma (Urbangarde), Saoriiiii, and DJs Evenyan Rollercoaster & Josée Mattanashi (both ex-Kit Cat). I went there looking forward to pretty much each and every of them! It was my first time going to Live Inn Rosa in Ikebukuro.

I got there as the doors opened (although there was a nice line of people waiting to enter), and entered as Eve-nyan & Josée were playing a back-to-back DJ set. That was followed by a first show of The Lady Spade and an appearance by Usaxa, who performed together their new collaboration song "futari de All Night Long". It had been a while since I had seen The Lady Spade, this time singer ATG was accompanied by one maid dancer, and of course DJ/MC SLF!!

Next up was Yoshida Tetsuto, who did a set of songs he wrote for WHY@DOLL and Kai, also a cover of Emiri Kanou's hit song "Gomenne" (which he remixed on her album "GREENPOP") and his own debut song "hitomeguri"! It was my first time seeing him play a solo set, and that was a lot of fun! I'm really looking forward to his first solo album he says he's been working on!

Then I was really happy to see Eve-nyan Rollercoaster (previously Evenyan Laurent, ex-Kit Cat & Nyantokanyaru's), who during her DJ sets sang three solo songs that were great! I was hoping to buy her CD but she hadn't brought any. Next time hopefully!

Followed more good shows by Saoriiiii (previously known as Saori@destiny) and Matsunaga Temma (Urbangarde), then finally another set by The Lady Spade. That was an excellent event with no time to rest!

Yoshida Tetsuto set list: Promises, Promises (WHY@DOLL) / Moonlight Tokyo (Kai) / Gomenne (Emiri Kanou) / hitomeguri / futari de ikite yukereba (WHY@DOLL)

- On the day preceding the release of Wakita Monari's LP edition of 2nd album "AHEAD!", I went to see her at an in-store event HMV record shop Shinjuku Alta. It's an excellent album, so of course I had to get it on vinyl. :) I had the chance to get her autograph and also to take a photo together.

Set list: Peppermint Rainbow / I'm with you / Highway / Callin' You

w/ WAKITA Monari

- Then on Friday I went to a free event of Ginza Sony Park's "Park Live" series which featured Maika Loubté and Miho Hatori (New Optimism, ex-Cibo Matto)! I got there early and caught a good seat, and that was an amazing show! Miho first did about five of her own songs solo style, which was very cool! I love Miho's rapping, which always sounds very unique. According to an interview on the radio the next Monday (she was guest on Nomiya Maki and Kaji Hideki's "Shibuya no Radio no Shibuya-kei" show), she seems to be working on some new stuff!

Next up was Maika who played a full set of her songs, mostly from her latest album "Closer". She was accompanied by her manipulator who was also part of her solo show last year, so she could mainly concentrate on singing, while of course playing some phrases on her keyboards. The set ended with "Snappp", her collaboration song with Miho! It was their first time performing it live. Talk about a dream-come-true show, for both performers and spectators! And free!? Thanks so much! :)

Maika Loubté set list: Celine / Numbers / Prismé / Skydiver / You and I / Nobara / Snappp feat. New Optimism

- After that, I ran to a reggae bar named Open in Shinjuku to see a DJ set by my friend Don Miller who was in town visiting from the U.S.! The event was titled "Authentic". The venue has an impressive speaker set-up, which despite the looks sounded rather gentle. I do like reggae and dub, so it was fun to enjoy that in its best environment. There was also a band named Kyouken Trio playing, a trio of two guitars (with a strange square-ish one) and drums. They were great too! The venue's owner, apparently a famous guy in the scene, joined for a few songs.