Blog - Panikaraqs at Space Force
Panikaraqs at Space Force
Last night I went to Nakameguro Space Force to see Panikaraqs in their event 三月の水祭り ("March Water Festival"), this was the band's third show. I had seen them a month ago at Roppongi SuperDeluxe. This time, the event was only ¥1000, with even no obligation to buy a drink (the opposite is very common). Also featured were side-units by each of Panikaraqs' members, making it really good value especially by Japan's standards.
Having never been to Space Force before, I was a bit mystified by their floor plan that shows a prominent 7m table in the center of the space. Well the large table wasn't there, small tables were against one wall while half of the space was first kept for the performance.
19:00 — Steve Etō solo
First, Steve played his HandSonic, djembe and other drums along with videos of himself playing other percussions. One video was cut & paste of him playing a sort of portable bamboo xylophone in Okinawa, and another showed him improvising with rocks with animations of cute rocks singing "Rock! Rock! Rock Rock! 石！ 石～！" (石 = rock). That was fun!
19:30 — Shinohara Tomoe and Chikage
Tomoe and Chikage danced while Steve DJ'd and played extra percussions. Tomoe used a black magic marker to draw freely on the wall around Chikage's body.
20:00 — les mongus (Yuka & moOog)
Honda Yuka (ex-Cibo Matto) looked great wearing a red top, a black cowboy hat and sunglasses. They played two songs.
First was I think an original where Yuka played a small synth and Mooog Yamamoto (Buffalo Daughter) did bass, over a pre-recorded basic beat. Yuka sang the lead vocals on this one, the chorus was something like "Psycho killer, don't go away..." and a part was in French. The second song was a cover of David Bowie's "Heroes" where Mooog played guitar and sang while Yuka played bass, this time with no beat or other instruments. It was great to hear these two's great English, since they don't usually sing much.
Between the two songs, Mooog said "Don't worry, we're just trying to look tough, but we're really nice!".
20:45 — Panikaraqs
The four took the stage. This time all were wearing white except for dancer Chikage who wore a funky black outfit.
I think they played all songs from last time, plus a few more. Tomoe even had her turn playing with electronics during two songs. A big surprise was a Yuka-arranged cover of "Oompa Loompa" from "Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory", a film that I loved when I was a kid. It must not have been popular in Japan though, as when Tomoe asked "anyone knows this movie?" and "anyone recognized this song?" I was the only one to react with a bright "ha-i!!!".
... which makes me realize that I may have to check out the Tim Burton remake coming out this summer. I'm not usually a fan of remakes... at all, but I like Tim Burton and think he may well come up with something great.
So far no announcement of any further show or release. I'll be watching Steve Etō's site which will surely announce anything new.
See also: Panikaraqs at Roppongi SuperDeluxe (February 4, 2005)
Disclaimer: This is a fan page. Artwork by SHINOHARA Tomoe. SHINOHARA Tomoe official site.
Posted on March 5, 2005 at 19:35 | Tweet
|
Trackback
Comments RSS
P.S. "Psycho Killer" is a signature openning song by Talking heads. But I guess while it's no longer outre to sing a song from that point of view it's still pretty outre to then break into musing about it in French.
Tomoe said in an interview that Willy Wonka and Natural Born Killers were her favorite movies.
Cibo Matto covered "Candy Man" also from Willy Wonka but probably better known these days from the Sammy Davis Jr. cover.
It's usually considered one of the scarriest kids movies ever so there's genuine film buff debate how intentional/accidental that aspect was in making the original film. So it's also interesting to theorize if Burton and Depp are trying to be intentionally scarry they might fail by trying too hard.
Posted by ndkent on March 6, 2005 at 09:10
oh... p.s.
the lyrics actually are -
Psycho Killer. Qu'est-ce que c'est?
Posted by ndkent on March 6, 2005 at 09:15
Thanks for all the precious info! :)
Psycho Killer - that's it! I'm not too familiar with Talking Heads.
Interesting about Cibo Matto's "Candyman". I never realized that it was from Willy Wonka. I strongly remembered "Oompa Loompa" though (who wouldn't?). :)
I never thought of Willy Wonka as scary at all, to me it was just fantastic. You may end up being right about Burton and Depp, that would be too bad.
Posted by Patrick on March 6, 2005 at 12:14
I'm interested to see Shinorer back! She was so huge in the 90s, then disappeared. I was asked by Sony Music to write a song for her once, and did some bossa thing that her management rejected for being too soft and girly! Now I hear that "Natural Born Killers" is her favourite movie, it makes sense!
Posted by Momus on March 6, 2005 at 23:39
Shinohara singing Momus would have been great!
By the way I was once surprised to find "The Sensation Of Orgasm" on a maxi single by HAMADA Mari (the right one). Momus is everywhere!
Posted by Patrick on March 6, 2005 at 23:51
FWIW - re: Momus comment. She packed up and left Sony for Warner at the end of 1998 so depending on the date it might have been a touchy time.
oh, and Sugizo produced a bossa nova number for her in '99.
Posted by ndkent on March 7, 2005 at 18:18