Summersonic 2008

Saturday, Andrew and I headed to Maishima in Osaka for Day 1 of Summersonic. For those unfamiliar with Summersonic, it's a big 2 day rock festival held annually in the summer in Tokyo and Osaka. The majority bands in Tokyo for Day 1 come to Osaka for Day 2 and vice versa. It's a good mix of Western and Japanese bands, and they tend to get a few fairly huge bands to come every year as well. The big draw for us this year was Coldplay headlining Day 1 in Osaka, but of course they were on dead last. So without further ado let's take a look at the line up we enjoyed throughout the day.



First up was Silversun Pickups. I really wanted to see them, and their show was at the indoor, air conditioned stage so that was just a bonus. They were pretty good, but the bass player was just standing around, not getting into it at all. She didn't even look like that good of a bass player either. Luckily, the singer/guitarist and drummer saved it with their enthusiasm.



Vampire Weekend was next on the main stage. The lead singer/guitarist looks exactly like my dad when he was young. The guy loves minor chords too. Too much, in fact maybe. A good listen, but I wouldn't pay to see them alone.



Moving to a side stage we saw the Japanese band, HY. I looked around and I was the only white guy in the crowd as far as I could see which was a little weird (there are a lot of foreigners at Summersonic). I had heard a bit about them from some of my students which was the reason I wanted to check them out. Overall, I'd say they're a very good live band. More specifically, a good summer festival band, but again, probably not a band I'd pay to see playing solo.

We took a break here and got some food and went back to the air-conditioned stage. Slept through a band called Biffy Clyro. From what I heard, they were nothing special.



Back to the main stage to see The Kooks. My buddy James, who taught here in my town and came the same day as me, is friends with the bass player, but aside from that I didn't really know much about them. They were very solid. Nice solid catchy (not pop-catchy, but riff-catchy) songs and lots of energy.



We stayed at the main stage the rest of the day. Next up was Radwimps. I knew nothing about these guys except they were Japanese, and I was blown away. Aside from Coldplay, hands down the performance of the day. The had the whole crowd going from the first song and kept it at the high the whole set. The bass player and guitarist had an amazing jam session in the middle of their set as well and it was just awesome. Very impressed, and I'm looking forward to seeing them sometime soon playing solo.



Alicia Keys was on next, and while I didn't think she really fit in with the rest of the bands on the schedule, she put on an impressive show and it was cool to see her, because I doubt I ever would otherwise. She is an impressively beautiful person as well, and has a fantastic voice.





Finally, Coldplay rounded out the day. It was a long wait, but well worth it. We were really close, probably about 100 feet away, and halfway through their set they moved to a side stage closer to us. At that time we were probably about 20 feet away and it was incredible. They played mostly songs off their new album, but mixed in some of their older number ones as well. Because it's in Japan too, they don't waste time talking to the crowd so it's just song after song after song.

It was pretty tight for time for me to make it back to Shiga cause their set went long, but I managed to see the whole thing and make it back home which just left me feeling good as I crawled into bed after a long, fantastic, music filled day.