Yassa!04

'You lucky, lucky bastard!'

And indeed I am, for so many reasons. Grim determination has certainly been a factor in getting to Ulfuls concerts but the help of people that I'm lucky to have on my team and just plain luck have been important contributors too. Amongst the various things that threatened my attendance a typhoon decided to join the party. Since Yassa!04 was an outdoor concert held at Banpaku kinen koen in northern Osaka it couldn't have gone ahead if the typhoon had hit head on. As it turns out it did us a favour (Keisuke actually said 'Daisuki tyfuu' or 'I love the typhoon') by cooling everything down a bit and providing a bit of a breeze and some cloud cover. It was a nice contrast with last year when we absolutely cooked. The balloon banners had to be hauled in before the concert started because they were being blown horizontal by the wind but at ground level it was very pleasant. I bought one of the fans designed by Tortoise to look like a bowl of ramen but didn't need it. It looks nice hanging upside-down in my room though. There's no special significance to that, by the way, upside-down is just where gravity puts it.

My Room My room in Juso Juvie. August 2007 version. No poster for Yassa '07 because I got confused by the booking method and didn't get to go. Pisser.

My gift for fecklessness also endangered my attendance. Getting there this time round was so much easier than on previous occasions (half an hour by train and monorail) that I ended up nearly missing my spot in line. This would have been somewhat tragic since it turned out that my spot in the line was amongst the first 800 people allowed into the standing area. Again with the lucky. I had misread my ticket (in my defence it is in Japanese) and thought I had to be there by 13:30 when actually I was supposed to line up at 12:30. My error was pointed out with minutes to spare by Ayako, a really nice woman I met with her incredibly cute son Yuu-chan on the train. Ayako is from Osaka originally but has recently moved to Tohoku with her family and came back especially for the concert. She had only just seen the Budokan DVD because it was really hard to get where she is, out in the sticks as it were.

ayako Yuu-chan with his mother.

She also asked if I used the internet and then, when I said that I did, noted that I must be the 'crazy Australian lady'. Hmmm. If I am indeed notorious it's not because of this page because nobody comes here! Perhaps she is referring to something on a Japanese fansite. I did talk to a couple of people at last year's Yassa! and to Ikeda-san and her friend at the Hiroshima 'ee nen' gig so maybe someone has written something up from one of those occasions. Or maybe I just mentioned being Australian on the Ulfuls site bulletin board, although I don't remember doing so. Then again I pretty much only post there when I'm somewhat plotzed... At any rate I think the chances are slim that I'm being confused with someone else. I think I saw one other gaijin at last year's Yassa! but that's all amongst the thousands of Ulfuls fans I've seen. Still, although I'm not in a position to know if I am the crazy Australian in question, for the record I'm not the dangerous kind of crazy, just very enthusiastic. Honma ni. Restraining orders will not be necessary.

yuuchan Yuu-chan with a Crazy Australian.

So anyway, being amongst the first 800 in I was able to pick a really good spot. The Yassa! stages are shaped like a capital 'T' with a longish extension coming out into the crowd. I picked a spot near the bottom of the 'T' on the Ulful Keisuke side. Iwamoto-san always, in my experience, plays at stage left for most of the concert. I stood for a while and then decided to risk going to get some drinks. It was tricky finding my place again because I hadn't had the sense to establish landmarks before I wandered off (actually I did, but the cool guy nearby who had styled his hair to look like Waimokun wasn't visible from any distance)

waimoge Not a good landmark.

but eventually I found my stuff. It's not something I'd like to try doing in an Australian crowd. Although the Ulfuls fans weren't actually helpful when I was trying to squeeze through them they weren't deliberately obstructive either. I think consensus in Australian rock crowds is that if you leave a good spot in a general admission area you can kiss it goodbye and the crowds tend to be packed so tight near the front that you need to be pretty aggressive to get through them. It was a long wait for the concert, although it started early - around 16:15 rather than 16:30 - but it didn't drag badly. I spent some time talking to Noriko and Ami who were standing near me and cheerfully tolerated my painful attempts at Japanese, and the music playing beforehand was pretty good too.

Noriko&Ami Noriko and Ami.

They actually played 'Baba O'Riley' which is a great song off my favourite Who album, although unfortunately the roadies were tuning up at the time. They also played 'A Town Called Malice' but there's a lot of The Jam I would rather have heard. Almost anything off 'All Mod Cons' for starters.

Yassa04mae The view from my spot before the show.

And then the concert started. This year they all came onstage one at a time and in the same fashion. The screens showed a series of images of the band member in question from previous Yassas while some cool music played, then up at the back jets of smoke blasted up and they rose up amongst them. A bit like Tortoise's entrance in 2000. John B didn't seem to get full-on jets, but then again his tune was 'Sleep John B' which was much slower than the other guys' tunes so maybe it was deliberate rather than a malfunction. Miki ran on after the rest without any kind of fanfare, which doesn't feel quite right but I'm guessing he wants it that way. And then they launched into Osaka Strut. At this point I'll put in the list of songs, as checked against the list that was available on the Himitsu no Ulzono site for a while.

Then they went to centre stage for-: And then back to the main stage for-: Encore #1 Encore #2 Hanabi and Seeyaaaah!

Before I get into any more specifics I should point out that Yassa!04 was a brilliant show and I absolutely loved it. I have loved every Ulfuls gig I've been to but the vibe was so much better for me this year than at Yassa!2003. The reasons for this will become more obvious when I finally get around to writing up the '03 concert but essentially it is a whole lot better to be at an Ulfuls show as a club member than otherwise. It is also easier to get upset in a country where your grasp of the language is poor.

Anyway. This year. Broadly speaking there was a great choice of numbers, three exciting new songs, everyone was in great voice and played brilliantly. I think Keisuke is a great guitarist anyway but he seems to manage to get better! It's also the case that although my Japanese is still hetakuso it is improving and every now and then I was able to understand what was being said during the on-stage chat. At least, I understood a few words here and there. There was a bit of chat about the typhoon and the other summer concerts, particularly Rock Odyssey. I think that Keisuke was enthusing about Pete Townshend and the fact that The Who have been around for 40 years and I think (I hope!) he voiced his intentions for Ulfuls to be around for just as long. I'm assuming that Keisuke has been a fan of The Who for a while because, from when I first heard Ulfuls music, his guitar playing has sometimes reminded me of Townshend's. I also assumed that Sankon was keen on Keith Moon for similar reasons. Sankon mentioned Keith Moon. Something that related to him having 'Sankon Jr' written on his shirt. Keith Moon certainly sometimes had 'Keith' written on his shirt. You can see it in 'The Kids Are Alright' movie.

And let's pause here for the fashion show! Fortunately my fuzzy memories can once again be supplemented, this time by by Maido On (the fan club magazine) #34. As mentioned, Sankon had his name written, in yellow I think, on the left breast of his sleeveless white shirt. He had his hair spiked and wore a tie. Keisuke had the usual ten gallon hat and wore white overalls with his name on the right breast. On the left side he had a patch that looked like a parody of a KFC logo with 'Terrorism is Chicken' and a face I couldn't identify on it. On the back of his overalls I think it said 'Since 1989. Ulfuls. Osaka.' with 'Ulfuls' in a cursive font. John B had a black, or navy blue, white-spotted jacket and blue pants. He also had an open-necked blue-spotted white shirt. Miki had a sheer white shirt over something black and sleeveless. Tortoise was extremely colourful. He had on a pink, yellow, black and white shirt with stripes and polka dots over a bright green muscle shirt with a winged guitar and 'Rock & Roll Star' written on it. All this over multi-coloured floral pants. His hair was also noticably longer than the last time I saw him. I prefer it short. I'm sure he cares.

On with the show! As stated, they started with Osaka Strut. Shiawase! It's one of my favourites and it's a good song to be singing in Osaka. When they do it in concert they don't just chant 'Osaka! Osaka!' every time. Tortoise gets you to chant other things relating to the venue, such as 'Banpaku! Banpaku!' and things that are impossible to get said in the time allowed such as 'Momijikawa...(...shibafu hiroba?' I don't actually remember what he said after 'Momijikawa' but that's what the kanji seem to come to for the lawns where the concert was held) which causes much amusement. I was a bit concerned that we didn't get to sing Rokko Oroshi part way through but I didn't sweat it too much because the balloon in my show bag told me that we'd be doing it at some stage. Next up was Sun Sun Sun '95 then Ai ga nakucha (Baby! I love you!). After that Tortoise did his routine where he walks and plays slide guitar. I've seen him do it four times now (not counting DVDs) and it doesn't get old. The audience tries to clap in time with his pacing and he deliberately makes it difficult to follow him. He also gets everyone to clap with fewer and fewer fingers until everyone is trying to make a noise by just clapping their index fingers together. It was neat to have people around me who had obviously never seen him do it before because they made that incredulous 'eeeeee?' sound that Japanese people make when they feel that something is amiss. It's a lot of fun building up, finger by finger, to making a racket and then he starts to play the guitar again. For a great follow-up they then launched into Let's Go Monday - one of my favourite songs. The original version, on the album Let's Go, is so-so but the live version they did for the 5-hour concert in 2002 utterly rocks and they did a great job this time around too. I try to sing lead and backup on Let's Go Monday, which is nigh impossible but it's also my idea of a good time.

Then came another chance for audience participation when Tortoise called 'Aho de-!' and we all came back with '-kekko!'. The dancers came on and their moves were pretty funny. Tortoise got the words wrong again, from a certain point of view. What I mean is that, as with the other two times I've heard him sing Aho de kekko live, he put the words in a different order to the way they are on the CD. However, as the young Neil Gaiman pointed out to a friend who was criticizing Lou Reed's singing, he can't be getting it wrong because it's his song - to do with what he will. Next up was Kimi dake o, a favourite of mine, then Animal. And then came a new song, Uta. I really liked Uta. I loved the variation in pace and I thought it was really exciting. The audience was slow to start applauding but I think that was only because the ending was a little inconclusive and people don't like to start clapping too early.

Then came the pay-off for the position I had chosen. My view of the show up to this point was pretty good. I'm 171cm, so I can see over most of a Japanese crowd, particularly since Ulfuls crowds seem to be about 80% female. I guess we have better taste in music. However there was a guy in front of me that was blocking my view of Keisuke a lot of the time while they were playing on the main stage. This was no longer a problem as they moved onto centre stage and arranged themselves right in front of me. Seriously, Iwamoto-san was two to three metres away from me. Hence being able to read the patch on his overalls. My view of Sankon was blocked, so that I had to do a lot of craning to see him, but I could see the rest of them very clearly. In fact it was information overload and I had trouble deciding where to look! Rokko Oroshi worked well instead of the usual xylophone solo during Ashita ga aru sa. I had an equipment malfunction when the whistle fell out of my jetto fusen but I managed to get it back into place in time to sing along. I know the first verse of Rokko Oroshi thanks to Ulfuls, although I need to learn the other two for Tiger's games, since the crowd sing all three. It's a lovely moment releasing the balloons at Koshien but I prefer doing it during a Yassa!

They also sang Maido Happy for the first time, which was great and went down well. All too soon they were heading back for the main stage but before heading back (at least, I think that this was when it happened) Tortoise did that rock star stunt of filling his mouth with bottled water and spraying it over the crowd. As soon as he did it in one direction everyone else started calling out to him and he sent a spray heading towards my spot in the crowd. Hence me being able to say with complete confidence that I was within spitting distance of Tortoise at Yassa04 since I got a faceful. I was delighted, of course, as was everyone around me. I may, however, have been the only one present who almost immediately started cacking themselves laughing after recalling a scene from Monty Python's Life of Brian.

They did a member introduction during Konya dou? Sankon is the 'Kinniku no (muscular) drummer' and John B is the 'Mondai no (problem) bassist, Mr Fancy'. There was a funny incident when John B was talking to the crowd. It was a cloudy day and close to sunset. When he took his jacket off the stage was suddenly bathed in light from the setting sun. He talked for a while then put his jacket back on and the sun almost immediately went behind the clouds again. I'm assuming he made some sort of comment about it!

Tortoise came back onto the apron for Sore ga Kotae da and so did a bunch of dancers. At one point I realised that I was gazing rapt at a dancer when Tortoise himelf was dancing right behind her. I quickly redirected my attention. So easily distracted... The AAP theme was fun as always and, also as always, some people spelled out 'q' instead of 'P' with their arms. After Ee nen they went off for a while. By this time I was used to the lack of racket that the audience tends to make for encores at Ulfuls gigs but I still commented on it to Noriko. She managed to convey that there was nothing to worry about and I said (quite unfairly since she didn't have a hope of understanding what I meant!) 'Hai, wakatteru, it ain't over until the skinny guy plays the harmonica.' but I still made as much ruckus as I could myself. To each their own cultural compulsions.

When they came back on Sankon was wearing one of the kids' T-shirts, much to the amusement of the crowd. They did the 'shinu' version of Gatsu daze! - where Tortoise comes to the front of the apron and, at the appropriate point in the song, pretends to collapse and die onto a platform that raises him up a few feet. He collapsed onto his knees first, bum facing towards our section, which created a quiet moment of interest around about. When we had chanted 'Gatsu daze!' for a while he stood up and raised his fists triumphantly, accompanied by pyrotechnics that felt hot to me so good on him for standing in the middle of them. This time, during Keisuke's guitar solo, he wasn't the only one with a catherine wheel on his guitar. John B had one on his bass too and Sankon and Miki had them on the wall behind them as well. Looked pretty good. There were more pyrotechnics, along the front of the main stage, for the debut of Baka Survivor. It is a great song, and was immediately likable. Then they went off again. This is not how it is done! There was the delightful sound of 20,000 people making the Japanese 'eeeeeeee?' and I suddenly realised that I was one of them. It was a moment. Anyway, people played along and made more noise although, again, not to the levels that I'm used to.

When they came back a second time Tortoise had his fringe up in a topknot, a style that not everyone can carry off, and Sankon had taken his shirt off at last. This time they finished up properly, with Ii onna, and the skinny guy went off three times and came back three times and finished up with a harp solo, so all was as it should be. I am really ambivalent about Ii onna now. I love the song but because it's always the last one played I feel really sad as soon as the build-up to the song starts. Ulfuls finish concerts really well, though. They hung around for lots of bowing, with and without the dancers, and they came out to the front and waved and watched the fireworks with the crowd. It's also part of the tradition for everyone in the crowd to hold hands for a moment, which is really lovely. Other traditions included the band climbing onto the drum stage and jumping off together and Tortoise leading everyone in the question and answer session one last time-:

T: Oretachi wa?!
M: Ulfuls!
T: Kimitachi wa?!
M: Okyaku!
T: Koko wa?!
M: Banpaku! (in this case)
T: Aikotoba wa? C'mon!
M: AAP!

Then the band walked off slowly, waving, and it was all over.

After Ulfuls went off I hung around chatting with Noriko and Ami and some of the other people around me. One of the people I had held hands with (and earlier in the evening we had exchanged grins when Tortoise bollocksed his lines during Gatsu) turned out to be called Keiko (Miyazaki) and she had brought her daughter Wakako with her. Keiko's English, and that of another guy nearby who I never got the name of, turned out to be pretty good so we conversed quite a bit. I was asked if I had enjoyed myself and said that I had but admitted to being a bit miserable because it was all over. Noriko thought that was really funny and ruffled my hair consolingly. Keiko asked me, while we were walking back to the monorail together, whether I was going to try to get to any of the concerts that had been mentioned as coming up in February. I said 'Mochiron!' and she laughed and said it sounded like a 'kiai'. A couple more photos to finish off. Sorry about the quality. My ke-tai isn't up to much in low light.

Keiko&Wakako Keiko and Wakako Miyazaki.

Wakako&Me Wakako and a Crazy Australian

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