First time for that song live. Quasi-live, anyhow. I was wondering how they were ever going to perform it when it didn’t appear in either Tokyo Dome set, but a backing digital track was really the only way that made sense given all the heavy processing involved. This is what the song actually sounds like. Anyhow, if you’re in Mountain View, you may be able to catch them tonight at the Shoreline Ampitheatre. In my experience, it’s a concert well worth seeing, even in these smaller venues.
Then again, one of my favorite moments from the Tokyo Dome shows is the first time the girls come down to the stage from the giant tower on the opening Red Night, see that there are 55,000 rabid fans surrounding them, and Yui and Su exchange a great “can you believe this?” look.
Even if you never go to Japan, you have to love the fact that it exists. Where else would you find a kawaii metal song about low wage rates.
OH SWEET FOX GOD! It only gets better.
Isn’t this a renge spoon for ramen? YOU CAN SCOOP UP THINGS WITH IT! What else besides ramen can you scoop? YOU CAN SCOOP UP THIS WORLD FROM DARKNESS! Because the world is a bowl of chaos, right?
Some of you may remember when I mentioned Syncopation from the Japanese version of Metal Resistance, which rapidly became one of my favorite Babymetal songs. You still can’t hear the proper recorded version on YouTube, but it has rapidly become a favorite of skilled YouTube musicians. Here are a pair of good ones for guitar and bass.
Even if you’re not kitsune, you can’t help but develop a keen appreciation for just how good the Kamis are when you see these awesome young guys playing cover versions. It’s startling to see how much better they are than the guitarists who were playing professionally in bar bands 20 years ago. Particularly if you’ve got someone in the house learning how to play No Rain, No Rainbow….
TMD has learned today from a source that Chris was allegedly going to help expose the goings-on in Mena, Arkansas, where it’s been alleged that a cocaine and child trafficking ring tied to the Clinton’s has been operating…. The biggest theory floating around the internet is the monsters behind “PedoGate” allegedly marked Chris for assassination due to his work with ‘sexually & physically abused kids’ via several foundations.
Say what? I’ll admit, the idea that he intentionally committed suicide seems unlikely, but I find it very, very, very hard to credit that this might actually be connected to Seth Rich, let alone Vince Foster.
Oh yeah. From now until the end of time, I think this will be my response to those who insist I never accomplished anything. I can’t believe it’s on YouTube. Cracks me up every time; I think I like it better than the actual song. The only thing that would be better if it was accompanied by a playthrough video.
Holy crap, as I was watching this the music sounded really familiar and then, about half way through there’s a flashing sign in the background “PsykoSonik”… It’s literally a SNESized version of their 1st record and if you’ve never heard of them, go check them out. I recommend both records but the second is the better of the two IMO.
The lead singer of Soundgarden, Temple of the Dog, and Audioslave has died at 52:
Chris Cornell, lead singer of American hard rock bands Soundgarden and Audioslave, has died aged 52. In a statement to the Associated Press, his representative, Brian Bumbery, said Cornell died on Wednesday night in Detroit.
Bumbery called the death “sudden and unexpected” and said his wife and family were shocked. The statement said the family would be working closely with the medical examiner to determine the cause, and asked for privacy.
Cornell had been touring with Soundgarden, and was tweeting upbeat messages about a sold-out concert the band played in Detroit just hours before his death.
I never met him, but our band was scheduled to play on the second stage after Temple of the Dog at the Chicago Lollapalooza in 1992. Our singer got lost, so we didn’t play, but it was a great day for music in the sun, with Soundgarden and Pearl Jam playing the main stage prior to Ministry and the Chili Peppers.
But when I think of Chris Cornell and Soundgarden, I think mostly of playing Road Rash on the 3DO. What a perfect soundtrack for that game!
In last night’s Darkstream, I addressed the question of whether it is acceptable for a man to wear a shirt with another man’s face on it. Considering that my CERNOVICH shirt is on the way to me, my position is pretty obvious. And as far as I’m concerned, Boh settled the matter once and for all by playing this solo while wearing a shirt with Takayoshi Ohmura’s face on it while standing right next to Takayoshi Ohmura.
No matter how cool you might think you are, you are not as cool as the God of Bass. Not even close.
There is an important lesson here. Same four guys that took the stage together with Su, Moa, and Yui two months before at the Tokyo Dome. Same mind-blowing talent… and in fact, Boh’s bass solo is a little more relaxed, but is longer and even more impressive than the one he plays for Twilight of the Metal Gods on Red Night.
And there are about 54,000 fewer people in attendance.
This should dismiss the notion, once and for all, that mere talent ever suffices.
It’s difficult to describe just how weird this band is, but let’s give it a try: Three young Japanese women dressed in matching black frilly party dresses, doing choreographed dance moves and singing — in Japanese — in front of a hard metal band, all of whom are dressed in ankle-length white robes and wearing white face paint. Someone described the resulting sound as Elmo fronting Metallica, but that doesn’t quite capture the weirdness of Babymetal. When the band broke into a couple bars of “Sweet Home Alabama,” maximum weirdness was achieved. Oh yeah, the Red Hot Chili Peppers were there, too.
JACKSONVILLE
Light shows aside, did the Chilis get as weird as they used to back in their punk-funk heyday? Nah. These are older, gentler Chili Peppers, distinguished elder statemen of rock, men who cordially invited former drummer Jack Irons to kick off the night with a 20-minute solo set. The group that really brought the battiness was opening act Babymetal, a Japanese pop-metal phenomenon combining an assembly-line girl group with white-robed thrash metal demons. Technically engrossing, in terms of both metal musicianship and ritualistic choreographic discipline, it was exactly the sort of fantastical freak show that might’ve accompanied the Chilis on some sweaty Lollapalooza back in the day. The heck if they didn’t have the arena lit up and singing on their anthemic Karate.
CHARLOTTE
On the subject of opening acts, Irons’s solo drumming didn’t leave much of an impression on me… but Babymetal? I don’t think I’ll ever forget them. You should do your own poking around about this Japanese girl group/(very) heavy metal band, but let’s just say it’s like Dr. Frankenstein stitched together parts of Britney Spears, Megadeth, Nintendo’s stupidest games, “The Ghost in the Shell” and “Saturday Night Live.” I scratched my head, a lot. I laughed, a lot. But I couldn’t take my eyes off of them, and on the drive home after the show, it was Babymetal I was listening to on Spotify, not the Chili Peppers. Mostly, I think, because I needed to make sure I hadn’t dreamed the whole thing.
MIAMI
You think it can’t get any crazier? Babymetal picked up four new additions: Nate-METAL, J-METAL, Flea-METAL and Chad-METAL.
AKASAKA – TOKYO – NAGOYA – OSAKA
J-pop metal group BABYMETAL have parlayed their meteoric rise into tour dates alongside Metallica, Guns N’ Roses, and Red Hot Chili Peppers. Now, they’ve announced plans for their very own Five Fox Festival set to take place in Japan over nine days this summer. In an interesting twist that could only come from BABYMETAL, there are strict conditions required to attend each of these dates. Specifically, the festival is broken down into categories by age group, gender, and dress code. For example, one date is reserved exclusively for males, another for females, and another for teenagers. Even more randomly is the day when only elementary school children and people over the age of 60 (um, what?) will be granted admittance.
I have to admit, this is the most tempted I have been to return to Nagoya in decades.
So, I was watching Red Night from the Babymetal concert at the Tokyo Dome when suddenly they broke into an excellent song that I’d never heard before. It turns out that Syncopation is only on the Japanese version of Metal Resistance. The guitars are great and the drumming is out-of-control, even for Babymetal.
And it is good. I don’t know that I’d be willing to give up From Dusk Till Dawn for it, but it is really good. Also, I found that I liked Yava! rather better after seeing it live. But while Red Night was excellent, kicking off with Road of Resistance and peaking with Karate, I think I would rather have gone to Black Night, as that’s when they featured Megitsune, No Rain No Rainbow, Twilight of the Metal Gods, and, appropriately enough, Onedari Daisuken.
BLACK BABYMETAL!
I don’t think anyone has ever been as deliriously happy on stage as Moa. She’s beaming pretty much the entire show on both nights. And Su has developed into a bona fide rock star. It’s also kind of awesome to see 55,000 Japanese erupt in exactly the same way everyone did in the small club in which we saw them. Soiya soiya soiya soiya! One, two, one, two, three, let’s go!
