Music! and Movies! in the Month of August, 2016

Hadn’t put my musical and movie events from August together yet due to writing about Iceland and Singapore.  Here I go first with music!

Dope – a film

Shakatak @ Billboard Live Tokyo

Tegan & Sara @ Daikanyama Unit

Na Leo @ Billboard Live Tokyo

The Damned: Don’t You Wish That We Were Dead? – a documentary

Akinori Nakagawa @ Suntory Hall

The Violin Teacher – film

Summer Sonic 2016

Summer Sonic 2016

Alexandra Stan @ O-East

Song of Lahore – a documentary

Maia Hirasawa @ Billboard Live Tokyo

And the films.

Dope

The Damned: Don’t You Wish That We Were Dead

Once in a Lifetime

Looking for Her

A Walk in the Woods

While We’re Young

The Violin Teacher

High-Rise

Song of Lahore

Standing Tall

11 Minutes

Paths of the Soul

Truth

And my favorite film of the month.

Music! in the Month of October, 2015

Making a diversion from my Viet Nam posts for a summary of my musical activities for the month of October, 2015 including several music-themed films.

Boychoir, a film

Loud Park 15, a metal festival, over a two-day period @ Saitama Super Arena

Behomoth @ Club Quattro

Candy Dulfer with Hans Dulfter @ Blue Note Tokyo

David Sanborn @ Blue Note Tokyo

Pitch Perfect 2, a film

Peter Barakan’s Live Magic!, a music festival with lots of bluesy, folky rock and other adult music @ Ebisu Garden Hall

Risa Junna in-store event @ Tsutaya Tokyo Roppongi

Ex-colleagues’ birthday party @ Jazz Bird

Mary’s Blood, an all-female Japanese metal band @ Astro Hall

Straight Outta Compton, a film

Mary’s Blood in-store event @ Disk Union Shibuya

Went to see a screening of Straight Outta Compton coming to Japan in December. The biopic is about a hip-hop group N.W.A. that emerged out of Compton, California, in the ’80s.  Felt it was a bit long but the actors were great and behind-the-scenes story interesting.

Music! in the Month of July, 2014

My musical activities for the past month…

Good ol’ Matt Bianco @ Blue Note Tokyo

Lovely Sara Gazarek @ Cotton Club

Jimmy Cliff in the film The Harder They Come

Gaki Ranger @ Daikanyama Unit

Fire Horns @ Tama Plaza Terrace

The Dukes of Surf @ Ocean Peoples 2014

Cool Danish jazz by Sidsel Storm @ Cotton Club

David Garrett in the film The Devil’s Violinist as Nicolo Paganini

Alexandra Stan @ Womb

Jill Decoy Association @ Roppongi Blue Theater

Shakatak @ Billboard Live Tokyo

A fascinating music documentary film: Muscle Shoals

Fuji Rock Festival 2014!!

My main reason for being at Fuji Rock this year was this band: The Heartbreaks  Love this song and the video!

Music! in the Month of June, 2014

A bit early but summing up my rather limited music activities for this month with everything happening in Shibuya.

Schroeder-Headz @ WWW, Shibuya

Gaki Ranger in-store event @ Tower Records Shibuya

Extreme @ Shibuya Public Hall

Gamma Ray @ O-East, Shibuya

Kishi Bashi in-store event @ Tower Records Shibuya

And went to see very talented, multi-tasking Kishi Bashi play Club Quattro the night before the Tower Records in-store event.  Great performance, very fun.  Here is something he did for a Seattle radio station.  It’s the same band as on this tour.

Hands in the Air for Naughty By Nature

Though it’s not never, I hardly ever go to any hip-hop shows.  I was pleasantly surprised to find out how good these guys were.

I was told it's not really a "reunion" but the group's 20th anniversary tour.

The line for autograph on your purchased merch item was so very long as you can see in the reflection.

It was one big party (though it was an early show which began at 4:30 pm!)