just came back from going to see bleach and mongol 800 in concert at the aratani theater in little tokyo. i need to give a little background on this one. the 2 bands are from okinawa and i really can't comment on the current state of japanese music but "everyone" says mongol 800 is number 1 in japan. if not, then they are very popular. this show is sponsored by and promoted by some okinawans. apparently 4 of them got together to sponsor this event but the tickets have not been selling well (only sold half) so they are now in debt. i did my part--i went and i tried to bring along others. there are speculations as to why it did not sell well but i will let those 4 individuals ponder that one for the next time they attempt to be concert promoters.

my mom was selling tickets for this event as part of her job, otherwise i would have never heard of the show. i certainly had never heard of the bands before. she got a sample cd with 1-2 minute clips of 3 songs for each band and i really wasn't into it but said i'd go to help support such events, especially since ticket sales had been so poor. bleach had a little bit of interesting vibe but mongol sucked. by the way, when performing in america, bleach are called bleach 03 so as to not confuse them with another band who has the copyright to the name. mongol 800 are also known as "monpachi" but don't ask me how in the hell "mongoru happyaku" becomes "monpachi". during the concert, the band itself never even referred to themselves by this nickname.

since the people involved in the okinawan-american community are elderly, there was an interesting mix of people at the concert. it was mostly young japanese who are in america for whatever reason who know of mongol because they are popular. the rest were young nisei or even later down the generational line plus their friends (count me and my friends in this category) or much elderly people that you would never see at a rock concert. the elderly who attended bought tickets because they are part of the okinawan association and wanted to show support or because their children didn't go or you pick your own reason here. at one point when mongol asked who in the audience were okinawan, i was quite surprised to see how few raised their hands. so i guess they really are popular with mainstream japan.

another thing odd about the night: that place is meant for plays and other subdued performances, not rock concerts. imagine going to a theater meant for stage plays and watching the ramones with your grandparents. yeah, that's what it was like. due to poor ticket sales, my mom told us before we went in that once the concert started, we could move to any seat that was open. we had balcony tickets and before the show even started, staff members told the balcony that they could go downstairs and pick a seat. we sat ourselves down around the fourth row.

bleach took the stage. the vocals were low and a little annoying but otherwise i was impressed with them as they are much better live than the 2 minute snippets i heard. the bassist would blow you away. this short little okinawan thing who's paler than death (i seriously thought she had a disease) slapping the bass and freakin' away like flea in his youth. she screamed and screamed too. probably scared the old folks still in the balcony. normally i never pay attention to bass and focus my concert experience on the guitar and drums but this little thing had me so focused on her bass skills that i hardly noticed the drums at all. conversely, i think twiddle thumbs was inspired by seeing a short little fat girl pound away on the drums and was impressed. she was no meg white.

about halfway into their set, staff members encouraged everyone to stand and go to the front of the stage. hiroshi from the young okinawans came by and urged me to do the same and he told me to take off my shoes--i didn't change clothes after work. i don't know why i should take off my shoes but i did. so i stood there barefoot like a kiwi in front of the guitarist/vocalist. there were some songs that weren't so bad, they left a much better impression live. i wanted to know the titles so that if i buy a cd i would get one with the songs liked so when the guitarist started cleaning up her gear, i asked her for the setlist. she said it was her only copy. fine, whatever. no big whoop. but hmm, so they're playing more shows?

mongol 800 took the stage. man, they suck. i just am not into them. it is uninspired formulaic ramones knockoff 90s post-punk. the timbre of the vocals hurts my ears. actually, it's more than the timbre--everything about the vocals hurts my ears! but how can you dislike a guy wearing a gremlins t-shirt? some of the bass lines in the intros were good but then the song started and all things went to sucksville. put it this way, my mom bought their cd. now what does that say? (i bought 2 bleach cds.) halfway through their set, some white guy came out all authoritarian saying that everyone had to go back to their seats or they'll stop the concert and call the police because of something to do with the place not being designed for people in the front. then this lady came out in japanese and gave a long explanation (something about the jumping up and down affecting the air-controlled elevator--i really have no idea) and everyone quickly went to their seats. japanese are so obedient. go downstairs when told, stand up and go to the front when told, sit down when told. the show began once again and when it was over, mongol came back out for a 3 song encore.

during the show, the bassist/vocalist would keep stopping to talk to the crowd and give appreciation for the opportunity to play tonight, their first time in america. but he would ramble, not knowing what to say and stuttering when he should've gone back to the music to finish up the evening. he said that tomorrow night they would play the whisky. impressive but anyone can play on locals and amateur type nights. when i bought the bleach cds, i asked the staff and bleach are also doing the whisky show.

a comment on the gear. bleach used mongol's drums and amps. otherwise each used their own guitars and basses. mongol also used more cymbals with the drums. the guitar amp was a marshall 900. bleach's guitarist used a fender telecaster. mongol's guitarist used a fender stratocaster. both sounded sweet but the telecaster was more aesthetically pleasing. i didn't notice any effect pedals being used for bleach. mongol's guitarist used the channel switcher for the marshall for distortion. a simple yet effective setup overall. i am so not a gearhead but these things just stuck out to me so i had to write it down while i still remembered.