TV Stars again

(oh yeah, and some band called Radiohead)

Yesterday was hot. very. very. hot. We sweltered in 35 degree (honestly, it was!) heat in the pit at Summer Sonic from midday to 9:30pm. OK, we watched Blondie from the relative cool of the top stands (with a smashing view of the ocean may I say) but the other 8 hours were spent patiently waiting for the Gods of Modern Music to arrive.

Although there were 3 stages, we stayed at the Chiba Marine Stadium (where all the major acts were) as it was a 10 minute hike between venues. Shame really, 'cos by the looks of things, over at the Factory Stage, Sons of All Pussys went down a treat....

Early in the day, we saw The Living End, a Brissie Melbourne band that is evidently very popular in Japan. The crowd was going off and bugger me if they didn't know all the words!

Blondie played all the old favourites, but it was a bit surreal watching this 58 year old ex-icon, rocking out like an 18 year old. That alone was worth the entry price.

After Blondie, and a queue of about 20,000 fans, we secured ourselves a nice little possie at the front of the second section of the pit, watched Good Charlotte (not my cup of tea) Stereophonics (didn't really know about them before, but they were fantastic) and The Strokes (again, didn't know their music but hell, their lead singer was a charismatic little f!@#ker! He tried to crowd dive at the end of their set, but somehow disappeared into the fans. They wouldn't let the poor bugger go! Kawaiiiiii!).

It's been a long time since I went to a Rock Festival - the last was probably Lilith Fair back in ('nam) 1996, so I wasn't convinced of my endurance over 10 searing, impossibly energetic hours. Even Matt, my younger cohort, was feeling the strain around sunset.

What we hadn't realised was that the corridor between the two pits was MTV Japan central, and after the Strokes had finished we were approached and interviewed by MTV. They asked us how the Strokes were and, being a Strokes virgin I didn't have much to say. However, the fact that Matt yelled "Go Strokes!" and I did the Japanese peace sign at the camera was a fair indication of how long, hot, and dehydrating a day we'd had. I hope to god no-one sees it air. Hail to the Foreign Bimbos!

When Radiohead came on, the Stadium just exploded. Thom "Energizer Bunny" Yorke and Co. put on a frikkin' good show which far exceeded my expectations. I'm glad "Hail to the Thief" finally clicked with me, cos they played a lot from that album as well as stacks of my favourites; "Idioteque" (I would have gone away disappointed if they didn't bring that one out of the fridge), "Karma Police" and the highlight of the evening for me; "Paranoid Android" which was seamless. No "High and Dry" unfortunately, but you get that.

Jeez, Yorkey's a bossy boots though. At one stage, during one of the newer songs, he stopped playing, turned to his guitarist and said; "You are so out of tune, its not funny". Like the true professionals they are though, the guy dingled a few of his bits and they carried on like nothing had happened.

Their encore was "Creep" - a fitting end to the cycle I'd say. The whole set was so varied, new; old; electronica; acoustic; rock; ballads; Thom curled up on the stage singing like a wired foetus; Thom jumping around twisting himself into impossible positions; it was a real roller-coaster ride. To top it off, they were deferential to the Japanese crowd, Thom bowing repeatedly saying "thank you thank you thank you thank you", completely overdoing it, just as the Japanese do. He flung out a few well-pronounced Japanese expressions, except he kept saying "douzo" ("please, go ahead") when he was about to play a new song, which was, well, not quite on the mark. But the crowd appreciated every single bit of it.

When they finished around 9pm and everyone was set to leave, a sudden rocket of fireworks appeared overhead. Every exhausted, sunburnt, sweat-drenched festival-goer watched in awe. We shouldn't have been surprised. It is hanabi season in Japan after all.

Summer Sonic's capacity was 37,000 people and yesterday was sold out (desperate fans had been close to begging at the exit of Makuhari station when we arrived). That meant 37,000 people to be ferried home in 2 hours with no extra trains. We finally slumped home around midnight. I hope everyone else got home safely.