"Melting Pot Special" - kaji hideki, group_inou ++

november 19th Club Quattro

I originally wanted to go to this concert just to see group_inou, but after checking out Kaji Hideki I discovered that his sweet shibuya kei influenced popsongs are great and I became excited to see him as well. The first band to perform tonight however were unexpected and, uh, interesting.

My first thought when B Club entered the stage: "The reason why men in hotpants and pink tights does NOT look good." The three members all wore matching outfits which included denim shorts (vocalist in hotpants), colorful tights and sunglasses. I'd wear sunglasses too if I ever wanted to show myself in public again. Basically their show was a bit like this: Simple electropop tunes, stupid lyrics (「東も、西も、北も、南も」with appropriate handmovements of course) and ridiculous dance moves. I find it hard not to just write them off as a comedy band, but at least they were entertaining. At the end they did a coordinated dance and encouraged the audience to join in. The interesting thing is that the vocalist has a solo project where he also plays electric cello, but in a lot more serious setting.

B Club - "beauty butterfly" the guy on the bike (the only one watching, is kind of hilarious)


group_inou are always incredible live. CP seemed a bit tired maybe, but he was still jumping around on stage dancing like insane as he always does. Highlights were "Coming Out", "PR" and everyone went crazy on "MAYBE". During the MC they started talking about their forthcoming oneman live at Unit. Apparently thay had invited lots of bands but no one said yes. Imai was all like "We know it's because they don't want to play with us!!".

Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/groupinou
Website: http://g-a-l.jp/group_inou/

group_inou - PR (u.u.o. mix)


Next up was Riddim Saunter. I wasn't familiar with their music before to the gig, and they seemed fair enough at first. Super feel goody pop songs, and they were really popular among the crowd. The girls around me all started acting like 14-year old screaming teeny boppers. Yayness. After a while I got tired of them, but they just went on and on... Kudos for cowbell though.

Kaji Hideki came on stage wearing shorts, knee socks, a shirt and tie. He looked like a little school boy despite the fact that the man is 41 years old, and on top of that the teeny boppers were screaming "kawaiii!!!!!111". He had a band, and they opened with "amai koibito" from his latest album, Lollipop. Before the gig I actually only had that album, but I bought his first(?) album Miniskirt afterwards. That one's also great. Kaji certainly has a talent for making incredibly sweet and lovely popmelodies. When the song was finished Kaji turned to the amp where he had a comb to fix his hair. Kawaii indeed. I think he only did two other songs from the new album, "Holy Night" and "Too Much Too Young". I always skip the last one when I listen to the album.. It's a sort of very straight-forward post-punk(?) song, and Kaji Hideki sounds ten times more interesting when he has lots of samples and fun instrumentation in his songs. He lacked that in his live performance as well and I though it was a bit disappointing. Nonetheless he has good songs and lots of charm. Og sjarm er alt vettu.

myspace: http://www.myspace.com/hidekikajiofficial
website: http://www.hidekikaji.net/

kaji hideki - "amai koibito"


カジヒデキ - ラ・ブーム～だってMY BOOM IS ME