I decided that I wanted to see The Novembers a couple of extra times before I left
part 1.
June 30th, Shimokitazawa Basement Bar
Andymori's event. I found it odd that the Novembers had been invited to play at this event as the other band's playing this show were musically completely different. First up was actually a DJ from the club event Getting Better that played mostly brit-rock. That was unusual too as I believe a lot of people who listen to Japanese music don't listen that much to foreign music and vice versa. It was even stranger because the audience were standing completely still, waiting in front of the stage as they usually do before a concert, while loud club music was blasted out of the speakers. The DJ must have noticed, and towards the end of his set he apologized(!) for keeping people waiting: "The concert will start soon. It's not my fault." Poor guy.
First band Sister Jet looked like your average amateur high school band or something. I got the impression that they were inspired by music from the 60's, but they had problems recreating the good, old magic in their own music. In fact they didn't appeal to me whatsoever. Their songs were just ridiculously one-sided, taking the easy way out musically, "dance dance dance baby"-choruses and overall equally stupid lyrics. The funny thing though, they did some sort of cover of The Monkees - "Daydream Believer". I can't say that it was a great cover.
www.myspace.com/sisterjet
Apparently a lot of people had reserved tickets through the bands, but as I knew from previous experiences Basement Bar let reservations in last and tickets in first. I bought my tickets beforehand and got nr 8 and 9 which resulted in a front row spot. Sweet. I can't press enough how much getting a good view during a concert affects my impression of it. Good sound is of course important, but the combination of sound and visual is what keeps me going to gigs. The sound was in fact quite bad this time during The Novembers. We were almost unable to hear the vocals most of the time, although it became a little bit better towards the end. The guitar noise was perfect though. The sound tends to get noisy and grainy in small venues, but it fits the Novembers’ sound.
To me, the Novembers are a perfect live band. I know I’ll most likely sound like an infatuated fangirl, but their appearance on stage is so different from other bands. The atmosphere and the tension when they deliver those songs on stage is incredible. They say very little and although they come off as introverted there's something compelling about that. This is the first time I've been that close to the stage and I was amazed.
Lately the setlist has opened with “para” and ended with “hakuchi”. They also always include “dnim” and “philia”, so there are a lot of tracks from the latest mini album. I don’t mind considering it’s probably my favourite record of theirs. Whenever I hear the intro to “philia” my body starts tingling with excitement. I LOVE that song.
www.myspace.com/thenovembers11
After the Novembers we went outside for a while, and only saw about ten minutes of Andymori afterwards. The venue was packed and it was impossible to see anything from behind. Similar to the first time I saw them I wasn't too impressed with their live performance contrary to their CD which isn't half bad at all (I will write a review later on). We heard them play their 大-hit "Everything Is My Guitar", and then we left.
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