So now let's begin our travel back in time....FUJI ROCK

In July I found myself at one of the largest rock festivals in Japan...

FUJI ROCK FESTIVAL.
After nearly a year of living in Japan and only seeing one live show (I saw the Scissor Sisters in February) other than my friends or others rocking out, I packed up my bag, threw together my gear, grabbed my friends and headed to Naeba Ski Resort (the venue)- which convienently is located just a bit over an hour from me here in Niigata. Tiff, Liz, Mel and I met up on the train cracked open our beers and the weekend we had all been waiting for began....on Thursday. We headed up early so we wouldn't miss a beat.

armed with our headlamps we set up camp. Then we head off into the night for an evening of fun.

This is the palace of wonder, complete with a tree made out of exhaust pipes that smoke, to a giant ant eating a car. The artists creations used auto parts. The venue kicked ass. It was HUGE, intriguing and well planned out. The one issue I would say was that it is laid out in a long straight line, making some stages way off in BFE.


main gate on the way to DJ Kentaro's set....

After wandering some, we headed back for some campsite fun and getting to know our new neighbors whom we met in route from the train who moved their gear and camped near us....

They are Uma, Nori, and Nobu.. All three dig great music which is sometimes a challenge for Japanese kids...all three are from Osaka (where I will be going very soon for four days of fun) here Nori is enjoying many many peanuts...

the campsite is set up on the ski slopes, we marked our tent with a Niigata Alberix fan, I knew that that pole we lugged from Arai would come in handy....

Friday Beth came up and joined the fun (as of right now, I have no pics of this day but maybe Beth will provide me with some.... Friday was so much fun!!
Kicked the day off with the first band of the festival. "Cake": man those guys are getting old, so that means I am too!! We then saw one of my highlights of the weekend in the Red Marquee was watching the Kaiser Chiefs. A group of my friends and I gathered up front and danced like there was no tomorrow to many tunes off of their album Employment- and if you don't have this, get it (dance/rock)..Good stuff....After getting sweaty with music love, the girls and I headed over to see another Brit band "The Music" end their set, and then Beth and I saw a bit of "Coldplay", enough to see Chris Martin thank the crowd after the opening song with a sincere "Sayonara" which most everyone in the world knows means Goodbye in Japanese...imagine a band coming out and playing one song then saying Goodbye..that's what happened while heading over to jig away in the mud and watch "The Pogues". I couldn't believe no one else wanted to go and see them. Luckily Beth was there, and we got to watch an inihebriated and staggering Shane MacGowan, reunited with the Pogues, create a crowd of craziness with some Irish tunes drenched with Scotch. The surrounding Japanese folk thought it was funny when we told them that MacGowan is speaking English, but we can't understand it at all....We jigged back to through the mud and ended up in the SKA tent, dancing away (being the center of attention as some people here have horrid shyness issues making dancing a bit difficult at times) we were exhausted and had consumed our fair share of beer at that point, so we headed back.

Only to be woken up by the rest of the folks (particularly Liz and Tif) at some odd hour...don't be mistaken by the smile, I am extremely pissed off here... I know, I know, why are you sleeping you ask?? Because Saturday was my big day...I had people I wanted to see starting at 12 pm with the last one staring at 4am, long day ne.

mama melly
Saturday was the day I had been waiting for...got to see my number 1...BECK!!! I also knew it was going to be a long day for me, as I wanted to see Laurent Garnier spin at 3am...I had been listening to both artists for ages, and had never seen them, so this was my day...

tif and me : Saturday's Shows: The Black Velvets, The Bravery, Asian Dub Foundation, Beck, Fat Boy Slim, Vitalic Laurent Garnier,

fans

waiting for Beck ....I was going nuts waiting for Beck...the roadie would tune a guitar, I would scream...Oh! He is gonna play an elecric set...Then he would tune an acoustic, OH he is going to play an acoustic set!

AGGGH BECK!!! I have waited so long!!

very very happy to see beck face ... The show was awesome!! He completely rocked out and played songs from all my favorite albums. During his acoustic set, which he played Golden Age, the band set down and ate a meal, letting Beck take center stage, and highlighting the show with latin like percussion accompaniment using the silverware and plates as their instruments.

dancing

wooohoo

show

fat boy slim spun a great set, and had a 3D light show to awe the crowd (none of us had glasses but some people around us gave me a peek.

our camp site : Sunday was also a blast. We all partied until we almost missed our train home (we actually did miss one) Sunday was a day for some surreal music: Sunday's shows: caught the last tune of the Magic Numbers, but did not see them, chilled out with Mel and saw Aqualung, rocked out with the gals and the Osaka boys to the Futureheads, ran over to the White Stage singing along with Brian Wilson and the Beach Boys on the way (which really entertained the folks around us- it is amazing how many Beach Boy tunes one actually knows) and caught the end of the Doves, then I headed off on my own to the Field of Heaven and danced amoungst the hippies to a favorite of mine Yonder Mountain String Band

(gotta love the Bluegrass) met back up with Liz and Tif for a mind blowing show by Mars Volta

(catch them if you ever get the chance- unreal!) and then to top that off they were followed

by one of my favorite bands to see live Sigur Ros,

a band that is ambient, tearjerking, beautiful, even in the atmosphere of a large festival the crowd was silenced..

after that we danced into the wee hours of the morning to Milo, Peter Hook of New Order (killer set) and DJ Takayuki Serino.

Living in Japan you sometimes run into strange celebrity like photo shoots…We walked by this guy in this hat (the frog one Tiff is wearing) and the next thing we know we are getting our picture taken numerous times with this group of kids...I swear there have to be 15 people out there with a picture of them, us and this hat.

many many chopsticks - waiting to be recycled...next stop, paper!

the boys at the site: Uma, Nori, and Nobu : the site is set on the mountain side, so you sleep (or attempt to sleep) at a strange unpleasant angle

.
All in all the show was a completely rocking time...so amidsts the torrential downpours and the mountains of Niigata a ton of fun was had. Can't wait until next year, I am ready for those swollen dirty feet again.

(photos credited to Tiffany, Smash, and myself)