November 10, 2023
Shelter, Tokyo, Japan
Week: 364
This week’s thing: Finding concerts to go to in order to keep a-thing-a-week alive when I travel abroad is much easier in some places than others. In London, where I often go for work, it couldn’t be easier: I use many of the same websites I do in America and there is certainly no shortage of shows or venues. Japan was… different. None of the websites are in English and tour posters and Instagram posts can be tough to translate. I’ll spare the boring details of how I found this show, which basically involved Googling lists of Tokyo concert venues, translating websites via Google and making countless accounts on different ticketing platforms. Instead I’ll just tell you I found one by a Japanese rock band called Yapool to go to on my trip to Japan, and you can even read a little more about it below if you’d like!
Music: 3/5: I’ll caveat by saying that obviously I didn’t know what any of the songs were about because I don’t speak Japanese, but the music I thought was just okay. The songs all sounded the same – loud and repetitive – and show was pretty short, lasting just about 45 minutes, though that length wound up being perfect for my showmates who were actually fellow Americans on the same trip to Japan I was on. I didn’t dislike the music, but (for a host of reasons that includes Japan being like 20 hours away by plane) probably won’t be rushing back to a Yapool show any time soon.
Lighting/backdrop/visuals: 1/5: The setup here was about as basic as it gets. The lights were… on? And the stage was… there? But certainly a no frills show and venue.
Overall vibe: 5/5: The crowd was loving Yapool. Though the band is small and super-local, there seemed to be a good number of young Japanese people in the crowd who were singing along. One guy was so pumped when the lead singer (who was giving Mick Jagger a bit) put his sunglasses on the guy’s face… I haven’t seen pure joy like that in a while actually. Also, Japanese concert-goers are relatively quiet especially compared to Americans (no surprise there) but they do this fun thing where they hold their fists in the air when they’re enjoying the show, and lots of fists were in the air throughout.
Bonus points:
Stage banter: +1, not sure what they were saying but I bet it was fun
Fashion: +1 for different colored leather jackets on the guitarist and bassist and for the lead singer’s maroon bell-bottoms, floral brown jacket, bolo tie, and aforementioned sunglasses
Home early: +1, the show was over by like 9:30pm
Final: 12/15