Omg this was awesome!!! (For those that don’t know, Summer Sonic is possibly the second largest rock music festival in Japan)
Travis were so much better than I thought they would be live - so much audience participation! The Offspring were great as well (massive audience! see video below), albeit sometimes a little off-key, and no audience-talking-time. I didn’t realise B’z were playing, and they attracted a massive crowd in the Marine Stage (an open baseball stadium), which was most likely 99% humidity and around 40 degrees with the sunshine. For most bands we were in the front row, but Madina Lake had possibly the craziest audience (mosh).
I got exposure to many artists I hadn’t heard of before (or knew the name of) whose songs I found really good. Basically since the end of High School I stopped listening to new music, as the majority of mainstream radio stations in Australia (via US content) changed their content to mostly R&B and hip hop genres; two of my least liked types of music. In the last year, my housemate Stevo introduced me to some new music (punk and rock), but it didn’t really catch onto me, as most of it sounded very similar. But now, having been to my first rock music festival (The only concerts I’ve seen before were Spiderbait & etc at the Clipsal 500), it sounds completely different. They were somehow catchier live, as if being in a live audience takes you into the music. During the first day I was still very much having a 3rd person viewpoint, like someone from the media who analyses every combination of sensations, whether sound, image or otherwise (that would be me). But after experiencing a few bands, I found myself beginning to lose my 3rd person viewpoint; losing my strong self-consciousness and starting to becoming one with the audience, music, and the spectacle of the band up front. This felt like the beginnings of psychological flow, which I’d never experienced when moving/dancing to music. Most of the Japanese audience either stand and point to the stage in time with the music, jump, or both. By golly it’s fun!
I really have to thank Yurina for suggesting me to go so I could experience these wonders of human creation (although she’s a bit angry with me at the moment..).
The crowd for the final song at the Mountain stage was chocablock filled!
The Mountain Stage after The Offspring concert
Upon rereading this post I realise that it has been partially a good idea, and partially a bad idea, to reread Virilio’s Negative Horizon - one of the heaviest reading materials written. It sounds like I still have Level 2/1 English (nova communicative ability test) which helps with teaching advanced English students, but my use of vocab is a bit overcomplicated. haha!
Edit: Oh yeah, during the Madina Lake concert, when Nathan (lead singer) was throwing out water bottles, I jumped up really high yelling ‘over here!’. He spotted me, threw the bottle, and I caught it (say 8 rows back)! I got to shake his hand the next morning at the hotel they stayed at (the Grand Prince Hotel in Asakusa, Tokyo), not to mention take many photos of the band members with Yurina and her friends (she didn’t want me to be there unfortunately..).
Unfortunately was probably not the best word to use. Yurina has split from me, and I have no idea why she is angry that I took good photos of her with her idols. I’m so sad and lost at the moment.