HEART ROCK of NO EVIL

[PV] monokuro - HARD ROCK,HEART ROCK

One could find this catchy little alt-rock number off monokuro's recently released album "CLASSIC". When watching this video, I can't really help but be reminded of (the pillows') Sawao Yamanaka's side-project THE PREDATORS. Stylistically speaking, both in terms of music and even visually, there are definitely some comparisons to be made. Makes sense, seeing as how monokuro is signed onto Sawao's DELICIOUS LABEL. Sawao was also responsible for producing monokuro's new album. Oh well, take it as you will and feel free to check them out if you like.

Let's see, yesterday was pretty eventful. Ended up going to Akihabara with Griffin and picking up a brand spankin' new DSi and a few games to go along with it. I ended up going with Ouendan 2 and the very necessary Kanji Sono Mama Rakubiki Jiten. Also had the chance to go to Mos Burger for the first time ever. At the time, they were promoting donut burgers. Yeah, weird I know. But, nonetheless, it was pretty delicious (albeit expensive as hell). Griffin decided to head back after that, and I ended up heading into Shibuya to do some extra research at Tower Records (AWESOME, right?) for a paper I have to write (and am currently procrastinating on) for my Japanese Popular Culture class. After spending about an hour or so there, I made my way over to Ebisu LIQUIDROOM for NO EVIL NIGHT.

I have to say NO EVIL NIGHT was pretty damn awesome and a great way to end the day. Firstly, I was pleasantly surprised by the set-up of LIQUIDROOM. The actual space itself was a bit bigger than O-NEST, but not up to the same size as STUDIO COAST so it still felt pretty cozy. MASS OF THE FERMENTING DREGS opened the show with about an hour-long set. Kicking it off with "She is inside,He is outside", the band pretty much went through most of the songs off both their self-titled and "WORLD IS YOURS". One thing I want to mention about this band is that bassist/vocalist Natsuko Miyamoto really looked like a Japanese Karen O (of Yeah Yeah Yeahs) at times, except with the demeanor of a cute Japanese schoolgirl. My only complaint at all about their performance was that the back half of the audience was pretty dead, which is a trend I'm starting to notice with more indie bands here.

Headliners MO'SOME TONEBENDER headed out about 10 mins after MOTFD finished up. Opening the show with "TIGER" (SO AWESOME), quickly followed by "You are Rock'n Roll" and "Unhappy New Age", it was pretty awesome and the entire crowd was definitely into it. The overall swagger that MO'SOME had the entire show definitely added to the fun factor. The band did break up the action with a couple slower songs, but, to be terribly honest, all they ended up doing was breaking up the pace of the show. All in all, it was a pretty fun experience though. Overall, I do have to say that it was one of the louder shows I've been to here though.

Alright, back to that paper that I should be writing.

-REG