Last Sunday I went on an outing with a group of students to Niigata City for the 新潟アジア国際音楽祭 (Niigata Asia International Music Festival). The tickets were free (for us!), offered by the school as a ‘cultural experience’ or something along those lines. The whole day was a lot of fun, and we ate at a very nice Japanese place, grabbed a scone and coffee at Starbucks and even fit an hour of karaoke in before catching our train back. Actually, we had quite serendipitous timing on all our bus and train transfers. The whole day was a lot of fun.
Now, about the concert itself. The lineup included Gackt (Japan), Jerry Yan (Taiwan), K.WILL (Korea), Peter Ho (Taiwan/Canada/Hong Kong/America??), and AK (Taiwan). AK, the opening duo, were cute and promising. Peter Ho was a good show, and extremely charismatic – he devoured the spotlight and drew swoons from many female audience members. K.WILL was a powerful singer, but in the interview portion seemed a bit shy. He said it was his first time performing in Japan. Benny Yan, I have to say, was a very poor singer. He also seemed to be trying too hard to seem cute to the Japanese audience, and unfortunately I think it was working. He is part of the “Taiwanese F4″ – playing a character in a Taiwanese remake of a very popular Japanese TV drama – so other than Gackt he was probably the most famous performer. Yet, I cannot really say that I was impressed with this Jerry Yan guy.
Now, for those who are pretty lost at this point, Gackt is an extremely famous Japanese rock star. He’s basically the David Bowie of Japan, so of course he gets the most elaborate entrance. A Thai friend of mine here was uninterested in attending, saying she didn’t feel very well and would rather stay in her room. But when she saw Gackt written on the ticket she immediately said “Gackt?! OK, I will go.” Before Gackt came on, the state was covered with smoke and dramatic lights while the audience alternatively held their breath and screamed as his band entered, one by one (as an aside, one of the guitarists was amazingly good). When Gackt finally came on, I thought my ear drums would burst from the shrill orchestra of girls screeching 「ガクト！！」whose voices enveloped me. Luckily, the screaming guitars took their place instead, a welcome change for my ears. The set was only about half a dozen songs, if that, but it was a good show.
The ‘concert’ was about one part singing and one part interviews, with slideshows mixed in and commentary from a man I’ll just call the stage master. The stage master introduced and interviewed all of the acts. Each of them had their own trusty translators who would shuffle on to the stage after a song set ended. Gackt, however, paid no mind to the stage master, and addressed the audience directly in a slow, sultry speaking style. I actually was very happy with what he said though, because this show was part of a concert series commemorating the devastating earthquake that hit Niigata five years ago, and in many of the interviews there were condolences and discussion of the lives lost during that time, as well as expressions of solidarity from the Asian community for Japan. Until Gackt, there was not even a mention of the more recent disaster in Haiti. Gackt talked about how terrible the earthquake in Haiti has been for the people, and then he made a nice statement about how we each command only a small amount of power in our hands, but that working together we wield tremendous power to make a difference. Admittedly, not a winner for the world’s most original statement, but it was aptly put and very appropriate given the context – I was relieved that someone brought up Haiti, and uplifted to hear him make that point.
Edit: I guess I should mention somewhere that I actually do like Gackt – although I certainly don’t compare to the caliber of some of his 大ファン. Some may be interested in which songs he performed, so I’ll just list those songs I recognized. Those included: 君が追いかけた夢, Another World, オレンジの太陽. I’m sure a quick net search could reveal the remaining titles, but as I said I only know a selection of Gackt’s work.
