As you may, or may not know, there was a “Japan Nite” at the Knitting Factory in NYC on Monday and I was lucky enough to be able to go. There were 6 bands playing, The Emeralds, The Rodeo Carburettor, Stance Punks, Ellegarden, PE’Z, and Tsu Shi Ma Mi Re. I personally knew of four of the six before the concert, so I was pretty well off.

I went with Sachin, since we had State of the Arts after school, and later on we met up with Sam, Mizuki, Sam’s little sister, Mizuki’s friend, Grace, and Sunna. We let Sam, Mizuki and Sam’s sister up to the front of the mosh-pit in the beginning. And that was our fatal downbringing that would turn this innocent concert into something resembling a war.

So this concert had a bunch of otaku fags and nerds and people that you generally don’t want to be around. There also a lot of Asians. We had school earlier so we had to bring our stuff. I had a bag and my jacket, and Sachin had the same. The thing is, for those of you who have never been to a rock concert before, there’s nowhere to put your stuff. We were holding onto our stuff for a good 4 or 5 hours. There were also some unpleasant characters such as Bouncy Asian, Fat Hairy White Guy, and Tall Girl who made the night quite aggresive.

Let’s start with Bouncy Asian. She was this short asian chick who kept bouncing the whole concert. The whole damn concert. I hear the purpose of bouncing is to lift people who aren’t well footed off their feet so you can push them aside and push through, but no one was budging. But she kept bouncing on my leg, crotch, behind me, on Sachin, everywhere. I ended up hitting her in the head with my camera a few times pretty damn hard. It was an accident, but she deserved it.

Next up was Fat Hairy White Guy and his loyal companion, Tall Girl. This pair started off in the back, but due to their size were able to crush all the little asians and pushed their way up to Sachin and I, and couldn’t go any further. They got in front of us, and we couldn’t get back where we were. What followed was a brutal war for the front. Fat Hairy White Guy had a cane, and that dropped and people just kicked it aside. Everyone was leaning on Tall Girl since she was tallest and had the best footing. Eventually we managed to push them to the back and everyone pushed forward to get them out of the way, and then it was smooth sailing from there.

As for performances, all of the bands were pretty good. First up was The Emeralds, whom I’d known of for about a year because of a friend from Gamingforce. I had only heard one of their songs, so I made sure I bought the mini-album they had for sale. It was a steal, at only $5 bucks. They were really friendly with the crowd and I liked their performance a lot. Afterwards I took a picture with the bassist. I wanted to take a picture with the vocalist but I’m satisfied.
Next up was The Rodeo Carburettor, who no one who I knew had heard of before. These guys just came on and started playing, didn’t even introduce themselves. Their msuic really amped up the cloud but none of their actual music was memorable. Just the singer/guitarist jumping off stuff, staring at you with his demonic eyes, and the crazy shirtless percussionist. Nothing too special I don’t think.

And then we had Stance Punks, who I thought would be more popular with all of the faggots in the room because of NARUTO. But they didn’t really recieve too superb a response from the audience. The lead singer was picking his nose and acting crazy throughout the concert, and they were all really well animated. I think they did a good job, but Stance Punks really just isn’t my style from some of the things I’d heard from them previously. Since I’ve seen them in concert though, I have grown to like their music more.

And the main act, who most of the younger people in the concert were waiting for, the infamous ELLEGARDEN. They played a lot of songs, and no one wanted them to leave. It was their first time playing in New York, and they seemed to be really surprised that so many people knew them. I don’t understand why, they’re one of the biggest bands around. Sachin and I got them to play Stereoman from their latest single, so that was pretty cool.

After Ellegarden was PE’Z, but we didn’t really stay for that, because we had to rush out to get merchandise before it sold out. They were audible from where the merchandise was, and there were speakers. I went back in for a few minutes to listen to them and also bought their CD, because PE’Z is probably my favorite out of all of the bands there. They were different, being a jazz band amongst a bunch of rock bands. A lot of the older crowd was there for them, but they should have played earlier instead of The Rodeo Carburettor, I would have much more preferred to hear all of PE’Z than Mr. Demon-Eyes killing his throat.

Lastly, Tsu Shi Ma Mi Re. Didn’t know anything about them then, don’t know anything about them now. They’re supposedly a girl band or something, I’m not really too interested to be honest.

The whole concert was fun. Next up: Asian Kung-Fu Generation’s US Tour. Soon. I hope.