Asian Kung-Fu Generation
Translation by SutematsuFrom: Newsmaker February 2005
Interviewer, writer: Keiko Oshibe
Photographer: Toshikazu Oguruma
~In the place it has to be, the sound that has to be~
Five months after the independently planned event, NANO-MUGEN FES.
Once again they will stand on the stage of the Nihon Budoukan.
This time, there will not be any other bands with them.
Only their four figures will be there to see
Asian Kung-Fu Generation Tour Yohai 2004 ~No! Member, November ~ 2004.12.05 at Nihon Budoukan
Standing one step toward us, Gotou held his guitar, trembling with excitement, then jumped with both feet over and over, as though to shake the earth. As if by doing this he could shake away the worldly thoughts and the feeling of tension that coiled around him. 12.5, Nihon Budoukan. The last day of the ASIAN KUNG-FU GENERATION Tour Yohai 2004~No! Member, November~, which began on 11.2 at Shimo-Kitazawa Shelter and came around to a total of twelve performances.
When you look around, from the arena divided into six blocks to the upper level standing area, everything is filled up with closely packed people. Sol-fa, the major 2nd album AFKG released in October, sold over 600,000 copies. While they are surrounded by still more people, they bewilderingly expand and continue to change with ever increasing speed. 的 wonder why I do music・hy I am in a band・ave I returned to that kind of place?・After releasing their first album they did a tour, and Gotou said that they were more calm after this. Performing before listeners, and then going home to make good music. The things they had to do were "only in that cycle!" These common things were their actual experience. This is not whitewashing or an excuse, the music that supports these words is actually heard in the 600,000 CDs that held their own in the market.
While covering an event, when Gotou, Kita, Yamada, and Ichiji had their photos taken, the feeling they gave off was very carefree and tied together. People can not live perfectly unshakeable lives, but I think that these four men have achieved a certain balance, and can face forward into their future.
In my heart, here and now it is playing To signal the intro of Shindoukaku, the whole place was filled with a light so bright as to dazzle the eyes. The passage "My own identity was nothing more nor less than that" was expressed loudly, and with the sprinting feeling of this song, the curtain opened for the ASIAN KUNG-FU GENERATION Budoukan One Man Live.
From the ending of Flashback, in no time at all guitarist Kita rushes into Mirai no Kakera [Splinter of the Future]. Although I am utterly familiar with this song from the album and the live, no mater how many times I hear it I feel uplifted.
Gotou began and politely sang himself out until reaching a fake high-pitched voice, and on this day all the band members stoically faced the performance with great concentration. "I want the band to be better. I want it to somehow succeed, like with the Sol-fa album. With all my might, I want to do things that will be important for us, and do it all naturally." They project these desires in each performance. "The ninth year of AKFG.* Six years before the CD was released・r maybe 7?" Gotou asked the other members. "I was thinking of quitting・#34;
At this time, they had released Indies CDs. From there, thoughts tied together, they made it here. What they did after the MC was a performance of Last Scene that they each individually enjoyed.
Gotou said things like, "I do not have any confidence performing in a big place," and "We had an image of doing smallish songs," but this was before the live arrangement had been decided. For the arrangement it was of course expected that a song suiting a larger venue should be performed, and when this had been stated it was fine. The depth of silence that settled in the breaks of the indifferent song, the pleasant ambient sound of the guitar. I think that now the sound in the "smallish" places could sound good even in a space like a box. At the end of this volume the strings introducing Kaigan Doori [Seaside Road] were fresh, but the band as it is now, able to pull off such big performances, leaves a much deeper impression than the band as it was then.
A checkered stage, like a big chess board. The meaning behind this design was illuminated by the final MC: "Its been kept the same as at Shita-Kitazawa Shelter." While Sol-fa was being covered, Gotou said that it was "my idea, to the bitter end." He said this of the summer performance event at the Budoukan and the live capacity.
"We made an effort. We could not control that number of people, we could not take control of the place we were at・t was not possible to do any of that at all. I thought it would be good to do a live, but I think people get a better feeling if they can hear and get a feeling for songs like Flashback and Rashinban [Compass] in a deader place. Of course I still have little doubts like, 選s that really good?・And so I think it would be good if we had great success [with the One Man Tour]・aybe if we had a big success it would change my mood about it. But I want to 礎e sure to play there,・like I致e heard. Coz it was annoying. People are saying that they want to come do just one good show. I will try it and see what I think."
On that day, facing his audience, he said over and over, "Thank you," and "Being in a place like this is really cool," but in the end: "There is too many people・ets meet at a live house." The year after he toured 50 live houses around the country for the first time.
When their first album was being sold he often said that the "5M" from "Kimi Tsunagi 5M" was the people and affairs that followed him around, the feeling of distance that runs through all reality.
They had many things on their minds, including the number of people that would be there, and displaying the original charm of Siren ・the place where the blocks of songs were decided ・without having anything cut out. But although these things ebbed and flowed, there was often applause and so on, and the worried sound of their music cleared up. But no matter what, on this day they made everyone ・from those on the stage to those in the farthest seats ・feel the meaning of the "5m" distance slip away, and the emotion ran very deep.
"In the world, there are a lot of good things, a lot of bad things. But right now, from the bottom of my heart, I知 just glad to be alive. Thank you."
I think that AKFG as a whole also somehow felt the response. There was no feeling of recklessly "having to" play in such a big place. But on this big stage they grew their pre-existing songs by conquering the physical distance without thinking about it, while rising above the strength of other, run of the mill bands that can稚 be tempered into real musicians. If they face each large venue with this kind of willingness to seize opportunities, going at their own pace, I think they can bring up the potential they showed us that day into something really wonderful.
Playlist
1. Shindoukaku 2. Rewrite 3. Sunday 4. Flashback 5. Mirai no Kakera
6. Kimi no Machi Made 7. 24-ji 8. Re:Re: 9. My World 10. Yoru no Mukou
11. Last Scene 12. Mugen Glider 13. Siren 14. Loop & Loop 15. Understand
16. N.G.S 17. Haruka Kanata 18. Rashinban 19. Kimi to iu Hana
20. Kaigan Doori; E-1: Twelve, E-2: Hold me tight
*It is interesting to note that this sentence is written in the style of the traditional Japanese year, which is determined by the number of years the current emperor has reigned (ex: 2005 is the 17th year of Heisei, and 17 years ago, before the Heisei emperor came into power, was the 63rd year of Showa). By writing the date in this format, the Gotou remains very formal in his speech which subtly likening AFKG to the emperor.
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