Envy in Shimokitazawa.

Mike, Planes Mistaken for Stars. I told ya they was hairy.

Timbo and Phil after the show at an Okonomoyaki bar

Friday night Envy played in Shimokitazawa as part of a hardcore night that included American bands Converge [Hardcore 101: the yawnfest] and Planes Mistaken for Stars and local band Drumkan (who I missed). As boring as Converge were (being the granddaddies of the hardcore scene, playing the most generic hardcore with the only intelligible lyrics being “fark fuk fuk FUUUUCKKKKK fark fuk fuk fuk” over and over again), they were still kinda fun to watch for about three songs.... Their American tourmates PMFS kicked some serious hardcore rock ass. The show was great and I think they get points for being the hairiest band I've seen in yonks.

Technorati Tags: envy, japan, music, tokyo

They were also a lovely bunch of lads. My friends Timbo, Phil and I had a couple of beers with them over the course of the night. It was funny, they really were from another world: they were very earnestly concerned that they were leaving me alone outside to finish my kombeni beer when Converge started, and later one of them brought my bag to me after I left it somewhere (the way you do in Japan) in a corner... It's easy to forget that in the rest of the world, things are really different. Concepts like personal safety, and respect for other peoples belongings don't really come in to play much - it reminded me not to take such things for granted here in Tokes. We are lucky to live here and enjoy such complete security and safety. They had a horrible story about being attacked by an off-duty bouncer in Detroit on the night before they flew to Japan for the tour - I could see the finger-marks still on the singers neck, a week later! Anyway, these fella's were definitely GOOD FOLK. And they are a great band too, if you're into straight-up, fun, hard, heavy rock. I don't know if I'd listen to their CD's at home but I do love a good kick-ass rock show.

Envy were simply awesome, as usual. Gob-smacking, raw, powerful emotion - poetic and cerebral and beautiful and angry all at the same time. After the show I HAD to go up to the band to wax lyrical about their music. I was telling Tetsuya, the singer, that I played the Mogwai song “I Chose Horses” (in which he guest-reads a poem in Japanese) to my higher level students for them to translate. I told him that all four resulting translations are completely different! He loved that and immediately handed me a copy of their latest CD, Insomniac Doze, because that poem actually forms the lyrics for the track “Scene” from the album. He had had a friend translate the words into English and included them in the CD cover-notes. I read them as I stood beside him and laughed aloud. My students were all soooo wrong! It seems that his beautiful, deep words are just too subjective for people to all see the same way. Anyway, I have been listening to the CD and it feels like a subtly sophisticated step up from the last album (which I enjoyed but couldn't listen to so much) - the band said that it was as close as they had been so far to making their perfect sound. It's great, I'm quite addicted. Can't believe I'm listening to screamo.

Envy are playing at Unit at Daikanyama on May 5. Not sure who else is on the bill yet, but smash is promoting so keep checking their website for deets.

This is the Mogwai song which Tetsuya reads on:

and this is Scene, the Envy song which uses the same lyrics. Be warned, it does get loud. Probably best not to listen to at work unless the boss is out to lunch....

Yoshiharu Ota has some wonderful photos of Envy. He is an excellent photographer, make sure you poke around the rest of his work if you have time.