Mongol800!!!

Unfortunately I have no pictures to show but let me tell you, on August 27th of this year, one of my dreams came true. Now, it's nothing really that special, but ever since I came to Japan in 2002, the very first Japanese CD I bought was this band named Mongol800. I mean, at first, I couldn't even pronounce their name! Literally, I think it took me over a month to remember how to say 800 (ha-pyaku). Anyway, for four years now I have been waiting and hoping and wanting so badly to see this band live. I mean, they're no Beatles and I've had friends here call them the Japanese Green Day (which really pissed me off but what can I say, I like poppy-punk), but still I like them. I like their message, too, which is adamantly anti-war. However, the first song which caught my attention was their hit song when I arrived in Tokyo 「小さな恋のうた」 (Chiisana Koino Uta) which is a really really sweet love song... Okay sorry, I ramble when I talk about モンパチ (Monpachi - their nickname).

So, there are three members of the band and I can only conclude that they are one of the most modest bands around. You will have an incredibly hard time finding any sort of picture of them, whatsoever. Their CD's don't have pictures, they are rarely on TV, (except now, with their new single \(^-^)/) and there are no posters to be found, anywhere! So, the above is the best you'll get. This is the most common representation of モンパチ. On the left is Satoshi (悟), the drummer, in the middle is Uezu (上江洌), he writes most of the songs, plays bass and sings the songs he writes, last is Takashi (崇), he plays guitar and writes/sings some (especially on their newest CD). I have to say that for me, one of my favorite things about モンパチ is Uezu's voice... it's just beautiful (like honey vanilla toast).

Anyway, I got to see them live!!!!!!! I guess it took me a while to get that out but that is the whole point of this blog entry. I waited for four years, I had a couple missed opportunities but finally (FINALLY!!!) I got to see my favorite Japanese band!!! They played at this tiny tiny club, comparable to Fireside Bowl and it was just awesome. I feel I have been so lucky that the two times I saw concerts in Japan (except McCartney, I guess) they were both at tiny venues so I could actually really see the band and man, it was just awesome!!! I could recite almost the entire set list but it would be jibberish to most of you so I'll refrain... Anyway, it was a fantastic, two thumbs-up show! I actually have never sweat so much in my life! Poor Sho, poor Sho went with me even though he doesn't particularly care for モンパチ, and then I was honestly so stinky on the way home I probably made his car stink for a week. But it was AWESOME!!!

I've probably reached the point were I'm not actually making much sense anymore and totally just rambling. I leave you with this, their newest single. It's called 「煩悩のブルース」 (Bonno No Blues) and so 「煩悩」 (bonnou) means "worldly desires" and well, 「ブルース」 (blues) means "blues" so, while it doesn't translate into English so well, ("Worldly Desires Blues") it has a neat meaning. Very Buddhist, I think (^-^)

You can totally hear Uezu's totally sexy honey vanilla voice (^-^)

Their new CD, 「Daniel」 came out August 8th and I highly recommend it to anyone who doesn't mind not being able to understand all the lyrics. The songs I highly recommend would be 「煩悩のブルース」、「亀」、「Hunky-dory」 and 「スコール」 (^-^)v