The two awesome artists which you can watch below here on blog from Youtube clips,
went on stage together Friday May 11 in Shimokitazawa.
First of all I want to really recommend Shimokitazawa if you come to Tokyo for a visit.
It has a great ambience and plenty of relaxed shopping, dining, and music to choose from.
This was my first visit to RéG and first off I want to commend the venue. This venue was one of the few I have been to with proper and GOOD lighting for the stage. It really makes a huge difference when as audience you actually get the light on the people ON the STAGE ,and not blinding you in the face.
Honestly I think this is the first time here in Japan that I felt that Lighting was good and even very good.
Even places like Zepp or other semi big venues, like the next size up, have failed in this regard if you ask me.
Lights this friday were at times plain awesome, and Taka and CUTT looked their very best! Sometimes with subtle hindlight making their presence looks almost magical.. which for the kind of songs they did was absolutely superb!
So if you are a venue owner… all of you that I have been visiting to so far you FAILed.. and can mention a few where I have been .. Otsuka Red Zone, Urawa Narciss, Shinjuku Wild Side, Shinjuku Live Station, Ruido K3, Ruido K4, IIkebukuro Black Hole… oh no let’s stop here…ha ha ha this list would be too long if I wrote down all venues U have bveen to in Japan… you get the idea….
ALL of you go visit 下北沢 RéG and learn proper lighting on stage!!
✿ڿڰۣ(̆̃̃ღ ღ(̆̃̃ڿڰۣ✿
Sound was really good too and both Taka’s and CUTT’s voices are world class so again, I was very happy that sound was giving that deep depth in Taka’s voice and the amazing span that is CUTT’s.
the evening was split in sections with first an Opening Act.. They were quite ok and did a great job, but not my bag and had nothing of their own so to speak. They sounded like so many other bands I have heard, and seen, live here in Tokyo, so even if they did good, it’s hard to remember their individual songs…
According to RéGs web site their name is ドット
RéGs site is here btw
http://www.reg-r2.com/
After the O.A. CUTT went on stage and stage personae and charisma from the stage is very contagious. His voice has a lovely span and he is also very skilled in amplitude changing which creates very good dynamics in his songs. Of course he pulled a winner out with Time Machine and both I and the rest of the audience love that song.
Since photography was not allowed… it is so extremely difficult to tell the world in only words about MUSIC. Actually it is almost impossible..
it is sad on sooo many levels that the artists cannot be heard outside that moment for those of us lucky enough to be in the right place at the right time. CUTT’s music is not available on the American iTunes or amazon either.
At a quick search tonight I could unfortunately not find it on CDJapan either..
His youtube channel has some BUT it is not the same to see him sit on a chair and play, no matter HOW good it is… a LIVE scene with people and the heightened excitement from the artist while performing is something totally awesome! Especially when it comes to this level of professionals like CUTT and Taka!
I have however posted a few below and will post a few videos above after this blog entry.
CUTT has a blog which is here:
http://cuttblog.blog101.fc2.com/
One thing struck me was that when Taka ‘surprisingly’ (no one can have been totally surprised but yeah)… when he entered the stage during ‘CUTT’s individual part’ of the evening, and the audience went super excited for a moment… it struck me as very similar to a few Atsushi Sakurai (BUCK TICK) guest entrances…
the one where he and Kiyoharu performs “Just one more Kiss”
http://youtu.be/LUERKXuaUpY
as well as another such entrance Atsushi did with Abingdon Boys School (takanori Nishikawa) for “Dress” here:
http://youtu.be/zephHrTkhfc
Because in both those cases Kiyoharu and Takanori are both awesome skilled musicians, and artists I also adore and highly respect, and YET when Atsushi enters the stage, there is this sound of awe in the audience and it’s both dramatic as well as an Audiorgasm!
If you haven’t seen these videos before I highly recommend watching them, and if you have you know what feeling I’m talking about!
Well the funny thing is that later this evening at the “RéG”, CUTT and Taka talked about Atsushi and also did an amazing cover of BUCK TICK, which once again struck me as amazing proof of Taka’s genre span and capacity.
His, with defspiral, cover of hide’s “Pink Spider” on their hide tribute “Reply” is perfect… and well I heard him do it live at Club Citta on hide’s Birthday Party last year… and I think that was one of my absolute favorite LIVE experiences! (then take into account ALL the superlative shows I have been to including X Japan, Sugizo, MUCC, Ra:IN, TMR, Kyoji, BUCK TICK, Kuroyume, Luna Sea etc etc etc…..)
if I only could keep one in my memory, it would be the one when Taka sung Pink Spider at Club Citta!!
ha ha ha but luckily I don’t have to.
Either way these two are definitely my favorite vocalists in Japan today! I mean I do like many others like YuI “Vagu*Project”, or Kuroe (HOLICS), or Kiyoharu, and many others…
CUTT and Taka and well I should add Atsushi Sakurai to the list as well are GREAT Voices from Japan…
Taka also blogs… http://ameblo.jp/takavoice/
and you can follow him and CUTT on twitter as well and yes it’s funny cause they actually have a big portion of their tweets sending tweets to each other…
So the evening was OA, then CUTT alone, then Taka alone and then last a portion together. Each part was fantastic, but probably the together part was most fun for the audience as the joked and laughed and really had a good time on stage not just as musicians but more like entertaining. My Japanese is very limited so unfortunately I only get bits and pieces of their jokes but it actually didn’t matter much for me this was a very good evening and I laughed a lot too!!
One question I need to ask CUTT-san at some point about this evening was something about ‘Japanese Standard’ … but if their voices are what’s being referred to as Japanese Standard, then Japanese standard is the number one in the world!
I will post another Youtube clip above this one… or two… even if not from this very night… and hopefully in the future… with pressure from the outside (which is people like you dear blog readers), I will be able to actually take videos and photos from LIVEs like these so that we can spread this outside of the Japanese borders…
blakekathryn
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romaincrisis
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