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Martin Johnson
Anglo-Irish trad music is pretty popular in Japan, as evidenced by how often the Chieftains used to tour here and how quickly their shows sold out. I assume that’s what the “underground” refers to in the name of this band: trad musicians hanging out together in hobby groups playing reels and jigs and sea chanteys. The “overground” in the name refers to the fact that these guys make a living from this; or, at least, part of a living. Several of the members are in the hardcore punk band Brahman, so this could be considered moonlighting. But based on the show they gave at the Field of Heaven Sat. afternoon, it’s not necessarily a softer break. They may play acoustic instruments, but they play them like a hardcore punk band.
The ringer is Scottish-American Martin Johnson, who sings most of the songs and plays fiddle and guitar. Johnson’s voice is a nasally version of Gordon Lightfoot’s, and he can put on a Scots-Irish accent when the occasion calls for it. He can also speak Japanese, which helps endear him to the audience, which was appreciative up to a point. At this stage of the weekend, the Field of Heaven has been taken over by hundreds of people in camping chairs who aren’t going to budge, but when the group got going in that way trad groups do people got into it. The rest of the time the group settled into standard acoustic singer-songwriter fare, in both English and Japanese, which was not distinctive enough to make a memorable impression. I’ll take a good rollicking reel any day over a sappy love song.
