nambaThe bill for FRF ’10 featured two former members of well-regarded local ‘90s punk trio Hi-Standard.  Saturday saw guitarist Ken Yokoyama whipping punk fans into a frenzy on the Green Stage.  Sunday afternoon, his ex-band mate, bassist Akihiro Namba, performed material from his “The World is Yours!” debut solo effort on the White Stage.

Backed by a guitarist and a drummer, Namba shouted “Let’s Go” as he kicked into his opening number.  Performing poppy punk cuts accented with electronic flourishes his second song, “Jump! Jump!! Jump!!!” had a respectable number of fans bouncing along to the upbeat rhythms.  “Melodious Revolution” was next and saw Namba doing a bit of grooving when not singing and trying to rile up the crowd by calling out, “Come on everyone, let’s dance.”

Not as strong as Yokoyama’s showing, to me Namba’s set felt like he and his cohorts were just going through the motions of what they thought someone on a big festival stage should be doing.  In their defense, prior to watching Namba, I met Dom in the Field Of Heaven for the first half of Mountain Mocha Kilimanjaro’s gig.  In hindsight, this was a mistake.  After the high level of showmanship and energy displayed by MMK a short five-minute walk away, I may have expected too much from Akihiro Namba’s first FRF appearance under his own name.

Photo report here.

Photo by 深野輝美