Not as big as Yosui

Not as big as Yosui

Well, the thing is, I was watching New Cool Collective at the Cafe de Paris. When it was over, I had the choice of trekking all the way to the other end of the festival to catch M.Ward, who I’d asked to write about… or sitting in my plastic chair drinking mango juice in the sunshine for another hour.

That’s no choice at all, is it? So I missed M. Ward, but I did find a young Japanese girl who saw him and asked her to review it. Here’s Chie’s take:

“I thought ‘he’s so short!’ I was surprised. His voice is husky like a country singer so I thought he had to be tall. Like the singer from The Flaming Lips. But even though he’s short, he plays so emotionally and powerfully. In terms of emotions and timing, he combines nicely with the other musicians. Very cool.

M.Ward was obviously the leader. He brought the other musicians in. His CD was happy, indie, country and rock, but the live show was more powerful. It’s not blues-rock, but… it’s not country-rock, but… anyway, it was great how they veered away from the sound of the CD.

The Marquee was only about 30% full. Probably because Yosui Inoue was playing at the same time.”

Photo: 熊沢 泉
More pics: http://fujirockexpress.net/12/14632.html