Fujirockers: The official fansite of the Fuji Rock Festival

Last time I was in Fuji, I was told about Daydreaming, a stage and festival area at the top of Mt. Naeba, accessible only by cable car. In my head, I imagined a five-minute haul up one mighty hill, with some great views of the festival if you looked over your shoulder.

Lord, was I wrong. The trip to Daydreaming is a twenty-minute epic journey, up many peaks and down (with unnerving speed at times) into many valleys, over trees, rapids and bright blue river waters. It carries you far, far beyond the farthest point of the festival; the sun-gilt Orange Stage is but a glimmer on the horizon by the time your reach the end of your trip. You don’t usually get to use the word “breathtaking” without at least a bit of hyperbole; this is one of those cases where you’re absolutely in need of such a word.

Cost for the Dragondola is ¥1200, and it’s worth every penny – nevermind the fact that, at the top, you’ll find DJs and performers, countless dragonflies, a bubble machine, food and drink, hiking trails, and even more stunning views.

More photos after the jump

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All smiles Sunday morning

Having to play at 10:00 A.M. on Sunday is never an easy task, yet Matsusaka Daisuke stepped up and delivered a set that matched the way festival goers’ day unfolded. His set opened with samples of children playing, matched up against airy electronics and flashes of acoustic guitars. There was no beat whatsoever, and the floating feel of the music matched the crowd at the time – sleepy-eyed, with most folks spread out on the grass, trying to fit in a little more shut eye. The next few songs were crystalline, fragile and pretty and far from aggressive.

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A souvenir from a Daydreaming Visit

Do you know those cardboard pictures with the faces cut out that are at many tourist attractions throughout Japan?  While there’s one right when you exit the Dragondola station at the top of Daydreaming too.  And … well, J and I couldn’t pass up the chance for a fun keepsake.

A little jump rope to start the day

The Day Dreaming and Silent Breeze area of Fuji Rock felt particularly easy-going Sunday morning. More families made the 20-some-minute gondola ride up, meaning many more little kids running around and having a good time. Many set up chairs, bought some ice cream and relaxed. Others snapped photos of the gorgeous landscape. In one corner, a game of soccer broke out.

The sight that stood out the much, though, was a giant jump rope being swung around. Adults and children lined up to take turns making a solitary leap through the rope, as the crowd surrounding the game counted how many people could get through without getting snagged in the rope. The highest I saw it get was nine people, although it looked like this would be going on for a while.

Dorian during his Friday afternoon set

There is a moment in the middle of Dorian’s afternoon set at the Day Dreaming stage where a woman in sunglasses dashed into the middle of the crowd and began raining water from a biggie-sized bottle onto the audience. It was a welcome moment of hydration – the crowd had been spending the last 40-minutes dancing along to producer Dorian’s 80’s tinged music, and many looked to be drenched in sweat (including Dorian himself). The water was a welcome gesture during an especially physical dance session under the scorching sun.

Dorian’s music borrows sonic ideas from the 1980’s – think glossy synths right out of an episode of Lifestyles Of The Rich And Famous merged with cheesy New Wave touches and the occasional 8-bit bloop – but it crucially never comes off as just nostalgic imitation. His dance productions retrofit the sounds of the past into songs that are all about the immediate, pounding numbers that had the Day Dreaming stage jumping along for almost an hour straight. The weather also made Dorian’s set feel special, as the sunny skies went well with songs like “Morning Calling,” which is one of several Dorian songs with a Balearic feel to it. His set ended with the climatic “Like A Wave,” a long-burning track that built up to a dizzying, feet-moving finale that probably made some in the crowd wish the water was still a flyin’.

Photo by 府川展也, see more photos here.

The Beauty's Yuji Oda

Tokyo project The Beauty weren’t just making their Fuji Rock Festival debut Friday at 12:30 at the Day Dreaming…they would be playing their first live show ever at the festival. Before this mid-day set, The Beauty has primarily been the solo project of Yuji Oda, who recorded the bulk of his dreamy music from his bedroom. This past May, he released his first full-length album Love In The Heart Of The World Shout, a collection of gauzy songs full of synthesizers and vocals that swirled together into one lovely blanket of sound. It’s the sort of atmospheric record one wouldn’t expect to see performed at a festival, yet The Beauty expanded to a trio for live performances and played their first gig at Fuji Rock.

The Day Dreaming stage’s vibe ended up meshing with the band’s sound – the fans assembled their were a mix of people looking to dance in the early-afternoon sun and folks who just wanted to sprawl out in the grass and relax. The Beauty’s woozy synths were perfect for the latter fan, the majority of the songs built to envelop the listener in whatever setting. That was to be expected if you’ve listened to The Beauty before, but the real surprise was how physical the trio could sound live. The addition of a guitarist and bassist live beefed up The Beauty’s sound, the noisy outbursts provided by the two newest members of the group slicing through the hazy quality of the synths and, at times, adding an element of funk to the proceedings. Oda himself incorporated some live percussion as well, smashing a cymbal at various times during the set. This more forceful beat – joined by the machine-generated sounds found on the album – had many dancing around the Day Dreaming stage. The Beauty has a few missteps, but they recovered gracefully, and ultimately delivered a set suitable for those who wanted to move and for those who wanted to zone out.

Photo credit: 府川展也, see more photos here.

An impromptu concert Friday at the Day Dreaming area

Here are an assortment of observations from the Day Dreaming and Silent Breeze stage, gathered mid-day on Friday:

- The 20-minute gondola ride might seem like a pain at first, but the views of the surrounding wilderness from the seat of your car and once you reach the stage itself are well worth it. Many festival-goers walked to the top of a nearby hill just to snap more photos of the majestic view.

- The Day Dreaming and Silent Breeze area features one official stage, but that didn’t stop other acts from busting out into impromptu performances. One outfit called Ayashii Sanin Gumi, consisting of four performers pulled out of the American Civil War, played ramshackle music powered by acoustic guitar, violin, banjo and drums. They gathered a decent-sized crowd around them, and played a brief but energetic set featuring moments that had the crowd laughing. At the end, they guided the audience over to a table where they tried to sell them CDs and shirts.

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SOUNDTRACK FOR THE DAYDREAMERS

OMG. What took me so long to get my happy ass on the Dragondola (world’s longest gondola ride) and up to experience the Daydreaming and Silent Breezing on top of Mt. Naeba? Yeah, it’s pretty much the tallest thing around. And that vista mentally sets you free to shake it, baby, without recourse!  We made it in time to catch the tail end of Kaito’s time behind the helm.  Excellent, airy, danceable trance techno vibes bumping from two stacks out back, DJ in the womb of a geodesic dome. Plenty room to get your freak on. We do an umbrella dance.

Yoda seamlessly hops in the cockpit and starts another wompy set, more bass-tastic than his normal ambient stuff, still pure techno though (fancy that, he DJs regularly at Club Pure in Shibuya). We cut a muddy rug until four o’clock. Then, as if making space for the music to fly, clouds open up, sunshine pops its head out and graces our cheeks with warmth for a precious few moments. Yoda levitates us, too, into the stratosphere, glowing our insides out with tasty bass-natural ear pills. Luckily we didn’t get sliced by any light sabers.

Photo courtesy 直田亨. More photo report here

IT WAS SO INTENSE

Coming down from Daydreaming on the Dragondola, the clouds have partly cleared, and the partly cloudy forecast is finally all right. We are sharing the gondola car with a trio from Nara, bonding by our ridiculous rollercoaster screams to other passing cars as we slow-motion ride up and over mountain tops, when all of a sudden nature steals the stage and on the biggest screen around, paints a perfect rainbow over a nearby mountain in the blue and grey sky. “Look! Look! Niji! Niji! Rainbow!” Our car just attained a new level of intensity. Below is a winding river through the mountains, and looking out the window we are even with the breathtaking beauty, all 7 colors of the spectrum, I mean it’s not a double rainbow, but it is a complete freakin’ arch, from one pot o’ gold to the other. Where’s me lucky charms?

So our new chant scream to passing cars is “Niji Mieru De!” (You can see rainbow, yo!) And it carries on almost the whole (20 minute) ride back down to Fuji Rock reality.

This chance beauty, after 3 straight days of grey, sopping, mold, mud, dark dreariness weather, really strums those heart’s strings my friends. It harks back to a youtube video I would like to share with you here, as I found myself much like the bear fellow in Yosemite; awestruck, dumbfounded, lost for (most intelligible) words, on the verge of tears.

It was almost too much. But it reminds us again of one of Fuji Rock’s three top rules, that being “Respect Nature.” Don’t move nature; let nature move you.

DAYDREAMING OF PSYCHEDELIC SOFT CREAM

Way up here, the vibe is nice, high above the clouds. The sun is peeking through 3 days of overcast overhead. Luigi makes an appearance and eats a huge plastic magic mushroom. There are rainbow ice cream cones, a rock ‘n’ roll panda, lions, tigers, and bears oh my! (Seriously, human-sized.)

Don’t wake me from this trippy daydream on a mountaintop. But what put the icing on the mud cake was the full freakin’ rainbow on the Dragondola ride down! It seriously spanned the sky, arching from one pot o’ gold to the other, over peaks and a winding river. More to come on that later…

Riding the dragon up to Daydream was the best possible way I could have spent the afternoon calm, albeit raving with umbrellas at three o’clock in the afternoon, hardly the definition of calm. Yoda DJing must have covertly transferred some of his grammatical wisdom through the womping bass, as I seriously feel enlightened. Because, we may have since descended from on high, but I am still on cloud 9 and plan to ride this feeling to finish this year’s fest strong, despite my damp wooly socks. Fuji Rockin’ Rainbows of Love!

Mokudotei

Naeba Shokudo
I went to Fuji Rock Festival for three years before I figured out where the Naeba Shokudo stage was. I’d seen it, but never realised it was an official performance space. I thought it was just a noodle stand inviting their mates to busk. It’s fair to say that every act performing here is too big to perform here, and that’s what makes it so fun. This year’s lineup is the strongest ever: EKD, Asakusa Jinta and the Kensington Hillbillies should all be top shows.

The Pyramid Garden
This stage debuted last year in the campsite area, only for campers. Well, they deserve something for having to sleep in a tent on a mountain, in the shadow of a comfy hotel. It’s produced by the same people that set up those candle displays by the entrance to the Field of Heaven. This year, Sandii of Sandii and the Sunsets ought to be fun, and Takeshi Hosomi of Ellegarden and The Hiatus will play a solo set the day before his band plays the White Stage.

Cafe de Paris
It’s outside the festival proper, past the Orange Court, down by the river. The Cafe de Paris seems to be appearing every other year now, with a Frenchy cabaret theme. Big Willie is bringing his Burlesque show to the tent ever day, and JoJo Swing Quintet will also play three times. And then there’s this.

Day Dreaming & Silent Breeze
No idea. Never been to this stage in all the years I’ve been going to Fuji. But Fujirocker Dom says it’s worth a look. And you get to try the world’s longest cable car ride.

Mokudotei
A little wooden stage in the woods, and one of my favourite spots. You’ll find it halfway along the boardwalk that connects the White Stage to the Field of Heaven and the Orange Court. The Kensington Hillbillies and Olde Worlde ought to be worth checking out.

Guitar King Doing His Thing

It surprises me somewhat. Every year, I speak to seasoned Fuji Rockers, people who’ve been to the fest multiple times, year in, year out. And there is one thing that most of them have in common: They’ve never taken the time to head up to Day Dreaming.

It’s understandable I guess. It’s quite a ride, taking some 20 minutes on the Dragondola, and you have to buy a ticket (~¥1,200 I think, available at the rear area behind the Red Marquee). But it really is worth the effort, time, and expense. The ride alone is worth the price, with breathtaking views of the mountains, valleys, & rivers (directly below you), as well as a view of the crowds at Green Stage otherwise unavailable, as well as a bird’s eye view of White Stage and Orange Court. Continue Reading…

MORE SKA?!?! KING COLUMBIA WILL DUKE IT OUT WITH OTHER YOUNGBLOODS @ ROOKIE-A-GO-GO

A few days ago while eating a late night sandwich, I was assured by the guitarist in a Taiwanese post-rock band, Su, who was DJing at the time, that the “Taiwanese bands” at Fuji Rock would be announced on July 1. So I stayed up late, thinking “Taiwanese bands?” Is there really a plural there? There’s never been more than one Taiwanese group at Fuji Rock before, and now, on the freshly released web page of the Japanese site, there are three: Sheng Xiang & the Band, Sugar Plum Ferry and Silverbus. All are playing at Gypsy Avalon, where post-rock at noontime will definitely be an experiment.

The bigger news is that band lists for Fuji Rock’s seven smaller stages are now out and more or less finalized. These are the lineups for the little hippie field (Gypsy Avalon), the competition stage for young bands (Rookie-A-Go-Go), the little performance area in the middle of the woods on the boardwalk between the White Stage and Orange Court (Boardwalk Stage), the food court area stage (Naeba Shudoku), a daytime cabaret in a cleverly converted shed (Cabaret de Paris – last year it was called Cabaret Fiesta), and the Pyramid Garden (a rather mysterious stage that, like the evil fortress in Krull, disappears at sunset and appears in a new location each dawn). There are also a few additions to Daydreaming, which is a late morning/early afternoon DJ stage at the top of a mountain a 20-minute gondola ride from the rest of Fuji Rock (and there is definitely a pretty good reason for why it’s so far away).

Check the additions here: http://www.fujirockfestival.com/artist/

Well the others have summed it up pretty succinctly, I think. Not much more to say, other than don’t listen to anyone on what you should like.

But we don’t go for the music. Nope. If it were the music we went to see, then we’d shell out like the rest of you do. Then we could actually relax and enjoy said music. I remember a few years beck, our esteemed leader commented that he was having a near perfect weekend, catching up with old friends, and if only the bands would shut the fuck up and give them some peace it would have been truly perfect! Continue Reading…

Below you’ll find some of my music recommendations, but first off, a few nuggets of advice:

What to remember:

- Don’t forget sun protection (hat, extra sunglasses and sunblock). And if you use them like I do, bring your own genki drinks for an added late-night boost. Despite all the stalls at Fujirock, I’ve only rarely seen these on sale.

- Walk the entire length of the fest grounds at least once. That’s right: from the Red Marquee all the way to Cabaret Fiesta and back. At sunset or after dark is best, and make sure to take the boardwalk. Try not to look at your watch. You’ll be glad you did.

- Take the Dragondola up to the Day Dreaming stage at the top of the mountain, even if you just turn around and come back. The view, the fresh air and thrity minutes off your feet will do you good.

What to see:

Trying to point out a handful of shows at Fujirock is like recommending only one dish at your favorite restaurant: the entire menu is delicious, but you only have so much room in your stomach. It’s a foregone conclusion that bands like LCD Sound System, Broken Social Scene and One Day as a Lion will be mind-blowingly great live experiences, so I’ll try to point out some of lineup further down the marquee:

My list after the jump

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Human Cannonball and Wheel of Death

Quietly slipping in under the radar the other day (Don Coglione’s Crystal Palace update notwithstanding) have been some minor tweaks to the Fuji Rock 2010 line-up.

The complete Palace of Wonder, Gypsy Avalon, Day Dreaming and Silent Breeze details have been scheduled, as have announcements for the death spectacle that is the Palace Arena, Fischerspooner at All Night Fuji, and DJ Alexis from Hot Chip added to Sunday night’s Red Marquee lineup. Continue Reading…

We’re now live from the fest at: http://www.fujirockexpress.net/09e/

follow us on twitter, as well.

Flickr and Vids to come.

jinki

The one gem that everybody seems to miss at Fuji Rock is Day Dreaming. I believe that few of the Fujirockers who are contributing to this blog have even made the trek. That’s a shame though, because this stage is the perfect answer to the night before. For starters, you have to take the magnificent Dragondola to get up there. Once on board, you’re whisked away at high speed, and afforded perhaps the best view of the actual festival site (barring a helicopter ride) as it begins its 20-odd minute journey up the mountains. Through valleys and across rivers, you could be forgiven for thinking you’d left it all behind. Continue Reading…