From the mouth of Beardyman
There are about ninety-eight muscles in the face. Add a tongue, some lungs and the throat area and you’re well past 100 separate flexing pieces of flesh. Friday night at the Red Marquee, I saw all 100-plus collaborating in ways I’d never seen before, collectively creating some of the most staggering sounds.
Meet Beardyman.
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Don't spit on me
The award-winning British beatboxer Beardyman made his Japan debut (?) at the prefest shindig in the Red Marquee. His set was pretty short–less than 20 minutes–but in that brief time he proved that he is a very talented young man and should go very far in show business. Yessiree.
Obviously, if you’re looking for a way to impress girls, beatboxing is the way to go. There was no panty-tossing, but the squeals were almost deafening when Beardyman–real name Darren Foreman–mimicked what sounded like Buddy Miles drumming “Them Changes” in a thunderstorm. He opened his set by reading text messages off his iPhone in Japanese while making all sorts of cool percussion sounds with his tongue and lips and epiglottis (ew). Since beatboxing is mainly a kind of formalized showing-off, he sampled some hip-hop, complete with gangsta-rapper groan, ran through snippets of hits by everyone from Michael Jackson to New Order (or so someone I know said), and even managed to sing in a fashion; all while that rhythm machine in the back of his throat kept pumping.
For that second half of his performance he looped his voice and ran it through all sorts of cool equipment to produce a DJ show, which wasn’t necessarily more original or innovative than the next DJ show, but, you know, he’s doing it with his voice. Anyway, as they say, you have to see (not necessarily hear, if you know what I mean) it to believe it. You have at least two more chances during the festival.
photo by Ueda
The surprise artists playing the Red Marquee tonight have been announced:
Hanafusa (Welcome)
Mustang
Beardyman
Narashirato
Last Orders
Cubismo Grafico 5
They start at 8 pm with Koichi Hanafusa welcoming all to the party – and then we rock!
Fuji pre-fest artists
Every festival has certain acts whose popularity and acclaim are foregone conclusions, but here at Fujirock.com we enjoy forecasting the dark horses that go on to be fest highlights. It’s one of my favorite parts of the pre-fest prep: predicting the surprise hits, the acts that no one knows upon arrival but no one forgets after they blow off the roof in front of a throng of first-time viewers. So here, I’d like to start the predictions with one of my own: introducing British beatbox badass Beardyman.
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