I was looking at Reol’s tour dates when I found a surprising entry: the Arabaki Rock Festival, end of April. It was surprising because fests like that are usually in the middle of summer (see Summer Sonic or Rock in Japan) and this one, well, definitely isn’t. At first I wasn’t all that interested, since it’s held near Sendai which is quite a distance from Tokyo to go for a Reol show, but then I looked at the lineup and changed my mind.
Knotfest is back! I’ve been there both times it was organized in Japan (though I only have a blog post from the 2016 event). I had to look through my photo archives to confirm I was there in 2014 too, and I was surprised to “learn” that apparently I’d seen Korn live back then… This year the plan was different.
I’ve been to Loud Park twice before, in 2012 (got a shirt but no blogpost) and 2016, so I was pretty happy to hear it was coming back after years of covid-forced absence. The lineup caught my eye because of Pantera—I thought they’d never tour again since the Abbott brothers died, so this was a chance I wasn’t willing to let go (even though I’m not that much of a Pantera fan).
ライブはライブにつながる。KNOTFESTの情報を知ってオープニングの魔法少女になり隊は見に行けないとわかったから、そのバンドの他の日程調べて下北沢のLUPINUSフェスを見つけた。下北の多数の会場で同時に開催される一日まるごとライブのイベントで、思った以上に楽しかった。
Once again Summer Sonic came up with a lineup that I couldn’t resist. Just look at that: Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra, Maximum the Hormone, Rancid, Man with a Mission, Babymetal and even Red Hot Chili Peppers? In one day? It was nothing short of intense.
今年もまたロックイン行ってきた。3日の土曜でメインの目当てはReol。とはいえラインアップが豪華で朝からほぼ最後まで楽しめた。
Have you seen the lineup of this year’s Summer Sonic? It’s pretty amazing. Sure not as amazing as Rock in Japan, but still great. It’s been 7 years since my last Summer Sonic (I was there in Osaka in 2010 and 2011). It usually has one or two artists that catch my attention, but rarely enough to get me to actually go.
This year though there were two bands on the lineup that I didn’t dare miss: ling tosite sigure (don’t get mad at me for the spelling, it’s official) and Mastodon.
Nyári fesztiválon még egyetemista koromban jártam utoljára – azt hiszem, a 2011-es Summer Sonicon (az se volt semmi felhozatal, az biztos). Persze nem-nyári fesztiválokra mentem azóta is. Írni nem feltétlenül írtam mindről, de az utóbbi pár évben minden Loud Parkon ott voltam, és akkor a két Knotfestről és Ozzfestről ne is beszéljünk.
Idén viszont, hogy már állást is váltottam, végre tényleg hosszúak a hosszú hétvégéim, végre bekerült a “szabadság” a szótáramba, és még a lelki erő is megvan. Így “hirtelen” (nem volt hirtelen) elhatározásból egy jó barátommal elmentünk a Rock in Japan első felére augusztus elején.
It was great. (As expected.) There were awesome bands that i’d never heard about before. On the first day I was drenched in sweat (and very grateful that i had about 2000 calories for breakfast) by the fourth artist on stage, and by the end of the day i could hardly turn my head.
