The first day of Fuji Rock 08 was shaping up to be a corker. Unfortunately we made a slight miss judgement on how long it would take to get to FRF08 from Tokyo. This meant that we missed 3 acts we were hanging to see, Aussie lads The Midnight Juggernauts, 90’s rockers The Presidents of the U.S.A and funkster Jamie Lidell. We scrambled to set up our tents on slight hill (the flattest area we could find) and rushed to catch what was left of Kate Nash’s set.
With the rain falling and next to no hope of seeing Kate Nash, we decided to try our luck anyway. We passed by the Green Stage, where Travis were summing up our mood (and the weather) perfectly with their signature track “Why Does It Always rain On Me'” Thanks guys!! When we finally arrived at the White Stage, Kate Nash announced “This will be our last track!” Foiled again!! It was certainly a great track though and the Japanese crowd seemed to lap it up if only we could’ve too.We arrived well in advance for Bloc Party. Getting right up close, we waited in anticipation with the predominately Japanese crowd. Opening with their hard hitting track “Hunting for Witches” they continued to play tracks off their 2 CDs and even chucked in a couple of newies. One of these new tracks was an electro/rock number with heaps of samples and weird effects, this could be attributed to singer Kele’s DJing on the side. They stated that “it may need a bit of fine tuning” but we enjoyed it and so did the crowd. Highlights were “This Modern Love,” “Like Eating Glass,” “The Prayer,” “Banquet” and the closer “Helicopter”.
Next up were the New Orleans, 5 piece jazz/funk/hip hop outfit, Galactic feat special guests Charli 2na (Jurassic 5) and Boots Riley (The Coup). These guys were absolutely fantastic and got the crowd dancing like crazy. They played tracks off their, guest filled album, “From the Corner to the Block” and threw in some Jurassic 5 covers to the crowd’s delight. But by far the highlight was a 7 minute rendition of Led Zepp’s “Black Dog” with Charli and Boots doing their hip hop thing over the top. Galactic were definitely a festival highlight and with Bootsy Collins to follow and only showing his face for a mere 5 minutes then letting his band play James Brown instrumental covers, Galactic were the ones who definitely brought the funk on the night.
Having been extremely disappointed with Bootsy Collins, we decided to leave halfway through his set (well his band’s set) and go check out Japanese DJ duo the Dexpistols on the Orange Court stage. Orange Court was a long walk through an illuminated forest with a narrow boardwalk that creaked as you walked. When you eventually arrived at the “court” it opened up into what would be an epileptic’s nightmare, but a psychedelic techno-head’s wonderland with mirror balls and crazy installations everywhere. The Dexpistols played some the hardest electro we’d ever heard (think Justice/Boys Noize), got the crowd dancing like nutters and after half an hour (and with ears bleeding) we decided to take another nice stroll through the forrest and head to the Red Marquee.
Dan Le Sac Vs Scroobius Pip played an awesome set filled with well known samples and their signature brand of hip hop. Their Fuji Rock version of their hit “Just a Band” went down a treat. If you know the song then you know what I’m on about, if not the chorus basically goes like this......“Kasabian' JUST A BAND!! Travis'' JUST A BAND!!” And so on and so forth until they had basically covered every band on the FRF 08 line-up. They even had queue cards!! Hilarious!!
The legendary DJ, Grandmaster Flash was up next and played quite a disappointing set of old skool and new skool jams with him yelling stupid shit over the top. He just seemed to be rolling with the punches, not really caring about his audience. He is probably the only DJ in the world to get away with a set like this as no other DJ would be around if it wasn’t for him. So I guess you have to take that into account. Or do you''
