Anthony Barton covered the Summersonic Festival i Osaka, Japan for Undercover.
Day 1 of Summersonic 08 was, in all senses of the word, HOT!! After having no problem getting to the festival via the shuttle bus, our spirits were high and the extreme heat from the sun was quickly forgotten.Early up on the Sky Stage was UK pop/rock duo, The Ting Tings. Playing through a barrage of tracks off their debut album “We Started Nothing” including “We Walk,” “Shut Up and Let Me Go,” and their hit “That’s Not My Name” they got the day, and the festival, off to a great start.
I had been hanging to see the, much hyped, MGMT (pronounced: Management) ever since I first heard their aptly titled debut “Oracular Spectacular,” and to my (and the crowd’s) delight they did not disappoint. Playing as a 5 piece (there is usually only 2) in the air conditioned “Sonic Stage” (more of an arena than a stage really) they hypnotized the crowd with their eccentric costume changes and extended solos. Super cool tracks such as “Electric Feel,” “Time To Pretend,” and “Kids” were everything I’d hoped they be live.
Next up were the indie/electro 4 piece Does It Offend You Yeah' (yes that is the band name) on the “Dance Stage.” Unlike their name, I don’t think Does It Offend You Yeah' offended 1 person in the crowd. Everyone was jumping around like crazy. Sweat was splashing off people as if they were wet dogs and nobody (especially the band) would let up for a minute. From their hard hitting electro tracks “Battle Royale,” “We Are Rockstars,” and “Weird Science” to their very indie rock “Dawn of the Dead,” “Let’s Make Out,” and “Being Bad Feels Pretty Good” you would be forgiven for thinking that the whole band has some kind of “musical” attention deficit disorder.
Unfortunately, The Kooks and New Young Pony Club were on at the same time so I had to make the difficult decision and check out the sexy, New Young Pony Club. NYPC’s sassy pop tunes had the crowd “beeping,” “wooing” and clapping along throughout there entire set. “Get Lucky” and “Ice-Cream” were easy crowd favourites.
The legendary Devo played up on the “Sky Stage” at sunset. Dressed in their famous yellow jumpsuits and those weird red, pyramid, cone, hat, thingies (''), they looked great no matter how far away from the stage you were. Having not really listened to much Devo before, I’m guessing they played quite a lot of their hits. The 2 songs I did know and have always loved “The Girl You Want” and “Whip It” were incredible and it was such a privilege to see them performed live. The roar from the crowd when “Whip It” came on was deafening. I guess it’s just one of those tracks that can cross all language barriers.
Walking around the crowd during the day, it was quite easy to see who was the top of the list for most Japanese people......Justice!!! Their T-Shirts were everywhere!! And quite rightly so, because they put on a set that showed why they are right up their with Daft Punk in the electro scene. If Daft Punk are the “Kings of Electro” then Justice are most definitely the “William and Harry of Electro.” Reworking and remixing tracks off their first (and only) album, and playing behind a huge, lit up crucifix surrounded by countless Marshall stacks, it sure was a sight (and sound) to behold. The crowd just ate up every minute of their set. Bouncing and jiving away until, in the end, their wasn’t a dry body in sight.
After the onslaught that was Justice, I decided I needed something a little more chilled out. I managed to catch the last few tracks of Coldplay and I thought they were great. Admittedly, I have never really been a fan and probably couldn’t name any of their songs, but they were great live. Chris Martin’s voice is fantastic and the band are equal to his part. I kind of wish I could’ve seen more but with a line-up as good as today it isn’t all that easy.
