The Tokyo Concert Experience

This was my first time at Nine Spices, a nice small venue on the outskirts of Kabukicho. I got there early. Doors opened at 2:30 with a show starting time of 3:00. After paying for my reservation at the front I walked inside and immediately bumped into Dylan Desmond from Bell Witch who said “hi”. He seemed like a really nice person. In contrast to the intensity and somber mood of their music, those guys are chilled, laid back and approachable. I saw the guys from Primitive Man working the merch table from the very beginning, patiently dealing with some of the awkward cheesiness of a few of the patrons (in one exchange they were asked where were they from and if there was weed in their hometown). Despite this sort of giddy exchanges, when they walk onto that stage they mean business and they proved it that night. The first band on the bill was Coffins , the main reason I got there early. The organizers did a very smart thing and spread the acts throughout the day not necessarily i

This year’s Tokyo Spring Festival, an annual event that takes place during the cherry blossoms season and programs classical music concerts in venues around Ueno Park, invited Igor Levit , one of the leading current masters of the keyboard. The program titled Variations reproduced the track list of his 2015 triple CD. It was divided in two days, the second one showcasing Beethoven’s Diabelli Variations and Rzewski’s variations on The People United Will Never Be Defeated . An electrifying performance of the Goldberg Variations by Johann Sebastian Bach was in order for the first day. I was there for the first concert. Joined by a page turner, Levit walked on stage wearing one of those oversized white shirts that you imagine people in the 18th century wore underneath their jackets. He sat on his stool and proceeded to deliver a moving rendition of the initial Aria . In the first 15 variations a contrast between fast and slow movements seems to be more clearly demarcated, usuall