The Tokyo Concert Experience

It’s unfair to bundle all the names of the immensely talented artists considered as Tropicalistas into one group. We’re talking about individuals with specific sensibilities and styles. Caetano Veloso, Gilberto Gil, Gal Costa, Os Mutantes and of course Tom Zé , not only changed Brazilian music forever, they had a lasting impact in popular music period. There’s no question, though, that the artistic movement in the late sixties in Brazil was unprecedented. Music, theater, painting, cinema, in all these disciplines artists from this Latin American country explored alternative venues of creation that would not only express their reality but will also question conservative views of art and beauty. In this regard I’d say that Glauber Rocha was one of the most eloquent. He was a filmmaker, founder of the Cinema Novo (New Cinema) movement, but he was also an art theorist and wrote the Aesthetics of Hunger . In that essay he defines hunger as the essence of the Latin American tragedy. A ...

On my way to the station after the concert was over a couple of guys who were there started a conversation with me and asked me the same rhetorical question that was on my mind: why did they play such a short set? By “they” we meant the headliner, there were five bands on the bill and the whole event went on for more than three hours. I argued that because it was a grindcore band, with most of their songs being under the two minutes mark, it was kind of to be expected. The truth was that I had to catch a train and was working in the morning on the following day, so leaving there at ten o’clock was alright with me. In hindsight they were absolutely right, though. Forty minutes felt way too short. The evening started for me three hours before that. This was, by the way, my second time at this venue in Okubo, famous for its punk and hardcore shows. The first time was about three and a half years ago when I saw Boris and Merzbow play the collaboration they released together at the ti...

I didn’t know what toloache was until it was explained during the show by Julie Acosta, trumpet player and occasional lead vocalist of the band. She said it was a type of herb that’s considered for some as a love potion in Mexico, and that’s why in Mexico the phrase “it looks like someone gave you toloache” is used to tease people that look in love. Just the name of the band, the amount of thought put into it, tells you that they’re in the business of pushing the envelope and stretching conventional boundaries. They stay away from preconceptions and deliver a fresh approach that it was definitely welcomed with open arms at their first show in Tokyo. I grew up listening to mariachi music and saw mariachi groups perform at parties several times. As an adult and concertgoer never had the chance to see one perform on stage. I saw this show announced and didn’t know about the band, so I checked their NPR Tiny Desk concert and liked it a lot. I was impressed by the way they fusion mode...

Yes, the name of the venue is Mt. Rainier Hall Shibuya Pleasure Pleasure, two “pleasures”. This ridiculously named place hosted the latest Daniel Sloss special X at its stop in Tokyo. It was Daniel’s first show in Japan and as most comedians do, he started by describing some of his first impressions of this country. His acute observations couldn’t left the Japanese surprised reaction (eeee!) alone. He told a series of very funny jokes involving it, recounting a random conversation with someone at a bar and his reaction after showing him the thumbnail with his picture on the Netflix site. Sloss is still in his twenties and has already two specials under his belt. Both of them are on Netflix, there’s where I discovered his comedy. Each one of those have a similar structure. They both rely on jokes and funny storytelling for the first 50 minutes or so and in the last 15 minutes they turn somewhat dark and serious, tackling subjects such as disabilities, death and failed relationshi...

I’ve been aware of the difficulties of playing the oboe since I was a child. My cousin plays it and both him and his brother learned to play instruments at a very young age. They were both part of what is now known as El Sistema, a music education program comprised of several orchestras and conservatories. It was founded in 1975 by Jose Antonio Abreu with the goal of providing the youth, in some cases the ones that are more in risk of following through the cracks of the society structure, with a purpose and discipline that will shape their adult lives. Despite the controversies and the compromises with the authoritarian fascist regime of the country, he succeeded. Regarding the latter, it’s possible that Abreu viewed it as the ultimate sacrifice. I’m sure he knew who he was dealing with but thought that partnership was the only way the the program could continue, similar to what Furtwängler thought about his approach in the thirties to help the Berlin Philharmonic survive. Speaki...

I first became aware of Tochumaren, the music made in the North Africa by the Touareg people, when I watched the Glastonbury documentary directed by Julien Temple. It was quite a sight at the time to see a rock band donning those strictly traditional clothes you’ll associate with people living in the Sahara region rocking that hard. The first thing that will grab you is the guitar tone which is piercing and full of body like a great wine. Then it’s the groove, the kind of groove that will make any kind of head bopping unavoidable. From then on the journey through that infectious world of Tochumaren is endless. The band I saw in the movie was Tinariwen and I’ve been fortunate to catch them live a few times, always an amazing show. But this time i got to see a different band from the genre that has also won accolades from critics all over the world, Tamikrest . They’ve released 4 studio albums with the most recent being Kidal from 2017, a record that made it to the prestigious Moj...