Nohshintoh 2006, May 3 - Wednesday Location: Nagoya, Japan Venue: Tsuru-Rock Festival, Tsurmai Park Lineage: AUD (Aiwa CM-P22 stereo mic -> Sharp MD-DR7-S mini-disc recorder)> CDR(M) (Teac RW-D280 analog input)> WAV (xcdroast v0.98alpha15 with paranoia 50 / cuepoints edited with gnusound 0.7.4) > FLAC8 (flac 1.1.0) Software: http://www.xcdroast.org/manual/first.html#setup http://www.gnu.org/software/gnusound http://flac.sourceforge.net/ Nohshintoh Haru-chan: vocals/synthesizer (pronounced /ha-rloo/) Sakai-san: bass/chorus vo. (pronounced /sa-ka-ee/) Take: drums/vocals/pianica (pronounced /tah-kay/) Yagi-chan: guitar/chorus vo. (pronounced /yah-gee/) Eiichi: dub/vocals/rhythm box (pronounced /ay-eechee/) This group is a Nagoya perennial. They've been together for somewhere around 20 years depending on which member you ask and which period they are counting from. The group started out as a free-form new wave goth punk unit consisting of the Tsuchiya brothers (Haru and Take) and Sakai-san. Yagi was quick to join the group and his cutting Jamaica inspired guitar playing and Haru-chan's discovery of Lee 'Scratch' Perry transformed the group into a non-rasta dub group. Their blue-collar Japanese sensibilities mixed with their natural penchant for the almost-cute and wierd developed into a sound somewhere between Bauhaus and Rock Steady. The Japanese spirit completely suffuese the unaffected delivery of this wide spectrum of music. Thus I call them 'Japanese New Wave Spiritual Dub'. Though at one point swelling to an eleven member 'orchestra' of guitars, noisemakers, and dancers, the current lineup has been condensed back to the original core members with the addition of Eiichi, the effects wizard and defacto band manager. This show marked the bands first appearance in several years at the long running Tsuru-Rock Festival held annually in Tsurumai Park in Nagoya. Though performing exclusively in Nagoya during the first fifteen years of the group's career, recent networking by Eiichi landed them their first gig in Tokyo. This show at the Shibuya Nest seems to have been a watershed for the group. After playing this one show in Shibuya interest from Osaka to Sendai have their schedule booked solid through August. This was the first show I'd seen since their Tokyo debut. Though they had always been a popluar group in Nagoya, I was rather surprised by the flock of fans gathering round the band as they set up. Other than an obnoxious audience member (who you'll hear much more about later) no one had budged from the grassy amphitheater style seating the entire afternoon. Not until Nohshintoh took the stage at around 18:30. There was actually no stage. The equipment was just set up on the pavement in front of the tiered, semicircle amphitheater style lawn. This was recorded just in front of the mixing desk. Keep in mind that one of the PA stacks had collapsed under the wieght of a rowdy audience member during the previous band's set, so the staff were doing the best they could. This isn't Nohshintoh's best performance. It isn't their worst. It just happens to be one I recorded. It was truely chaotic. From the stands it was impossible to tell where the band left off and the audience started. People were constantly on and off the stage, posing for pictures, screaming into mics, grabbing instruments and pouring beer on and in the band. It was an event. 00 Intro: The band set up in a chaotic situation as most of the audience crowd around the 'stage' area and the boundaries between stage and audience, for all intents and purposes, disappear. The previous band had left the equipment in total disarray. One PA stand had collapsed and there was difficulty determining which microphones were which and if any were broken. Most of this damage was caused by an audience member from the band 6 Eyes, who apparently was feeling a little lonely since his band wasn't performing. His voice can be heard loudly as he has commandeered a microphone and has no intention of relinquishing it. The PA staff seem to have no intention of turning it off, either. 01. Jump: Without warning the first song starts off. Some of the band members seem to be a bit surprised as well. Vocals are handled by Take with a 'rhythm box' operated by Eichan handling percussion. The vocalist from 6 Eyes can be heard as well. 02. Member Introductions by 6 Eyes/Surgely Afro guitar/vocalist: Thess introductions were not done at the request of the band. This audience member simply took it upon himself to grab a mic and start talking. 03. Hori Yori: Haru-chan takes the vocal lead. This is a long-time Nohshintoh favorite. 05. Inochi: An ode to the life force and the children it spawns. One of the new generation Nohshintoh standards. 06. Inochi reprise: Again, audience members (you know who) invade the stage, grabbing tomtoms and a mic to lead the band into an unscheduled reprise of the just finished 'Inochi' just as Eichi is announcing the last song of the set. Take finally announces that the audence member is not part of the band, but from Surgely Afro. 7. Papa (?): The newest song in the Nohshintoh repetoire, but already a crowd favorite. Eichan takes the vocals in his squeaky nonsensical style. This song is called Papa, but is totally different from an older song by the band also called 'Papa'. The show ends, sort of, and the event organizer can be heard announcing the name of the band as well as the next performers. He also comments on the howling feedback, though he, alone, sits at the mixing console. The group currently has a DVD for sale through Enbanya in Tokyo. I think they'll do mail order. http://www.enban.org/shop/cart_pro.cgi?page_id=1&disp=on&gid=ENJANNOSHINTO1dvdr it's called, 「LIVE at HOMETOWN & FIRST TIME TOKYO」 and they appear on the Nagoya compilation, '7586' http://www.10po.com/7586/ ^ but beware this site will take control of your browser. - Mr S of BS Entertainment (aka rockthing) Commands: page:~/gnusound_folder/nohshintoh20060503-0:21:29> flac -V --best --sign=signed *.wav flac 1.1.0, Copyright (C) 2000,2001,2002,2003 Josh Coalson flac comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY. This is free software, and you are welcome to redistribute it under certain conditions. Type `flac' for details. options: -P 4096 -b 4608 -m -l 12 -e -q 0 -r 0,6 -V 00NST_intro.wav: Verify OK, wrote 74643858 bytes, ratio=0.388 01NST_Jump.wav: Verify OK, wrote 36044371 bytes, ratio=0.418 02NST_membershoukai.wav: Verify OK, wrote 1659695 bytes, ratio=0.349 03NST_HoriYori.wav: Verify OK, wrote 19061402 bytes, ratio=0.417 04NST_Inochi.wav: Verify OK, wrote 39327021 bytes, ratio=0.393 05NST_Inochi-reprise.wav: Verify OK, wrote 1681428 bytes, ratio=0.341 06NST_Papa.wav: Verify OK, wrote 11670053 bytes, ratio=0.354 page:~/gnusound_folder/nohshintoh20060503-0:35:57> page:~/gnusound_folder/nohshintoh20060503-0:47:59> metaflac --show-md5sum *.flac 00NST_intro.flac:a365aa0561d6a699c7992f1f1a9673e4 01NST_Jump.flac:0fad70ff98eb2a4739a8d445d672d302 02NST_membershoukai.flac:549395932b7baa91d27b3a150399bafa 03NST_HoriYori.flac:57c5487b7931f7b9e00f64818704f5db 04NST_Inochi.flac:2ee63e50ba9b50967354079f533bbd4f 05NST_Inochi-reprise.flac:51a56ff78d5e4119c2521fcb3bdd984b 06NST_Papa.flac:e15ca8fcd24d3dbc5d083557d623ce79 page:~/gnusound_folder/nohshintoh20060503-0:48:45>