Sexpot Night 2013-08-24

edited: 2013-09-24 Mixed up Nowhere Divine's Bassist and Guitarist's names. Thanks Mike ;)

I have been buds with Ryo from Sexpot Revenge for a while now. He always invites me to these events of his on FB and whenever I meet him in moshpits or at the store he keeps asking when I intend to attend one. When I was in Gunma however, getting here wasn't the easiest task.... Now I haven't got that excuse anymore

It started out at the Decadance bar in Shinjuku… which is a bit of a hole.

There were some DJs playing, but they were not getting the crowd going. I had paid my 3500 but was not pleased with the setup and was starting to feel short changed. Things picked up a bit when they had a fashion show though.

After the show they dragged Narumi (from the band Head Phones President) onto the tiny box of a stage in the corner to be the center of the action. Turns out it was his birthday. He got cake and champagne and the vibe started to get a bit better.

I was still not sure how they were going to get the bands and suspension shows done.

Midnight came and the event underwent  transformation that would make Cinderella wet. The party was moved into the Christon Cafe downstairs.

WHAT A SPECTACULAR VENUE! Exactly what I imagined a party with that lineup and cover charge would require. Vaulted ceilings, chandeliers, red velvet curtains and plush couches. It was perfect. (In fact if there was a club in Nightwatch’s mind back when he opened Omega... it would have been this one)

The Hookers (suspension team):

The sound was damn good too. And the DJ was playing much better stuff than they had upstairs. In front of the box on the velvet(een?) stage the Hookers suspension team was preparing their first piece.

Now suspension is not my thing. It’s not the sticking of needle’s into people that bothers me (my former piercing holes will attest to that) And I understand why people love it… It just doesn't give me the rise that other’s there seemed to have gotten.

I was more interested in the fact that the DJ was playing Stone Sour’s Absolute Zero than the fact that there was a guy swinging around from hooks in his back. I don't know. Maybe I’m getting old. but once you've seen one, you've seen them all. Give me a nice rope suspension show with appropriate Dom/Sub interaction… and a cat’o9.

DJs:

There were a few DJs spinning their digital decks (check the  facebook event page to see who they all were) But the two I want to talk to you about were DJ Narumi ( The bassist from the Progressive Metal band Head Phones President) and DJ Chihiro from Tokyo Dark Castle. The two were in no way similar but were equally awesome nonetheless.

Narumi.

While a damn good musician in his own right, His DJ set was random. Unbelievably random. Like dub step into Chilli peppers random but his transitions were good and the tracks he played were excellent. I wished that he chained a few similar tunes from time to time. Getting into a tune only to have it replaced by something completely different doesn't make a set easy to dance to. Why I really loved his set though is that it flirted with many genres of music that you would ordinarily never see at an event like this, and many of them I liked. It was fun to hear and stomp to tunes that the majority there were completley not getting. Made me remember how much I just love good random music regardless of the fact that I am a metalhead.

Chihiro

DJ Chihiro I have seen before. A few times. He just gets better each time. The sound system handled the hard industrial amazingly, never fatiguing my ears yet giving enough power to put me in the 'zone'. What is the 'zone'? That place where you couldn't give two shits about anything else but the music and moving you body to it. Much like the feeling inside the mosh but the body movements are different. I was not the only one.. there were 4 or 5 others who loved the music and were cutting loose, the rest stood and foot shuffled a bit but as his set built up so to did their movements. Apart from a slight lull when the suspension team hooked up another piece of meat and the masses were ogling the spectacle In general it was a non stop high BPM industrial master set. I have not danced like that in a long time. And it was good. Oh so good. I just wish there was a party that big with only music like that. No suspension, no bands, no bullshit. Just dark electronic music. Like the doof doof floor at Zeplins back home... but more...MORE. I will try check out the next Tokyo Dark Castle. While I have to deal with the bands and their Goth pretentions... The DJ sets there are generally the best in the Tokyo scene.

 

The bands:

Nowhere Divine:

Honestly… I forget what their sound was like. It was somewhat Goth rocky progressive-ish deep but not quite there vibe. I don't know, maybe a weak Theatre of Tradgedy? To be honest the overall sound was meh.

The bassist, Namie,  however was PHENOMINAL!!!!!!! She stood out a above the rest of the band so strongly that no amount of mixing magic could hide the fact that she was be playing at a much higher level. Yes, I don’t know the personal friendships and dynamics behind the scenes but musically, the bass towers over the rest of the band. I would love to see her in a proper metal band with other musicians of her caliber. Now THAT would be an amazing band to see live!

The rest of the band does get an A for effort though. It's not like they were terrible, it's just that Namie made them look like they were picking up the slack a bit. The vocalist, Emma, however gets an A +. Why? Because I am giving out the grades and I say she does.

THATS WHY!

Strawberry Song Orchestra

Now this band rocked. I have seen many bands. I like many bands. I listen to many bands. While my tastes have opened up toward new sounds in ways that I never would have imagined, finding a band that is, truly original and skilled enough to excite me is still not easy. From their opening track I was hooked.

They have a pretty massive outfit. Vocals, Guitar, Bass, Drums, Keyboard, 2 backing vocalists and 2 cheer leaders (for lack of a better description) While nobody in the band was a superlatively skilled maestro they were all good. The big show however was their co-ordination. In a very Japanesque Angura Kei way, you could compare them to Slipknot’s numbers 3 and 6. More than their musical addition their real power is to thoroughly charge up the crowd. They were also the band's dedicated furitsuke leaders. No I won’t rant bout furi this time. I still dislike it but these guys didn’t have lots of finicky limp wristed cutie pie finger waggling. They has some fun original moves that resembled traditional Japanese cheer leading styles and while they were not so awesome that I joined in… I certainly didn't dis-approve of this band’s furitsuke. Which is a first for me.

Their sound… was great. Having the two harmonized backing vocals and keyboards in there. It sounded very old times big band but over the hard edged rock it was just. Different. and very good different. It is not something that everyone would like but I did. Loved in fact. SO much so that when there is an income in my life i intend to go to Osaka JUST TO SEE THEM LIVE AGAIN!

watch their PV if you haven’t already done so:

巨乳まんだら王国 (Huge tit Mandala Kingdom) 

W  T   F  !!!!!! Yeah I know it takes A LOT for me to say that about a band.



Just watch their PV... That said I had just finished dancing for a solid hour non stop to DJ Chihiro's AMAZING Industrial Set. So they were a bit much for me. Their sound was very typically Japanese and not in a way I liked, combined with their tasteless offensiveness (yes even by MY standards) They didn't really get me going...

Why no photos? Because the lead vocalist was in a fishnet bodysuit which stretched over his pot belly and did some scary looking things to his dick... which was on show... in al it's tormented glory.... So yeah.

I doubt I'll go out of my way to experience that again.

In Conclusion:

What started out as a bit of a disappointment became anything but. It was a great party night and one that I would love to repeat. I will always wish that there was one club like Atom and Ageha that does this every week but that would involve stroking too many egos at once (Same problems we had in the scene back in South Africa) and so in a way the party night system works pretty well.

Sexpot gets my seal of approval.

TLDR:

here is a mashup of some of the footage that I had from the night: