2017 MAR 27 — CHAI in-store at Amoeba San FranciscoI don't think I can really do it justice.
You know what in-stores are like: sterile.
Amoeba in-stores are the best of the species, because they have an actual
stage and a lot of lights. And even a little PA, and they get someone to run it.
This was a big success, maybe 75 people were listening raptly, who weren't
there to work the date.
CHAI did their full half-hour, just as at the Independent, and even though
it was a subdued 6pm daylight weekday scene, they were perfect at only
about Warp 4.
Pressure Drop's crew was there. I have learned to just stay out of their
way, tricky as that can be. They don't look like much, but they get
the goods.
See what I mean:
Chai live stream (Live on PressureDrop.tv)2017 28 MAR by PressureDrop.tv (29:05)
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How to describe Chai? Well, experimental Japanese indie pop in pink pajamas,
for starters. Just take a look, it’s really fun. March 27, 2017.
_________SETLIST_________
1. Sound & Stomach
2. Villie-Van (Village Vanguard)
3. CAT
4. Self Introduction
5. Boys Seco Men
6. Cool Cool Vision
7. Material Girl ("Yay, Madonna!")
8. Gyaran-Boo→
PDtv Artist page→ And go to
pressuredrop.tv for more indie music, live from the underground
_________CREDITS_________
Producer - Anne Cook
Switcher - Steve Kim
Audio Engineer - Erica
Cameraman - Arnold Dizon
Cameraman - Jeremy Solterbeck
Photography - Rachel Escoto
Social Media Coordinator - Marissa Flores
Find us here too:
→ FACEBOOK www.facebook.com/PressureDroptv→ TWITTER twitter.com/PressureDroptv → SOUNDCLOUD soundcloud.com/PressureDroptv → INSTAGRAM www.instagram.com/PressureDroptv → TUMBLR PressureDroptv.tumblr.com Now... the pink satin pajamas is CHAI dressing vaguely Chinese. Mana
and Kana are rocking a China vibe from their old-time braided queues to
their puffy new white training shoes. They even look a little Chinese to me,
maybe they think so too.
I find they are a much more interesting live hiphop mix than Tokyo Chaotic!!!
because they are not chilled out. The twins are a pair of manic little brats, and
the way they go after your attention is something to see.
Cool graphics done by the band (Yuuki), of course. D to the I to the Y = CHAI.They're quite young to be so good, not long out of school. Yuuki's been a musician
less than 5 years. She was drafted on the basis of general artistic ability, plus
"I think Yuuki can do it."
Dr/Cho Yuna and Ba/Cho Yuuki are especially great as a unit. I tend to look first
at what's going on in the engine room, so I wound up watching them the whole time.
They know just how to support what's in front, like a slab of concrete.
English, English, we can speak EnglishNo, not conversationally. It's really hard. I tried to show some appreciation.
I was praising Yuki's sense of style, which is solid, and that got an extra-direct,
eyebrows-up look and a little smile out of Yuna. So some contact was made.
Signed in silver to prevent bleed-through, and legibility. My ideas are not all very good.They were like a flock of chirping birds at the meet & greet, all a-twitter
with smiling and hugging and exclaiming and photographing and signing
everything that was small enough to carry.
Then after, they went shopping for records, and they were right into that mode
of anonymously being closed off in a strange city in a strange country trying to
get out of here so we can eat so we can pack so we can rest so we can leave.
It's so much a harder edge that even though I KNOW the fluffy stuff is only
a role, the metamorphosis came as a slight shock.
It's obvious, isn't it, that the last show of a tour will have only XL t-shirts?
The last red one was being held for another person who never came back.
Pressure Drop took the last 2-color T, because they are like that.
If you have a CHAI Item,™ you will be cute. You are very cool!They're pros. They have a new EP about to release, and their video work is
a whole other dimension apart from their Japan Nite act. There's nothing they
don't do well. There's a complete and consistent artistic vision that's all them.
It is very aware, inventive, weird and uninhibited. Like genius children that
nobody ever told no. Some guy was giving them the you'll-go-far speech.
It made me think, you couldn't possibly know the half.
I have phone video of 2/3s of it. That was a comic disaster, starting with
arriving with 5 minutes to spare, to discover that a software update had
COMPLETELY CHANGED THE USER INTERFACE on my camera app. I was
groping to find the settings, even the iris and focus. That was before the
charging cable stopped charging, and the real fun began.
