2016 October 07 at The Ritz, San Jose CAI wish you could have been me. It'd be so much easier than trying to explain.
Not really the ticket, I just like Risa's hairTook me awhile to get this done, regrets.
Firstly, I did much better with the setlist. While everybody else was applauding and
cheering the band's exit, one young opportunist pounced on Naoko's sheet *but*
was pleased to stop and let me photograph it.
| 01 | POP | POP | | 09 | Whatever | Whatever |
| 02 | バービー | BARBIE | | 10 | ゴースト | GHOST |
| 03 | バイソン | BISON | | 11 | LOOP | LOOP |
| 04 | JUMP | JUMP | | 12 | BBQ | BBQ |
| 05 | カラバ | KARABA | | 13 | BLS | BLS |
| 06 | タンジェリン | TANGERINE | | 14 | コンクリ | CONCRETE |
| 07 | わさび | Wasabi | | 15 | ロケット | ROCKET |
| 08 | カピ | KAPI | | 16 | キティ | KITTY |
Or in other words,
- Pop Tune
- Twist Barbie
- Bear Up Bison
- Jump into the New World
- Calabash
- Green Tangerine
- Wasabi
- Capybara
- Whatever
- Ghost Train
- Loop di Loop
- BBQ Party
- Bad Luck Song
- Concrete Animals
- Riding on the Rocket
- Giant Kitty
- EN1: Banana Chips
- EN2: Buttercup (I'm A Super Girl)
setlist.fm/setlist/shonen-knife/2016/the-ritz-san-jose-ca-5bfd13b4.html〜〜〜〜〜
WHAT THE BAND THOUGHTFrom NaokoOct. 7th The Ritz, San Jose
2016/10/08 (Sat)
shonenknife.net/blog/archives/20639We ‘ROCK’ed with so many audience.
Moshing was happening at the encore.
Thank you so much for coming to our show! No need for scare quotes, they really, really rocked.
From struggling cinema to decent nightclub – SK blog photo
Raised dance floor, but does the PA really support it? – SK blog photoThe entourage made the 1-hour drive from San Francisco to San Jose at night
after the DNA show — one reason they did not stick around to meet and greet
or sign trinkets in SF.
San Jose is a much cheaper place to get rooms for 6 people.
They timed their lunch all wrong — Japantown restaurants close from 2–5pm,
because they're a 25-min hike from the University and the shops in the city center.
The club was quite full, people packed the dance floor. Friday night in a college town
with exams still a way off — there was a healthy proportion of people in their twenties,
including lots of women, as in San Francisco. They went nuts during the finale.
From AtsukoOct 7th San Jose, @the Ritz
2016/10/10 (Mon)
shonenknife.net/blog/archives/20652We went to Japan town for having lunch. But all Japanease restaurants
were closed after 3pm. I bought lunch box at the market and ate there.Atsuko was let down by SJ's Japantown, but impressed with the venue.
I felt the same.
Friday, mid-afternoon, dead as a doornail – SK blog photoIf you're wondering how Atsuko could be datelined Monday while writing on a Sunday,
it's because the SK blog is hosted in Japan and everything is logged according to JST.
Let's do our best again today!She's a machine! A machine in need of regular maintenance.
twitter.com/ShonenKnifeRisa/status/785918084204724224Blog updated! October 7, San Jose! Risa's view of the room from the throne.
From Risa October 7, San Jose!
2016/10/12 (Wed)
shonenknife.net/blog/archives/20759It was live in San Jose on October 7th.
I had Tempura-Don Bento for lunch. I love tempura!Cold tempura from the Japanese grocer. Risa went out to a
street fair and mingled; bought a clothing article, then returned
to flatten the crowd.
〜〜〜〜〜
WHAT I THOUGHTMy first time at The Ritz, a nice place for a show this size. Big enough, clean, simple, good.
Zero big-city grime and degradation.
The stage is about desk height and not deep. No railing, no setback, so you're right there
with them. If the band comes to the front, you can read the time off their wristwatches.
I hoofed it over to J-town beforehand, unintentionally recreating the Overdrive Tour at dinner.
No green tangerines, even though it's the seasonIt was a long wait, so I parked my butt against the stage and got acquainted with a couple of the diehards.
Nice guys with solid Japan connections, and each with a Shonen Knife shirt he had custom-made from scratch.
I've dismissed that thought many times. They actually did it.
The opener was Eric Victorino, solo. Eric is famous in these parts as a manic-
depressive poet and somewhat twisted lyricist/vocalist for The Limousines.
Morbid Wild-West Victoriana is a San Francisco Bay Area specialityHe came with his fog machine and proceeded to blend EDM with angsty 1980s blue-eyed soul.
So, choking glycerin mist and robotic backing tracks against a heartwrenching tenor.
Even the people who wanted to dance had to stand rooted and listen. He was much appreciated.
Probably as little like the headliners as most anything in this world.
〜〜〜〜〜
After another wait, Shonen Knife ambled on stage from over by the toilets with no fanfare
and at first no notice.
Hi, we're here now. They must have flown the muffler towels,
but I don't even remember it.
Four bars, then four, then two, then four, then four. 4–4–2–4–4. 4–4–2–4–4.
Another show, but tours always get shorter as you go along. At arm's length from the talent, you can almost hear their thoughts as each member gets ready
to play her own gig. Naoko is winding up for the 1,000 and nth time, and in less than 24 hours
she'll be at the very same point in show number {1,000 + (n+1)}.
Atsuko is running over a mental memorandum, and Risa isn't burdened by history. She's single-mindedly
strapping in for launch: get the stool right, get the feet right, get the reach right, get the sticks right,
get the mic right, all for the first bars of the fourth US show of her life.
Then on cue, they start doing what they came for. By the first chorus of "Twist Barbie" the band is flying.
Light Guy used a lot of white, which makes supernovas of the sparkle suits and a glistening waterfall
out of flipping hair. Plenty of people are seeing this for the first time.
This Shonen Knife isn't the airtight unit of 2014. It doesn't make the difference you might think.
Their relationship with the audience rules everything. They come at you with that modest but determined
Japanese show of good will, and if they get anything at all back from the crowd, the party is on.
Risa goes into a religious ecstasy. She also looks every person in the room straight in the eyes, like a laser.
For such a loud drummer, she's got a lot of taste. I guess she's of the John Bonham School, sort of.
She's never boring, never fancy, and every shot counts. A darker, rounder, thuddier sound than anything
before her, and those elbows are often up high like wings. She likes tribal tom-tom beats, and to conclude
a thought with both fists at once,
HUGE FLAM!!! An all-out rock tune with her is one emphatic climax after another, after another, after another.
The back muscles are moving the arms – at the CasbahAnticipation, satisfaction, determination, hope and joy? See aboveI met an Emi supporter who had reservations about anyone or anything following
Emi-chan. I sympathize. Time is the cure. 4/4 time spent with Risa.
At DNA the night before, Naoko had hinted that San Jose could be something special.
It turned out that this meant a show more like what they might do at home in Japan.
There was more crowd reaction every minute. The second half kept building and building
till it became a sort of blur. Barely a breath between songs.
It got blurry earlier, too. I wasn't trying to do spirit photography. I'll never be that guy zealously snapping away at any rock show I paid to get in.
"You are a good audience," Naoko said — like a judicious professional opinion.
We got the Good Audience treat, a rare double encore. During that time, you could
only see gleaming Yamano heads and shoulders above a white forest of hands.
Where oh where are *those* photos? I don't know, I was actually holding up one
photographer who would have gone over backwards otherwise.
Naoko lunged a little too much with her Daisy Rock and gave me a good thump on
the knuckles with the headstock. Atsuko was high-fiving everyone she could reach.
Never mind surfing, you could have walked across the audience in snowshoes.
Then it was over and off they went, and off we went.
No meet, no greet, no signings. Getting to be the rule on this tour? Naoko said the West Coast
is brutal because of the road mileage between gigs, but the band hopped a jet to Portland.
My CD copy of
Adventure has kept me company for a couple dozen hours in my pocket.
I may just leave it there always, because on any given day the chances of getting
an autograph are about equal.
I still have my store-bought mementoesBeing so near and yet so far makes some fans lose their manners. I got a Naoko-like taste of how
demanding some of us can be. The pushing and accosting is bad form, people. Also, it irritates the
MC when you scream out irrelevant wishes for the setlist over and over. You can call the tune when
you yourself are paying the piper, know what I mean?
A whole lot of people came away euphoric. I hope the guy I met in the restaurant went with his
friends, although I was sure they wouldn't. Not because I didn't urge him.
On the long walk back to the car I was thinking, why is there this faint aroma of ramen?
It's because my tour shirt was soaked, and sweat is blood plasma after all. Oh well.
I was just getting used to going to a Shonen Knife show EVERY DAY.
It's even better for you than tennis.
