Japan Nite 2008 - San Francisco: Part 1

Friday, March 21, San Francisco, California -

I'll try not to make this too drawn out, but the Japan Nite concert was amazing. Lots of intense performances and a really eclectic mix of artists. Most importantly, I was introduced to my BRAND NEW SECOND-FAVORITE JAPANESE ACT OF ALL TIME. That's pretty impressive considering Puffy previously occupied the #1, #2 and #3 spots.

The night started with me picking up Tsuji Eriku, and Rangudon Argeru calling to tell us he wouldn't be able to make it, which guaranteed we'd have at least a little bit of fun.

The show took place in The Independent, a little club slightly smaller than Slim's, and with no chairs in which to sit. At a quarter to 9, the first band appeared and my life was changed forever. Well, let's not go that far, but I heard Tsuji mutter "Oh...my...god..." under his breath - and my new obsession was born: SCANDAL.

Remember, that's SCANDAL - all caps. And yes, that's them. And yes, the play in those outfits. And yes, I'm almost glad Craig wasn't there because we would've had to chain him to the floor. Oh yeah, they played music. Good music. Catchy pop-rock. And it was BADASS.


These ladies can REALLY play. Really. There was no looking at the strings, no missed chords/beats, and they played to the crowd and the cameras the whole time. It was quite exhilarating looking to the right and seeing one tiny schoolgirl ripping into a Nugent-esque solo, then looking to the left and seeing another tiny schoolgirl finger-picking her bass like Steve Harris from Iron Maiden. The bass player was my personal favorite, a fact I repeated to Tsuji about 200 times before he left me standing by myself. The lead singer (although all three guitarists covered lead vocals for certain songs) got the crowd pumped up by yelling, "Hello San Francisco! We are SCANDAL! LET'S ENJOY TOGETHER!!!!" I'm guessing that's Engrish for "Let's rock." And rock they did. I wasn't the only one who thought so. They had CDs/DVDs available for just $5 before their set. Seeing as foresight isn't one of my strong points, I waited to hear them play before I got one. Apparently everyone else had the same idea, because by the middle of the set the discs were all sold out, along with the large-size T-shirts. On the good side the girls immediately came out to sign autographs and I hovered around them while grinning like a giddy little...schoolgirl.

That was just the beginning. The rest of the night would see a lot of great performances, Tsuji falling madly in love, and both of us fearing for our lives while trying to get out of the city. I'll cover that in Part 2. But here is your assignment YODC'ers: spread the word of SCANDAL...but not TOO much; if they ever come back I don't want the venue to be so packed that I can't get to the front row.

Seriously, tell all your friends. You can get more information, pics and songs at their MySpace page: www.myspace.com/scandal4, and their website http://www.scandal-4.com/. Unfortunately, their music video and all their media is animated, which takes away the impact of seeing them play live. If they're in your area, you absolutely MUST see them perform. And tell everyone there that SOG liked them before they were cool. See you at Part 2. Until then, LET'S ENJOY TOGETHER!!!