Here I'm alive, everything all of the time

What is the experience of going to a Japanese concert? Hannah and Jasons and I booked it to the Osaka Municipal Gymnasium, or Osakashi Chuoh Taiikukan, on Thursday after school. Class ended at 430, the doors opened at 5 and the show started at 630. We walked into the venue around 645 and Modeselektor was in full swing. I parted from my friends because I accidentally bought a seated ticket instead of a standing ticket, but this turned out to be a really good mistake. I had a great view of the stage, and pretty close, on the left side. Hannah had bought her ticket from the states, so she was standing really close, and Jasons were pretty far back, but Jason's other friend was able to sneak them into some really good seats on the right side. While Modeselektor pumped out some crazy techno, I ruminated for a bit on the building and the crowd. In doing research for how to buy this concert ticket, I stumbled onto this website: http://www.hku.hk/mech/sbe/case_study/case/jap/Osaka_Gym/index.html, which explains a lot of the weird structural/architectural designs for the stadium. And I was really in awe at how cool the interior was. 

The crowd was so different than anyone I have seen yet in Kyoto. I actually wanted to be friends with most of the people I saw--both Japanese people and foreigners. This kind of judgement was based on clothes, hair, and piercings. It wasn't until going to Osaka that I realized some of Kyoto's biggest flaws. Kyoto is not hip, it's old and full of tourists. They really do seem like different cities. On the train in, Jason pointed out some of the huge skyscrapers and downtown areas, and I felt utterly overwhelmed in Osaka's big train station in ways I have never felt in Kyoto-eki. And they are far from each other! I still can't believe that Jason wakes up in Osaka and then spends all day in Kyoto. Every day. 

There is so much more I want to explore in Kyoto, but this trip made me also want to plunge into the depths of Osaka. Could it be, though, that Osaka and Kyoto are really just two neighborhoods within the greater Kansai area? And what of the train commute? All I really saw was trains: the way the Hankyu line went from Shijo/Karasuma in downtown Kyoto straight through to the big Osaka station, two subway transfers, and then arrival at the venue. Here's what Italo Calvino has to say about these two cities: 

"The catalogue of forms is endless: until every shape has found its city, new cities will continue to be born. When the forms exhaust their variety and come apart, the end of cities begins. In the last pages of the atlas there is an outpouring of networks without beginning or end, cities in the shape of Los Angeles, in the shape of Kyoto-Osaka, without shape."

And then....Radiohead came on. The concert was pretty much the same as a concert in the states. In the beginning, Thom Yorke said 'konban wa' instead of good evening, and every once in a while he tried to say 'arigato gozaimasu' but sort of butchered it. He mumbled some jokes throughout, which were enjoyable, all the more so because I knew that I was one of a very few people who understood them. The set design was the same as when I saw them at Outside Lands in August, and I realized this was the first time I had seen a band twice on the same tour. They played a lot of the same songs but also a lot of different ones. During the show, I thought a lot about the experience of being at Outside Lands, and how that experience was extremely emotional. This was just a great show. Here is the set (if you are interested):

Reckoner

Optimistic

There There

15 Step

All I Need

You and Whose Army?

Weird Fishes

The Gloaming

Videotape

Morning Bell

Faust Arp

No Surprises

Jigsaw Falling Into Place

Idioteque

The National Anthem

Nude

Bodysnatchers

1st Encore: Airbag

Knives Out

Just

Where I End and You Begin

Planet Telex

2nd encore: Fog

Karma Police

Everything in it's Right Place

wow!!!