Last night, Dan and I went to the much-anticipated Muse concert in Oracle Arena in Oakland. Muse is one of Dan’s favorite bands, and so when I heard that they were coming back in December, I immediately picked up a pair of tickets as a birthday gift for Dan. I’d also grown to become a fan, from listening to Dan’s music library, so I was pretty psyched to see them live too.
The stadium was packed and Muse put on an awesome show that did not disappoint! They sang all of their much-loved classics, such as Uprising, Resistance, Supermassive Black Hole, Unnatural Selection, and my personal favorite, Starlight. Their set was incredible, too! They had these massive skyscraper-like structures onstage that opened up to reveal them inside each at the start of the show, and they kept being lowered and lifted and spun atop them while all sorts of motion graphics and effects played on the sides of them. It was visually stunning; I’d never seen anything like it before.
Here’s a video of Muse performing Starlight last night. Amazing!
It was one of the best concerts I’ve ever been to, and I came out even more a fan than I was before! Definitely looking forward to seeing them live again sometime. 🙂
I’ve been following the case of missing Virginia Tech student Morgan Harrington since she disappeared in mid-October of last year. Her family and Virginia State Police had been searching tirelessly for her for the past three months since she disappeared in Charlottesville after attending a Metallica concert at the University of Virginia. Today, Virginia State Police have confirmed that the human remains found on a farm southwest of Charlottesville have been conclusively identified as Morgan Harrington’s.
Here is the report from a local televisions news network in Southwest Virginia. (Coincidentally, the anchor is Jay Warren, who was my senior year Broadcast Writing teacher.)
Although I didn’t know Morgan, I have a few friends back at Tech who knew her, and the fact that a student from my alma mater had mysteriously gone missing alarmed me. Not to mention, the story has been all over the media since the weekend of her disappearance.
It’s interesting to me that despite the fact that over 2,500 missing persons reports are filed daily within this country and few of them receive any attention from the media, the disappearance of Morgan Harrington shot straight from local news to national news within 48 hours. Was her connection to Virginia Tech, the place that many Americans still associate with the largest mass school shooting in US history, a factor in the story exploding onto national news? I definitely think it was one of the largest factors that came into play. As much as it hurts myself and many other members of the Virginia Tech community to be reminded of it, the university has been indelibly branded as a site of a major school shooting and national tragedy. As we have seen in the past two and a half years, the slightest bit of negative news that sparks in relation to Virginia Tech or Blacksburg will somehow make it to national headlines.
Robert Thompson, one of the country’s most-respected media experts told The Roanoke Times, “Part of this is when you think ‘Virginia Tech,’ it carries certain sacred overtones to the country. Not only do you have a young college student in danger, but when you attach the words ‘Virginia Tech’ … Virginia Tech is one of those sets of words like ‘9/11’ and ‘Oklahoma City.’ It means more than just the college name. The whole country has strong sympathy and empathy for the university. It’s still recent in their minds, the last big national story to happen there.
Whatever the reason that Morgan’s story received national coverage, it doesn’t change the fact that those who knew her have suffered an unimaginable loss. My heart goes out to them; I can’t even fathom the pain that her family and friends are going through at this time. It’s been an emotionally taxing search for the last few months, with the Virginia State Police receiving over 600 leads. It’s a heartbreaking reality that oftentimes our wishes and prayers for a happy ending do not get rewarded, but at least Morgan can finally be laid to rest and the community can reach some semblance of closure, however sad it may be. There are still many unanswered questions, however, and the possibility of this case being a homicide is strong (as the State Police are investigating it as one). We can only hope that there will be answers soon, and that justice will be served.
Last night, my sister and I went to watch UTADA in concert at The Fillmore in San Francisco.
I’ve been a longtime fan of Utada Hikaru since she first debuted at the end of 1998 with her single “Automatic.” I was a junior in high school and was in my final year of chuugakkou (middle school) in Japanese Saturday School, and I remember the whole class was buzzing about her as soon as she came on the scene. She was an instant hit in Japan, and I remember having her first album First Love on repeat for months — it was one of those albums in which pretty much every track was good, and it amazed me that this girl who was one month younger than me was writing and singing these songs. What talent! She continued to churn out hit after hit in the coming years. The Japanese drama-holic that I am, I came to associate a lot of her songs with the dramas they became theme songs for. First Love with Majo no Jouken, Can You Keep a Secret? with HERO, Sakura Drops with First Love, Flavor of Life with Hana Yori Dango 2, Prisoner of Love with Last Friends, and more recently, Eternally with Innocent Love. (All great songs paired with great, addictive dramas… although now that I look back on them, with the exception of HERO and Hana Yori Dango, they’re all pretty dark, depressing “forbidden love” type dramas. But I digress.)
Utada is one of the few Japanese artists out there who have the English language skills to make for viable success in the international market, since she grew up going back and forth between Japan and New York. Even before Utada set her sights overseas, she was starting to attract international audiences and fans. Unfortunately, her first major debut attempt in the US with the album EXODUS sort of bombed (in my personal opinion), and for a few years, she seemed to go back to focusing on her already-hugely-successful musical career in Japan. She came out with a second album early last year titled This is the One, which seems to show more promise.
This month marked the beginning of Utada’s first official American tour. So far, she’d performed in Honolulu, Los Angeles, and Seattle before coming to San Francisco. I went to the concert under the impression that she would probably be singing mostly if not all English songs as her set list, but I was pleasantly surprised to find that she sang almost half and half in terms of English songs vs. Japanese songs throughout the concert. I think she understood that much of the audience was of Asian background and that there were some fans who had come from Japan as well, and so she catered to the hopes that she’d sing some of Japanese classics. Among the songs she sang were Sakura Drops, Automatic, First Love, Stay Gold and Can You Keep a Secret?. We were able to meet up with my fun coworker Estella and her brother at the concert, and we nostalgically rocked out to some of our Utada favorites.
I couldn’t take any pictures or video footage because cameras were strictly forbidden at the concert, but my friend Vince found this clip that had been taken at the concert last night and sent it to me. It’s of First Love. (Thanks Vince!)
There are some more videos online (although not of the San Francisco performance) that showcase more clips from the rest of her set list. I think they’re from her concert at the House of Blues in LA on the 19th.
From here, Utada will go on to perform in Las Vegas, Chicago, Boston, and then to her hometown here in the States, New York City. I hope that the rest of her tour is a success and hope that she can continue to break into the US music industry — I’m excited to see what the future has in store for her. I’m happy that I finally got to see her live, and hearing her sing took me back to the starry-eyed high schooler I was ten years ago. I feel like digging up that dusty First Love album from my closet and once again putting it on repeat.
GLAY’s US Tour this year ended on Saturday, September 12 with their second night at the House of Blues. Two of my friends were at each of the LA shows (one the first night, the other the second) and they both told me they were awesome. It seems like the final concert was the craziest and most climatic, according to TERU’s blog post. Apparently, at the LA concerts, the audience was allowed to have cameras, so there are some good photos and video of the show out there. So jealous! I wonder why cameras were allowed at the House of Blues and not at The Fillmore… I wish I had been allowed to capture those moments on camera.
GLAY just posted a video to their MySpace, which they had shot just prior to their final show at the House of Blues on September 12th:
TERU writes in his blog about how much love he felt during this tour, and how they were happy to be able to come to see so many of their fans who don’t have the opportunity to go see them live in Japan. One thing he expressed regret about, though, was the fact that none of the three shows sold out. Apparently The Fillmore had been about 80% full, and House of Blues at about 90% both nights — so close, and yet not quite enough of an audience to pack the house. I think that the fact that the show was on a week night in San Francisco (Wednesday night) is partially to blame…. TERU writes that it was tough to be confronted with the reality that, after just having performed at a sold-out concert in front of 140,000 at Nissan Stadium two weeks prior, they could not even reach 1,000 attendees at any of their US shows. But he accepts that it is a reality, and that it reminds him of the days when they had just debuted fifteen years ago and were trying desperately to sell out their first concerts at Shibuya Public Hall. In that sense, he was reminded of their starting point and how there are still challenges that they want to continue to tackle as they move forward, towards a worldwide stage. Unfortunately, I think there is a huge obstacle for Japanese artists to garner attention and a substantial fan base (outside of the typical anime otaku crowd) because of the language barrier, and the fact that the lyrics just cannot be understood. (Whereas English-speaking musicians stand a better chance, since English is a more commonly accepted universal language.) Still, despite the fact that these GLAY concerts attract hundreds of members of the local Japanese American communities, there’s also a substantial number of non-Japanese fans that can be seen at their shows as well. It’s not an impossible dream for them, just a difficult one that will not come very easy…. Although the lyrics may not be understood (which is a pity, since TAKURO always writes such poetic songs), the music itself is so good that it can even stand alone and win an international audience. There just needs to be an extra push — more aggressive promotion and perhaps a street team (which I would happily head up!) — and they will be able to sell out their international concerts, no problem. I hope that they won’t let this get them down and that they’ll continue to return to slowly but surely expand their audience beyond Japan.
Just came back from seeing GLAY live tonight, and they were absolutely amazing! I’d even say they were better than last year, but maybe that was because I was closer to the stage this time, and they played more of their older songs that I’m familiar with rather than all the new ones they played off of their VERB album. The concert was held at The Fillmore, just like last year, and Miwa and I got there just an hour before the show. They had opened the doors earlier than they had last year, so although I’d been expecting to take my place at the back of a six-block-long line, we were able to get in right away. We even had time to go buy some merchandise (they were selling GLAY 2009 Tour t-shirts) before claiming our spot, standing pretty close to the stage (only about 15 feet away!).
GLAY rocked The Fillmore as hard as they rock Tokyo Dome, even though the venue was 100 times smaller. They went through several of their famous numbers, including Yuuwaku, GLOBAL COMMUNICATION, VERB, More Than Love, Survival, Starless Night, among others… and of course my favorite, HOWEVER. Miwa and I were jumping, screaming and fist-pumping the whole way through, along with our friend Jason, whom we ran into, and his friend and two random older Japanese ladies who came all the way from Japan to see GLAY perform up close. At one point, TERU saw us and smiled and pointed at us, which was the highlight of the entire concert for all of us… haha* We were exhausted and sore afterwards, but it was so much fun! Their encore song was I’m In Love, which set a great tone for the end of the concert. At the end of the concert, TERU promised again that they’d be back — he made the same promise last year and lo and behold, they kept their word so we’re hoping they’ll be back in San Francisco again soon! In the meantime, I wish them the best on the rest of their short but much-anticipated tour in the U.S., which will be two performances at the House of Blues down in Los Angeles this Friday and Saturday. I love that GLAY performs so well live and always puts forth their best for their adoring fans, whether the audience is as massive as in Japan or as humble as the crowd that still managed to pack the Fillmore tonight.
GLAY released a best album earlier this summer, entitled The Great Vacation ~ Super Best Of GLAY, and spread out over two volumes (3 discs each). It includes most of their big hits over the past 15 years that they made their major debut. You can get a preview of it here.
UPDATE:
Last night’s show got some press in the SF Weekly. (Read the article)
TERU wrote about the San Francisco concert at his blog, TERU ME NIGHT. (Read the blog post)
