Those who remember the イライラ棒 (Steady Hand in english) craze that swept Japan will rejoice with this flash,

イライラ棒

After recovering from the overload of Rock at the Rock Odyssey, I was finally able to digest what I had seen and make some opnions on it. Whenever I make fun of rap, or hip hop, I make fun of the theater, the atmosphere that comes with it, the "What up dawg" stuff, I always think, "they can't be serious..." I always say that rock is real music but after watching many rock bands at the Rock Odyssey I was reminded that rock can be pretty overdone and quite frankly, stupid. I was reminded that rock also has the "they can't be serious..." element. The theater and the atmosphere in rock (I cant believe Im saying this) can be as bad as the ones in hip hop. The following points support this...



Three Things I hate about ROCK

1. The 20 minute guitar solos
When the guitar solos go on forever and seem to never end. Please! I've had enough! We know you're good at the guitar, get on with the song!

2. The Rock n Roll Preachers
When rock singers start to preach about peace and equality among all human beings etc. I hear enough lectures from my parents and teachers, I payed money to listen to music, not a sermon.

3. The mutliple endings
When the song winds down but then starts again, and then almost ends, and then starts again and again and again. ENOUGH! next song!

I guess every genre can be overdone...

Anyone get what I'm saying or am I just rambling...again...?

(I snuck in a camera and managed to get a couple of good shots)


I just attended The Rock Odyssey 2004 with Takuma. It was a 10 hour concert with a line up that included:

Love Psychedelico
A Japanese band with a vocalist who has lived in the states and speaks perfect english. I felt sorry for them because when they started playing a lot of the seats were still empty. Nevertheless their set was still great, showing us that they have the ability to rock out even though their records are pretty laid back.

Josh Todd
The former vocalist of Buckcherry who has gone solo. Very heavy dark rock stuff. I was actually presently suprised by their set. Unlike a lot of heavy dark rock bands, Josh Todd could keep a tune and had amazing control over his voice. Very good stuff, I think I'm a fan now.

Michelle Branch
I'm not a very big fan of Michelle Branch. She does have a few catchy songs and I do respect her more than similair artists such as Avril Lavigne, Mandy Moore, etc. But my one big question was, what was she doing at the ROCK Odyssey? I think a lot of people agreed with me because as soon as she came out, everyone sat down. It actually gave us a break from the heavy rock sounds which made your chest vibrate.

ウルフルズ
A pretty famous Japanese band who I'm sorry to say I don't know much. Although their musicianship was not up to par when compared to some of the other artists, I did respect them for their ability to get the crowd going. That's one thing I've noticed with many Japanese bands is that they know how to talk to an audience. They did a great job, got some good laughs and performed some songs with pretty funny lyrics. One memorable song was sung entirely in "Kansai-ben".

Paul Weller
Could someone tell me if you know him?? Who is this guy??! I literally fell asleep during his set. No joke. I nodded off.

The Who
Although they were not the main event of the show I have to say they rocked harder than Aerosmith. They were amazing.
They played their classics, "My Generation", "Pinball Wizard", "Baba O'riley (Teenage Wasteland)" and many more. As proof that times passes, now there are only two members of The Who left. But on the night they were backed up by four other musicians who brought the house down. The drummer was amazing...

Aerosmith
Aaaaa...the main event. I actually saw Aerosmith earlier this summer and I thought it was a pretty mediocre concert, in the exact words of Jon its was, "Bimyou man...". This time around it wasn't any different. I do admit that being closer to the stage this time I enjoyed it more but I still enjoyed The Who a lot more. Aerosmith played a lot of their classics such as, "Walk This Way", "Cryin'', "Sweet Emotion", "Livin' On the Edge", but they managed to mix it in with their newer singles such as "Jaded" and "Road Runner".


At the end of Aerosmith's Encore, confetti started to pour down filling the stadium with Aerosmith logo shaped pieces of paper, the crowd went wild.

Although I was a zombie by the end of the show, it was an amazing experience to be able to see so many big names at one event. The entire show truely ROCKED which made the gig worthy of such a pretentious name as Rock Odyssey.