John Locke
August 24th, 2003, 05:52 PM
Just here to vent about not having my camera with me yesterday when I came across a street festival/parade called "Super Yosakoi" in Omote-sando yesterday. That jumped right into my list of the top five live events I've ever seen.
The closest comparison I can come up with is the "Spectacle Spectacular" scene from Moulin Rouge, but performed with a Japanese traditional theme, and as a parade, and repeated about 15 times by different groups. Really amazing to see.
At the head of each group was a huge sound truck with mega speakers. On top of the truck was one or more singers (in some cases just a "yeller" who barked out a sort of rythmic chant). There were complete mixes also playing to back them up and these were old Japanese traditional music themes that had been modernized to sound more like a Broadway score or a movie soundtrack. All of them were extremely powerful and energetic.
Behind the music trucks were the dancers. Each group had anywhere from 50 to a couple of hundred dancers. They were all dressed in wildly colorful costumes...some looking very traditional while others looked like something from Broadway. They danced in unison, with synchronized yelling and singing. The dance was a mixture of modern and traditional Japanese dance and included using props like colorful fans, drums, and castanet-like things.
And then behind each group of dancers was the group's flag waver(s). These were huge silk flags...maybe 10 feet by 15 feet or larger...and painted with beautiful traditional silk-screen patterns. The flag wavers were all beefy guys...often trading out with a team...since they had to wildly wave the flags around the whole time (about two hours...and I mean "wildly" waving them). One group had five of these going at the same time...amazing to see.
This whole thing repeated about 15 times or so then ended at a park where they all performed again on a stage.
You can't imagine how much energy and color and movement there was going on constantly...it really was spectacular. The crowds that lined the streets also looked amazing. It was a hot day and everyone had fans to cool themselves. So, as far as you could see the streets were lined with flickering fans.
And where was my camera? At home, of course.
The closest comparison I can come up with is the "Spectacle Spectacular" scene from Moulin Rouge, but performed with a Japanese traditional theme, and as a parade, and repeated about 15 times by different groups. Really amazing to see.
At the head of each group was a huge sound truck with mega speakers. On top of the truck was one or more singers (in some cases just a "yeller" who barked out a sort of rythmic chant). There were complete mixes also playing to back them up and these were old Japanese traditional music themes that had been modernized to sound more like a Broadway score or a movie soundtrack. All of them were extremely powerful and energetic.
Behind the music trucks were the dancers. Each group had anywhere from 50 to a couple of hundred dancers. They were all dressed in wildly colorful costumes...some looking very traditional while others looked like something from Broadway. They danced in unison, with synchronized yelling and singing. The dance was a mixture of modern and traditional Japanese dance and included using props like colorful fans, drums, and castanet-like things.
And then behind each group of dancers was the group's flag waver(s). These were huge silk flags...maybe 10 feet by 15 feet or larger...and painted with beautiful traditional silk-screen patterns. The flag wavers were all beefy guys...often trading out with a team...since they had to wildly wave the flags around the whole time (about two hours...and I mean "wildly" waving them). One group had five of these going at the same time...amazing to see.
This whole thing repeated about 15 times or so then ended at a park where they all performed again on a stage.
You can't imagine how much energy and color and movement there was going on constantly...it really was spectacular. The crowds that lined the streets also looked amazing. It was a hot day and everyone had fans to cool themselves. So, as far as you could see the streets were lined with flickering fans.
And where was my camera? At home, of course.