Next day, having got on a train, a few subways, a monorail, an airplane, and a bus, I moved from Tokyo to a hotel located within the festival site in Osaka, World Trade Center Osaka, which is a vast exhibition site built on an artificial island on the Osaka Bay. DKT/MC5 were going to play at a well-known live venue called Zepp Osaka. Same as in Tokyo, Green Day was scheduled for almost at the same time at the WTC Open Air Stadium.
I could get in touch with Margaret before the show opened and could see them play from the right side of the stage.
The audience looked as young as the one in Tokyo, which was great. In general the Japanese young rock fans are interested in tracing back to old bands. While Japan is the second largest music market in the world following the U.S., the number of titles released in Japan is about 3 times as many as in the U.S., which means the listeners here have more diversified interest in music. In fact not only the independent record shops for connoisseurs but mass retailers like HMV and Tower Records have a good variety of the MC5 titles in the store including the various live compilation albums.
| I could focus on the sound more than the first show and saw how great the rhythm section was. That was something that made the DKT/MC5 sound so contemporary and sophisticated in the year 2004. It was also fantastic to see the twinkling eyes of young girls looking up the band in the front row. |
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Mr. Dando looked as unstable as on the first day, like Prince Hamlet pretending lunacy. It matched the dangerouness of the lyrics as he sang Looking At You, which was, to me, the most fabulous time in the second show.
| Before the festival was opened, the official website of DKT/MC5 had indicated "Special guest Dave Vanian" on their tour schedule, for both Tokyo and Osaka. Therefore, I put the news on my website and so, many fans expected he would join DKT/MC5 on stage as guest vocalist. In Tokyo, however, Dave didn't appear. But in Osaka, he came round to see their show around the end of the set, which seemed to be a nice surprise to the band as well. They shared "Tonight" for encore, which lifted the crowd to another level of enthusiasm. Later, someone posted on the messageboard; "I still cannot believe I saw MC5 no more than 3 yards from them. Dave Vanian of The Damned joined for encore and sang "Tonight" together. Even now I feel goose pimples rise as I think I was witnessing the founders of rock'n'roll history singing and playing right in front of me." |
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The set list in Osaka is as follows:
Ramblin' Rose
I Can Only Give You Everything
Sister Anne
Call Me Animal
Shakin' Street
Miss X
High School
Over And Over
Human Being Lawnmower
Looking At You
Teenage Lust
Kick Out The Jams
Rama Lama Fa Fa Fa
[ Encore ]
Tonight
American Ruse
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