old friends bookends

our friends 1976 were over in japan for summersonic festival and played on the island stage on sunday afternoon, but they got some poor luck with their 30 minute set being the only rain all afternoon! but still they sounded fantastic, and we all had a good dance in the rain. we have played with them a couple of times over in taipei, but it was nice to see them play in front of a Japanese crowd (although there seemed to be a lot of Taiwanese there...!)

a few days later we invited them to a gig in our regular home base NOB shibuya, where we had a big ol' reunion party. the evening began with a solo set by takashi hasegawa (yes, that Takashi, who was once a fellow icon girl pistol), which I think was the first time he has played in front of people since he left the band. he was followed by shinnosuke performing a quizmaster set - he opened solo with an unreleased acoustic track and then was joined by myself on bass and yusuke sato on drums for "その男、裏表アリ・That Man of Many Faces" and "祝祭の日・The Day of Festivity". It was my first time playing those songs since quizmaster went on hiatus a couple of years ago, and apparently yusuke hasnt touched the drums since then!
after that shinnosuke did a solo rendition of "和音・Harmony" and then finished by bringing up the "Great Buildings of Quizmaster" era band members - ss, kamikubo, junpei, kohei & daiki, for "地下社会生活者・A Life in Underworld" and "Come Come Together"

i thought it was bloooooody brilliant to see them playing together again.

after that - to everyone's overwhelming surprise - 1976 appeared to play a few songs! their set was great, everyone was jumping and going mad. i hope they enjoyed their first time in the nob; we were certainly delighted to have them there. and so icon girl pistols then closed things off with the following set:

違法なチケット - An Illegal Ticket

"スカイブルーのペンキ"[unreleased]

グッバイドーナツ自由の女神　- Goodbye Donuts (Hey, Statue of Liberty)

"正義の少年" [unreleased]

革命の仕組み - Structure of a Revolution

首輪 - Collar

ママ、僕の服はもう買わないで - Mama, Don't Buy My Clothes Anymore

DIY精神 - DIY Mentality

路上 - On The Road

車輪の下敷き - Crushed Beneath The Wheels

oh but of course it couldnt have all finished there, and so ss, kamikubo, daiki and a special guest on the drums played that old quizmaster favourite 「光の輪」

by that point everyone was partied to the very depths of their souls and even those of us with work in the a.m. found ourselves drinking past the last train. jeeeeezuz. still, made it to the weekend in one piece, and looking forward to 3 more gigs in the near future!

8/31 at ruby room, shibuya - icon on at about 10pm

9/2 at mona records, shimokitazawa

9/5 at yaneura, shibuya

oh! and i found a photo of shinnosuke's creepy radiohead t-shirt at the blacklight party: