Summer Sonic 2006 - AKA the best day of my life. Seriously!

So like I always planned when I bought the tix, I would arrive early, so in case I got lost I would have spare time. I didn`t get lost so didn`t really need the extra time. When I arrived to the venue I looked for and found the place to buy my wristbands (OMG the Japanese phrase "... wa doko desu ka?" is the BEST phrase when new to an area!). I walked straight to the open air stage where all the rock/metal bands would be playing for the day, with ORIGINAL plans to hop around to go see Kururi for my coworker Miki (which I didn`t, sorry Miki). After getting to the Open Air Stage, I was able to pretty much walk straight up to the front of the stage with only a few people at the time, with only about 10 others at the time, and the first band was going on in 20 minutes! I sat and listened to my ipod the whole time until we got word the band was about to start, and those 10 people turned to hundreds in my music listening hypnosis, oh well I was in front! So todays lineup goes as shows, I will have impressions of each one:

Hawthorne Heights - Stone Sour - Taking Back Sunday - Avenged Sevenfold - Zebrahead - Hoobastank - Deftones - Metallica (who I need to only watch 40 minutes of, to try to get good seats for Daft Punk, the whole reason I was here)

Hawthorne Heights - Now I was under the impression they were a pure pop punk band, but DAMN did they put on a good show. Now I am only familiar with the chorus to one of their singles, but the crowd was into it, so I got into the show. Minor mosh pits formed, but nothing too violent. ***(WILL EXPLAIN A JAPANESE MOSHPIT AT THE END OF THIS!)*** After an hour their show was over, and I was glad I saw them, I may have to check out their music more, once my laptop is up and running again. Next up Stone Sour.

Stone Sour - Now I LOVE Slipnot and was told Stone Sour was a softer Slipnot (lead singer of Slipnot and Stone Sour are one and the same), and I heard the first single "Bother" and never bothered to listen to them again. BIG MISTAKE. They kicked ass and the moshpits proved it. Corey WORKED the crowd into a frenzy and a HEAVY moshpit started everywhere in the front (the front stage seats were seperated into 2 areas, each with their own 2 areas. So 2 areas seperated with a place in the middle for the artists to run down and yell at and with the fans, and on each side two areas seperated by a gate that ends halfway up the gated front section) sections. The pits were kinda behind me, but I did get crushed against the gate and elbowed a few times, no visible damage. After this show I was worked up, and ready to check out Stone Sour's albums, and was ready for more bad assness from the show.

Taking Back Sunday - Now I am worked up OK. A decently hard show, then a HARDCORE show, Taking Back Sunday just HAD to kick some ass, but didn't. Now maybe because their music isn't my style, but I just wasn't into it too much. Plus the lead single was a little too fem for me,PLUS, and this is personal, he ripped off Cedric from At the Drive In/Mars Volta's stage antics, with the way he danced on stage like James Brown, and whipped the mic around his neck and spinning it in the air to catch it at the right part, bad news in my eyes! The ONLY saving grace for this band came when their bass guitar broke after a song. During the time they spent waiting for it to be fixed, the lead singer did his own rendition of Jay-Z's Big Pimpin, one of my fav Jay-Z songs ever! I gained respect for them RIGHT there! Even if they will never do that again, it was awesome to probably just me. Everyone in the crowd thought he was probably just talking, since there really was no music playing, and it took one verse for me to recognize it, but then I felt like a dumb blonde when I realized what it was!

Avenged Sevenfold - If Stone Sour kicked ass, AS kicked it, then punched it. They brought SOOOO much energy (and many more people to the front of the stage and this is when I got pushed into the first moshpit, my first moshpit, of the day). They did their songs while the lead singer did his best to rile people up. In between a song he shouted they were a band from Orange County California (Huntington Beach to be exact) and then was the moment I yelled and shouted, and NO ONE ELSE did. Oh well, they don't know better! Then they did a Pantera cover and the place about lost their damn minds! Now if you know me, I usually only like newer music, and only people I was fans of when younger, will get a listen from me with their new music. But I couldnt help but rejoin the mosh and lose my mind. A good time indeed. Covered in my sweat and other people's I was ready for more, and boy was I NOT prepared for this...

Zebrahead - Now I have heard of them, but never heard a millisecond of any of their songs, but coworker Miki said they were good and from Canada I think, so I expected a few fans. Now honestly, minus what i saw for Metallica, this band brought the biggest crowd to the front. When they started, they went right into a heavy song, and the lead singer INCITED people to go crazy! I got shoved into another pit while I had some guy on my shoulders (which I dont remember him getting up there, plus whenever anyone would get one someone shoulders SOMEONE else would shove the person carrying and they would crash into a pit OR on the ground, casuing laughter from me) and it was on! For their whole set myself and hundreds of people in a 50 foot by 50 foot area lost or goddamn minds! They HARDLY took breaks to talk in between songs, and when they did their guitarists would spout the dirty Japanese he knew, causing the crowd to go nuts (well the men and some women) then BAM, new song, MORE crazyness! After an hour of this the set was over and I was physically and mentally tired from all of that. I decided it was finally time to eat for the first time and get more to drink (in between each set I would grab 2 waters or 2 calpicos). Mind you at this time it was 3:35 in the afternoon, and I was JUST eating my first (and only...) meal of the day. Next up was Hoobastank, who I had no interest in going into this, so their performance was spent with me eating from afar, watching them, then these 2 guys practicing Capoeira!

Capoeira - Really cool fighting style from Jamaica/Brazil using rhythm, flips and kicks to beat people's ass, and REALLY cool to watch. There was a really tall (later saw he was about my height, but he looked a lot taller) white guy and a short Japanese dude practicing it, IN the gravel filled dirt of the food section. I WISH I thought to grab my camera, because as soon as the thought crossed my mind it was over. An awesome part was some Brazilian dude who just got there with his other friends (lots of Brazilians in Japan who work in the car factories)jumps in and just ABSOLUTELY OWNS these guys with the Capoeira he knows. He was fast and doing some HIGH ass flips and spins and I was just amazed. This ended the litle Capoeira show as the other 2 were a bit too embarassed to continue after the Brazilian dude shcooled them! I talked with them later and told them how good they were and the tall white dude said he was teaching his Japanese friend until the Brazilian dude walked in and "owned them" (his words, not mine, even though I used the same words to describe the humiliations). I c\told the Japanese guy he was good too even though he was learning and was shocked to see he didn't know English, which meant his friend had to be fluent in Japanese or close to it, so I commended him in what Japanese I knew, and then he smiled and thanked me. Oh well Hoobastank is about done (after a cool moment where the lead singer who is half Japanese brought out his grandma who was born in Japan and was at the show with him and I guess it was her last time coming back to Japan), and time for some DEFTONES!

Deftones - When I told a friend I was looking forward tot heir show, his words were "Dude, I have heard Deftones live, and they SUCK!". That must have been a bad night. They started the show with "Hexagram" which is pretty high energy and everyone went MAD. This show had probably 40 people less than Zebrahead, so it was packed. It got worst when Chino jumped onto the gate facing the square I had been in all day. When I saw this I ran and jumped on top of a few people for a chance to high 5 him, which I did, coo! Anyway they did lots more high energy songs, and brought it down with "Change (In the House of Flys)", which was awesome because it started to POUR down raining, which was just perfect timing for that song! After a song or two more of high energy and more moshing it was over, and headliners Metallica were up to bat.

Metallica - Now I KNEW I came to see Daft Punk, but a chance to see Metallica live before any of them die (they are getting older ya know!) I was sooo pumped for this moment. But, I knew I couldn't be up front and get to the exit in time to run to the stage to see Daft Punk. So I went ALL the way to the back where I could see the big screen. Now it was show time and they weren't on yet. I was nervouse because I wanted to see 3 - 4 songs and JAM, but here they are 15 minutes late and nothing. So I head for the exit hoping to find a place small enough for just my body to see the strage and I was told I was too far into the exit to stay there. My mind began to race at what to do, say F it and leave, or go back in and sit for 15 minutes to see maybe one song if they ever came out. My mind said F it and I headed out. I get down half a block and hear the voice of thousands of people cheering and Metallica goes RIGHT INTO "Fuel", no intros needed. Oh well I heard them at least, and when I got to the stage where Daft Punk was, there was a jumbo tron showing their show from the same angle as the big screen I was in front of earlier. So I stayed and watched 2 songs and saw the exact area I was standing at so many times on camera (because I saw the same 4 Marine guys who were all assholes to the people around them, damn I hate their attitude, now I know why Japan hates the US's military bases in their country). Anyways into the Mountain Stage to see Daft Punk.

Daft Punk - The moment I waited my whole life for was about 50 minutes from starting and I enter a big empty building with thousands of people in it listening to The Charlatans. I do not like The Charlatans now, and din't before, not my style. I saw a bunch of people fighting their way through the crowd to get to the front and I decided to follow so I can be ready for Daft Punk. I got about halfway from the entrance from the front of the stage and all 4 of us hit a wall of people and had to sit through the death of 4 more songs from The Charlatans, the pain should be felt as you read this. When the show ended, myself and the 3 people I followed fought our way forward and got about 150 feet from the stage, arm to arm with everyone else wanting to see Daft Punk, this wasnt gonna do, NOT AT ALL! I saw the security letting people in behind and to my left so I ran over and got in with them. For some reason this was in frot of what I thought was the front gate and I got a pretty decent distance from the stage (maybe 20 feet or so). They were playing some band's music that had a house type feel to the beat but the guy sang like Depech Mode or something similar, and everytime a song would end and a new song would start, EVERYONE would cheer thinking it was Daft Puk, then stop when we heard the guys voice again (I wish I knew who they were because their music was really good!). Finally THE moment arrived after what seemed like forever. It started with the alien music from Close Encounters of the Third Kind (wow as I type this I seriously just got chills thinking about this moment, seriously this is exactly what I wanted to be doing, seeing Daft Punk live) and again I was the only one to cheer, because I knew that band wouldn't use that theme for a song, and I KNEW Daft Punk would, and what did you know, the curtains opened to show the dynamic duo (learn your stuff to roll with me please. Daft Punk is 2 DJs from Paris France who always wanted to make a punk music, and when they tried to get their first record deal, the agent said their music was too "Daft" for "Punk", hence the name Daft Punk. Their names are Thomas Banghalter and Guy-Manuel de Homen-Christo. Know this MAN!) dressed in their ROBOT SUITS!!! The latest album which honestly isnt THAT great compare to their first 2 albums, and not just me thought so, it didn't last long on the charts like their other albums, is called Human After All, and their theme is for them to be robots, realizing they act more human than they were built to be like. So yes the WHOLE show they were in their robot suits, which was absolutely insane to see! After the CEOTTK theme ended the beat from Technologic came in slightly, with the words for it getting louder and louder (and the screen in the back getting brighter and brighter with the words from the song, ALL in synch!!!). Now the cool part of this was, Busta Rhymes, the rapper, recently used, well the producer Swizz Beatz did, parts of the chorus with the SAME voice from his recent single "Touch It". Now Daft Punk just floored me when they would sneak in the beat from the Busta Rhymes song and chorus in with their song. It was just beautiful. It would go from this total Euro house beat to a rap beat, then back, over and over, maybe like 1 minute of each. Now what was awesome and bad for my heart at the same time, after every few songs, their cool ass stage and lighted scren in the back would go off and the music would stop and I thought it was over, since they clapped. Then they would go back to work on the turntables and EVERY song started off at like 1/1000 of the pace, and speed up maybe 50 points every 10 seconds, causing this "What the hell is this! Oh Hey it sounds kinda cool! OH SHIT THIS IS "ROBOT ROCK"/"ONE MORE TIME"/"AROUND THE WORLD" moment with everyone. Now what was cool, each "section of music had about 3 songs in it, different songs from all of their albums, played seperately, then at the end you would hear some part of EVERY song at ONCE!!! These guys are house music GENUISES! The rest of the night just went on awesome with more of the same then the finale which was just BAD ASS effects and probably their best 4 songs (one from each album, 2 from 1 album) mixed in one (Around the World/One More Time/Prime Time of Your Life/Human After All). This had THE coolest effects, some amazing bass and just AWESOME energy from them and the fans. Often time THEY would stop spinning and just bob their heads in unison to their own music, or pump their fists. The people in my area were probably the coolest. Many times I would get grabbed and we would start jumping or singing what songs had words to them, but the music brought us all together (2 Brazilian guys, 3 Japanese guys, and 4 Japanese girls)even though we probably couldn't ALL communicate on the street. When the show ended I couldn't stop saying "WOW" out loud and as I exited I grabbed the ipod, put it to artists, Daft Punk (which has about 95% of every song they have released, some songs I just don't like) and I eventually made it to my hotel after a tram, a subway, a train, then walking! Perfect ending to a perfect Obon vacation. Depending on who is going next year, I am SOO going to Summer Sonic again, but next time I wanna go with friends. Going to amusement parks and things like this alone sucks, especially when you can't just strike up a conversation with anyone you want. So here is to next year going with friends AND learning some more Japanese!

On to the pics of the SHOW and OSAKA station area!