Japan Tour

Acknowledgement

Art critics had evaluated her work appropriately, but many people don't consider her as an artist. Her work with John gives many people a chance to appreciate her art. However, most people thought that they didn't understand her "music" in which she screams all the time, and that they couldn't put up with that kind of "music." Up until now, this evaluation hasn't been changed. But the two concerts in Tokyo indicated that such a change is possible.

The two concerts in Tokyo were at Shibuya Quattro and Akasaka Blitz.

Quattro had been closed for renovation. The 1st Yoko and IMA show in Japan was the inaugural event for the reopened club. Quattro has no seating and accommodates about 500. It was fully packed before the show. I expected that most of the audience would be Beatles fans, since only a few people admire/keep track of Yoko's art. However, that speculation was wrong. It turned out that lining the front row were young girls, teenagers and 20-somethings, who must have hardly ever known Yoko as a musician.

Akasaka Blitz is a new club built next to TV network TBS in Tokyo, which recently built a new building. The capacity of the club is 1900 with no seating/tables. (The concert was co-sponsored by TBS and TOKYO FM.) At Yoko's show, there were seats on 1/3 of the 1st floor and all of the 2nd floor. It seemed that there were about 1000 people at the show. Akasaka is a so-called business district. Therefore, there seemed to be many many "businessman" at the show partly because it was on a weekday.

Since the 2 shows were almost the same, I review the Quattro show mainly, and add some comments about the Blitz show at the end.

For writing this review, I thank a cameraman from Nikkan Sports (The Daily Sports), who kindly showed me the set list which was distributed to the press.

June 22nd, Live at Club Quattro (Tokyo, Shibuya)

• Sean Ono Lennon (Guitar, Keyboards, Saw, Backing vo.)
• Timo Ellis (Drums)
• Andrew Weiss (Bass)

Then, Yoko appeared on the stage, wearing a white shirt for bowling (just like the one which a professional bowler wears) and black pants. She was responding to the audience by waving her hand. After a short greeting, she started.

1. Turned The Corner

This song is from the RISING, which is the 1st new album in 10 years. Nothing has been changed in her free-style screaming (Wooowa) for 20 years. An average band would be overwhelmed by her vocals, but IMA's play was as powerful as Yoko's play. Sean was using a red Guild guitar. The amplifier was Sunn Beta Load. When he came to his solo part, he showed gutsy guitar play as if he was Jimi Hendrix, kneeling down in front of the effects pedals on the stage.

2. I'm Dying

Again, this is from the RISING album. Sean played guitar so aggressively that he broke the 1st string.

3. Kurushi

Introducing this song as "this is a song for a girl who died suffering from pain," with Sean's count Yoko started singing the song. Sean switched to keyboard. This song is inspired by a story of a girl who was sick and had been trying to make 1000 paper cranes, but died before she accomplished the goal.

4. Will I

This song is from RISING. It is a quite number with Yoko's poetry reading. She read "if I were ...." Sean played saw with a bow for either cello or violin.

5. Wouldnit

A lovely number from RISING, whose theme is "wouldn't it be nice to become ---?" Before starting it, Yoko took off the white shirt and changed into a black tank top. At the interlude, she danced too.

6. Are You Looking

Seems like a new song. Yoko was dancing as if she was doing a pantomime, climbing up and swimming ahead.

7. Rising

The title track of the new album. It is a message song for rising up. With all her heart, she talked in Japanese about the people who survived the war. She seemed to try to revive the anger towards the war, about which most Japanese have forgotten these days. (At the Quattro, unfortunately it was difficult to hear what she was saying because of the PA system.) Sean switched back to playing guitar. He broke the guitar string again, which had been just fixed by a crew member. But he didn't care and continued to play. Yoko sung a part of Rising in Japanese, saying "Tachiagarouyo" and raised her fist. The song was over. With a big hand from the audience, Yoko and IMA left the stage.

Encore.1. How Do You Feel

Yoko and IMA came back to the stage. Yoko asked the audience in both Japanese and English "how do you feel? Donna kanji?", and then started singing. Again it seems to be a new song.

Encore.2. Like The Wind

She introduced this songs saying that "this is the 1st "Ono-Lennon" number which Sean and I composed after beginning this long, long tour." It is somehow a peaceful beautiful song.

June 25th, Live at Akasaka Blitz (Tokyo, Akasaka)

Blitz is much larger than the Quattro, so that the sound was not as tight as in the Quattro. But, the PA mixing of Yoko's vocal was much better than at the Quattro, which made it very easy to listen to the poetry reading part of `Rising'.

Instead of "How do you feel" which was played at the 1st encore at Quattro, they played "Mind Train" from Yoko's album "Fly" in '71. Sean played guitar to express the sound of a steam whistle of a locomotive. At the beginning, only Yoko was singing, but Sean joined with her imitating her vocal style. Yoko took a glance at him and smiled with a bit of hesitation. Then they took solos in turn.

Of course, being accepted does not mean that it is going to be a big hit, since her music has never become main stream. Her music is more aggressive and reveals her emotional aspect directly, which had always been considered as just a screaming to music, so her music was never evaluated appropriately. On the contrary, there were many youngsters at the shows, who seemed to be supportive of her. Moreover, she has gotten good reviews from most of the mass media, although she is not yet universallyly admired. The press no longer make fun of her music.

What she is doing now hasn't changed from what she had been doing in the 70's. Since then, people in Japan have been exposed to a variety of music, such as Punk, Hip Hop, Rap music. Through that kind of experience, they can accept and appreciate Yoko's music without difficulty.

Yoko is now 63 years old. Because of her aggressive and powerful performance, she doesn't seem like a 63 year old woman. "I will be back soon" she said, leaving the stage.

Thank you! Yoko! Thank you! IMA!