Oh man, remember that Ustream of that promotional event from months ago for the real live event that already happened and you had no chance of attending anyway? Man…those were the days. That’s not happening again. (Because they took the video down.)

I guess I assumed they were bluffing about taking the video down. I didn’t try to figure out anyway to download it or take an audiograb. I took some screencaps, but figured I would go back later and get better ones. That didn’t work out. So I got all my mediocre screencaps and tried giving them captions, but the text started wrapping around all wrong. Attempting to fix it gave me this amusing overlap glitch which only got worse/more amusing. It would be more appropriate if it reminded me of unpredictably overlapping blogs of my youth but sometimes you’ve just got to grit your teeth and deal with something new happening. Here’s the whole mess:

So that was weird.

My main thought on this is that it contrasts pretty strongly with the attitude of Shonen Knife’s (really Naoko Yamano’s) 30th anniversary. That was more a celebration than a retrospective; the focus is really on the newest or newish material, with a few old songs (in the updated style) thrown in. It’s undoubtedly the healthier attitude to have as an artist still intending to continue putting out new work.

Both SK & P5 (with Maki) peaked around the same time in the mid-90s when they both crossed over onto major labels in America. Any live performance has to include something from that period. But Maki includes almost no post-peak P5 and not anything from her post-P5 solo albums—that’s four full LPs and change. I guess those albums didn’t sell that well, but neither did her early stuff, right?

I remember the original press for P5 and Maki was marketed as an ex-model, not an established singer for other groups. This whole thing stressing her early career seems revisionist. It’s probably more accurate, her modeling career is now relatively a blip. I was never impressed with that first album, and I never heard the songs of the old groups. They sound pretty good here, I gotta go back and check that stuff out for the songs. Thing is, she was a great singer for P5 and still sounds great, but she wasn’t great early on. Her voice was not there yet. Still, this is good for J-pop history to acknowledge that stuff and if the songs are good, I’m in. It’s similar to pre-Maki P5 in that it’s not quite the thing yet, but the ideas are there.

Still, a lotta time is spent down on the furthest part of Memory Lane. Maybe in another 10 years she’ll come around to her newer (now 10 year old) stuff.

Konishi Yasuharu makes no appearance, of course. Even tho he did do some production on those solo albums so I assume they’re on good terms I suppose performing live together would make it a P5 reunion gig, which he’s probably against. And he’s busy making songs with SMAP…ugh. Two talents going to waste there. I’m not saying that SMAP is so terrible and that covering your old songs is so sad, but it’s kinda terrible and a little sad. After a point.

Anyway, Tokyo’s Coolest Sound has a write-up of the concert itself. You can get most of the info about the musical guests there, except Miyavi didn’t show up. It sounds like it might have been a lot different.And they did this thing where you’re watching her watch old clips of herself. The whole thing was kinda creepy cause there’s a live audience in the studio but it’s only the event staff of like a dozen people. It had a weird tension to it. It’s like a new kind of live event they haven’t quite figured out to feel natural yet. It’s almost like they televised a dress rehearsal, but you’ve got the screen with the chatroom there, that’s like a New Aesthetic vibe. It’s weird, it’s like the acoustics are wrong or something when you just hear a few people clapping. The energy is wrong. Also, she started out with a house version of The Night is Still Young before the guests show up and she is just not that kind of diva. That never really worked for her did it? They tried to push that on some of the records but she’s just a pop singer, she’s not like Lady Miss Keir or something. Nothing against her, it’s just an energy mismatch thing. Really set the tone. The actual performances were good, I should have taken notes as I was capping. I think the old guy is the Pink no Kokoro producer. Is the guy in shorts Bravo? I can’t tell. That’s him is the fuzzy old VCR footage with the cheerleaders. I never saw P5 in concert, I guess it was always a weird thing.

The wait for an encore might be the most awkward I’ve ever felt watching a recorded event on the internet. A dozen people, tops, clapping in pre-planned unison while the chatroom goes berserk. This goes on for a solid 5 minutes at least. Creep city. Not necessary.

[OK, so apparently the Self-Covers album has all the versions of the songs as performed here so I should probably just get that.]

She’s pointing at MEEEEE. Oh! Uh…great show, Miss Maki. So…that’s all I have to say about that.
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