We arrived at Musica (the venue for the night's show) a bit later than expected so it was going to be tricky to get a good spot in the crowd. I thought I'd forget about that for now and instead just hunt down my favourite Japanese people. Kayo and Fumi were womanning the merch stall so I loitered around them for a bit, got stuff signed, got some photos and used my best Japanese to tell Kayo:
"I've come from England to see your final shows. Thank you for the music you have given us up until now. I wish you all the happiness in the future."
She said thank you and bowed more than usual. She told Fumi what I'd said and Fumi remembered that I was the English guy that had Tweeted her.
Then Hiro showed up at the merch stall and I did the signing, photo, "I'm from England" stuff with him. "Igirisu?!" he said. He did sound pretty impressed.
Then I went off to find Yano. All the while people were giving me funny looks and commenting on my outfit. At one point when I went to the toilet some guy asked about my outfit and when he realised I was English he started singing "London Bridge is falling down"...... Akronians are weird but they have a good Dr. Who style alien name. Eventually we found Yano drinking coffee in the cafe area (no surprise there!). I was trying to ask him if he had any Japanese coffee left because I knew he'd brought a load of it over with him for the tour. It took him a while (and asking me about Costa coffee in England) but eventually he understood me and said "wakatta!" whilst slapping my butt. Oh those reserved Japaneses!
After watching an old man dancing for about ten minutes the second support band (who were not called Nick Cage And The Face Offs) had finally finished I made my move. I figured I've travelled 5000 miles so I might as well push to the front. I got to the second row after pushing past a few annoyed looking faces. I was chatting to the guys on the front row about all things Polysics. It's actually quite weird talking about the band in person because I'm so used to only chatting about them online. Hiro put his set list down and we were trying to read it upside down. He'd written his whole script on there too. I got a photo of the set list after the concert for the benefit of the Japanese fans over at the Japanese language fan blog.
Sean the tour manager insisted on no photos during the concert, as far as I know it's because Myspace and possibly Polysics Japanese record label want sole rights to images from the concerts. It would be a lot better if they explained that rather than just saying "No photos!"
Just before going on stage Hiro spotted me in the crowd and waved to me. That was the start of me feeling like I was getting slightly special treatment seeing as I'd travelled so far. Whether I imagined this or not I have no idea.
It was a great performance even though the crowd was probably the most timid I'd ever seen at a Polysics show. They were all good with the shouting and everything but there was hardly any movement. I was used to being squashed at the front but there was none of that until they got to Coelakanth Is Android and then a few guys started going a bit crazy. During one of the early songs Hiro came up to the crowd and I decided to put my hands on his guitar strings, he pulled away and waved his finger, then I wiped my hand down his face. This is something I did at a London concert and it ended up being very visible in a video on Youtube so I thought I'd repeat that for the amusement of my friend. I did my usual shouting of Yano's name at various because he always seems to be the least appreciated member of the band. Before the encore the Akron crowd decided to go for the chant of "one more song!" to which Polysics replied with two more songs including a cover of Devo's Sloppy in which Yano seemed totally confused as to what Hiro was doing. At the end Hiro did a lot of high-fives and looked at me, smiled and grabbed my hand.
Then proceeded lots of hanging about, a few beers, sucking up the tour manager and lots of chatting to fans including one girl, Satoko, who'd travelled from Japan and was staying with friends in Ohio. She wanted a photo with me and then I took her photo with Fumi. One regret from my US trip is that I didn't get any contact details for her. A Japanese Polysics fan with good English is hard to find. After about half an hour Polysics came out to pack up their stuff. It ended up with each band member having a queue of people wanting stuff signed.
I had a chat with Yano about what it will be like playing as a 3 piece, he said they hope to be ready to come to the UK in 2011. At least I think that's what he said...
I told Hiro I was sorry for grabbing his guitar and explained the whole "face touching" thing. He laughed and said it was ok and that stuff like that makes the shows fun. At least I think that's what he said...
I told Kayo and Fumi that I would see them in Washington DC. Fumi said "see you tomorrow!". That's definitely what she said...
Akron Musica or DIE!!!!!
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