The performance started with a record company guy coming on stage and giving his stern admonitions. The buffer area in front of the stage had to stay clear at all times. If anyone took one single picture, the concert would immediately stop and all the bands would walk never to return.

Life in the digital age. The record companies fight like tigers to maintain their positions 5 years behind the curve. Fly your band to another continent and culture for the 1st time, play only 2 concerts 1700 miles apart, both for free, and be sure to forbid any pictures. People might actually show these pictures to their friends and spread some free publicity for your group.

The band came on. Present were Tomiko Van, the beautiful voice of DAI, and Ryo Owatari, the guitarist of the group. Of course, the guiding genius, Dai Nagao was not there. Years ago, he decided that personal appearance was too draining on his artistic process and leaves the actual performance up to his lesser minions. You've come a long way from playing on the streets of Shibuya for 10 yen coins, baby!

Also appearing were the backup troops, Jun Matsumoto on drums, Jun Takase on keyboards, and Yoshiyasu Hayashi on bass. Everyone was dressed very casually in tee shirts and jeans.

The language barrier. Well. Everyone, including the crowd, wanted to express good vibes, but was under equipped. This was the band's 1st trip to the U.S. Tomiko-san tried a few positive comments, but frankly she seemed a bit tired and unenthusiastic.

They passed the mike around to all the band members to have a go at their memorized English spiels - "I am very hoppy! Are you hoppy?" Tomiko-san seemed reluctant to give the mike to the drummer. He probably screwed it up in the green room, but did OK when he got his chance.

Ryo really carried the day. He made great efforts to speak to the crowd in English and did pretty good. He established rapport with the crowd and pushed their coming Monday night gig in New York City. He wanted all the people in Dallas to come. The 1700 miles didn't seem to phase him. He found his hook with the word "psycho". He kept shouting it for some reason and finally got into a "repeat after me" chanting thing with the crowd using it. Good technique. Definitely the Neil Armstrong of the group.

At one point, the only Japanese-speaking audience member shouted out "Where's Dai?" in Japanese. The band sort of looked at their feet and turned away.

The music. First of all, the sound system sucked. Plenty loud, but poorly mixed and very muddy. It was an anime convention in a ballroom, not a concert in a music venue. Hopefully, the club in New York will have better facilities.

The band played these songs:

Summer Days
Under the Sun
didn't recognize it
didn't recognize it
Hang Out (?I think)
Fukai Mori
Shinjitsu No Uta
Tooku Made
Boukensha Tachi
didn't recognize it
didn't recognize it
encore - didn't recognize it

The "didn't recognize it"s are, I believe, newer tunes I haven't heard. Somebody please help me out with this list. They played my favorites right off the top. So I was jazzed. The crowd favorites were the Inuyasha songs, Fukai Mori and Shinjitsu No Uta. They also liked Ryo's guitar solos.

Every song was played EXACTLY like the record. Every verse in place, word for word, every riff and solo exact, no extended choruses, jamming interludes, or drum solos. What's up with that?

Tomiko-san did what she does best, that is sing the songs. Again, no vocal acrobatics or even variations, just do the tune, word for word. The poor woman actually had to sing her own vocal backups on Tooku Made, something I've never seen anyone anywhere do in many years of music spectating. Ryo was rockin', the backup boys backing up.

All in all, a good time was had by everyone. I would call it a successful first contact. Hopefully lessons were learned that can be made use of in future missions.