Amu Plaza's annual Christmas Market has started. I ran up there Saturday after finishing my lessons at the English school at 6 PM, but the live music had already ended. The food and craft booths are the same as ever, but the music programming has been getting more pathetic year after year. There's no schedule posted at the stage, but there are advertising booklets at the tables promoting the food booths, with a one-page "artists listing" at the back (NOTHING at all for the artists this year on the Amu website). I'd seen Bon, of ARTS and Bon DX, back a couple months ago at a different event, and he'd stated then that he'd be playing at the Market on the 23rd. However, he's not listed at all in the booklet, so I don't know what's going on with that. Then, I saw Nonki (surf guitarist, and music teacher at the Juu Cross music store) and he said he'd be playing at the Tenmonkan Christmas stage in front of 7-11 on the 21st (a Saturday, and I work Saturdays), so maybe that's where Bon meant.
Anyway, I grabbed a booklet, and returned home for dinner. At the apartment, I checked the artists listing to see who would be playing what days. I recognized Sakura (solo acoustic guitar and vocals, soft pop), yesterday trace (male-female duo, no-style), The Songbird of Gospel (Japanese gospel choir, uninspired), "and Mu." (female duet, don't remember what they do), Youichi (conductor for the Little Cherries elementary school jazz band, pianist, and leader of the Youichi jazz Trio, uninspired jazz standards), and Keishi Matsumoto (jazz pianist that I do like, and organizer of the Kagoshima Jazz Fest in September). There are 6 other acts listed, plus three orchestras that will play on the 14th and 15th (one show each). Youichi is listed as part of the "Christmas Jazz Night", which includes 5 female vocalists, Dec. 21st, 6 PM. The only person I have any interest in at all is Keishi, and he's on the 25th, at 5 PM, when I'm going to be tied up with family stuff. So, unless there's an "under the table playlist" with artists not in the booklet, I really don't care about any of this, this year. The acts given in the booklet are all playing on the weekends only; during the weekdays, Amu apparently will only be playing recorded Christmas music off CD.
The duo here are The Remain, doing CD karaoke very badly. The small audience that I saw at the time seemed to like them, but I found them so discordant on the harmonies that my ears hurt. They sang at 3 PM, and again at 4 PM. After taking pictures at the beginning of the 3 PM set, I went into Amu and read a book at Seattle's Best Coffee. I came out at 4 PM and discovered them back on stage, so I went across the street to get coffee and donuts at Mister Donut. I don't think I missed anything while I was gone.
At 5 PM, this guy, "singer-songwriter" Nakamura, started playing. He introduced himself, then went into a soft pop piece that he said he wrote himself as a "Christmas song" in Japanese. I got bored fast and left to return home. According to his bio, he played in a duo with his brother, then went solo in 2012. He was ok, it's just not my kind of music.
I have to get Christmas presents, so I expect I'll be back here during the week, and if anything else is going on, I'll take pictures of that, but I'm not expecting to record anything. at Mu is on the 14th (6 PM), and the orchestras are on the 14th and 15th. I won't be able to get to Amu after the school on Saturday, and I've seen these orchestras before (they're all stiff and clunky). I have to work on the 21st, but I'm hoping to catch a bit of whatever happens in Tenmonkan. We'll see if anything else is going there on the 22nd and 23rd. Again, I'll be tied up on the 24th and 25th, so I'll miss those two days.
Sigh. Christmas used to be so much better here 3-4 years ago...
No comments:
Post a Comment