The Aprils at the Basement Bar

The Aprils' keyboardist. 

In the audience at tonight's Basement Bar show was Edgar Franz, a German resident of Japan who leads a band in Tokyo called Miniskirt. If you think I sound too heavily involved in the Japanese music scene, you ought to talk to Edgar sometime. He's a font of Japanese music knowledge. If he wrote a book describing what it's like to be a foreigner in a band that performs in genuine Tokyo rock clubs, I'd certainly buy and read it.

Edgar had come to see the Aprils, one of the band playing before Ricarope tonight.  (Please open that Aprils link to their home page, by the way. It's very cool.) He said their music was the music of the future, of the 21st Century. They weren't like a lot of other Tokyo bands, whose music was still basically stuck in the 1980's.

And indeed, seeing their show I felt that this band was a new thing. On either side of the stage were two monitors showing computer graphics videos of the songs that played at the same time as they were being performed live. They had a percussionist in addition to a drummer, and a guy who spent most of his time dancing. They were colorful: Edgar said that a stylist had come in this morning to spruce them up, though I didn't independently verify this. They were definitely born in the 80's.

I like this band and would like to see them again. The only thing that got to me about the Aprils was that despite the pleasantness of their music and look, they seemed light-weight. I wasn't sure whether any of their songs would stick in my mind. Being able to create songs that do might be something that comes only with time.



The Aprils' percussionist.