Swinging Popsicle at the O-Nest

Swinging Popsicle at the O-Nest.

Swinging Popsicle were sensational. Their singer, Mineko Fujishima, can SING. It’s like seeing an R&B superstar in a small Tokyo rock club, in tonight’s case the O-Nest .(For what it’s worth, the Chinese characters that spell out her first name, Mineko, literally means ‘child of beautiful sound.) The band is tight and their music is catchy.

Compared with when I saw them in Seoul, however, they seemed subdued between songs, not saying much more than ‘arigatou gozaimashita (thanks very much)’. Probably tonight I was seeing a more typical Popsicle, while in Seoul they were high off the crowds’ adulation.


Bowlie Weekend at the O-Nest.

Other bands playing tonight: Bowlie Weekender was a big group that included a cellist, a trumpeter and a flutist. They were ok. The Starlets, up last, seemed good, and the guy singer had a nice tenor voice, but by the time they started I was hungry and tired so I left after a couple of songs (wimp).