Shimokitagawa is an area in the west of Tokyo. I think it's fair to call it the Camden of Tokyo: densely packed streets, flea market, hundreds of second hand shops, and a vast array of live music veues ranging from the smallish to the minscule.
Shimokitazawa Sound Cruising is an all day music event where 18 different venues have live music from 11am until 5am (when the metro starts running again). We went to check it out. We did not stay till 5am :)
We arrived about 3pm and, having done zero research, selected this show more of less at random. They are a 4 piece heavy rock band where the singer plays bass. They seems to have listened to Radiohead's The Bends quite a lot. To my ear they were better when they reeled it in a bit; I reckon the drummer and bassist would be a pretty competent act on their own!
Curious that a place described as a "loft" is usually found in the basement!
Another random choice, this act is five dancing girls in these ... outfits. They might look cute, but the music is basically happy hardcore with poppy vocals. We stayed only one number.
ROY ltd GIRLFRIEND corporate page?!
High energy pop with much charisma. Little jazzy bits show that can really play. Drummer screaming was a highlight. Probably my favourite of the day.
Very loud five piece, sounding a bit like 65 days of static but with vocals. Guitarist/vocalist kept breaking strings; rest of band played Muzak while he changed it. Really good!
Indie rock 4 piece. Quite loud and heavy, with little interludes of experimental noise mixed in. The singer was REALLY going for it, her performance ever-increasing in emotion, mostly rage. Her voice was definitely fucked by the end. Last half of the show seemed to be one continuous climax.
Pop punk band, with some hardcore bits. Very high-energy. This was the first gig where the crowd lost their shit: moshing, slam-dancing, stage-diving. All it took was one energetic (and steaming!) individual to kick it off! The other candidate for best show -- they were great!
Incidentally this was also my favourite venue -- really liked the vibe of it being a tiny misused flat, upstairs from the record shop.
Pavilion on youtube
Same venue, similar musical style. I guess these guys were the headliners since they had twice as much time as every other show. Pop-punk, with some of that West Coast ska vibe. They had some slower tunes in between, including a weird country interlude, but crowd was still going for it.
Weirdly, at 22:00 we all had to leave the venue and come back in to have our IDs checked. A shorter set would probably have been better -- too much filler in this one -- and energy levels did not really recover from standing around in the rain for 10 mins in the middle of the show!