Maximum the Hormone concert report
Below is my report of MTH at the Kathedral in Toronto, Saturday March 8, 2008;

Maximum the Hormone played at the Kathedral, part of the Big Bop three-level venue as part of Canadian Music Week. That Saturday had just brutal weather. It was really hard to get around town. I took a cab from my hotel to a friend's place for dinner, and then we drove to the concert afterwards. He didn't live too far away, so it wasn't really bad getting there, but I imagine that anyone living outside of downtown Toronto was not going to get in that night. This is a bad thing for J-Rock in Canada, of course, because the promoters pay close attention to turnout at these events. I met MTH's management at the CMW conference on Friday, and it was apparent that this was an experiment for them, putting the band into a festival and hoping to get broader exposure beyond the core anime crowd. I hope they weren't too disappointed, because turnout was pretty bad. I estimated about 70 people at the point MTH started to set up; it may have grown to 100 but no larger. MTH were by far the bigest draw that night. On the other hand, it was great for those of us who were there. I showed up at the venue about 8:30, had a short wait for the doors to be opened, and got to see a great band in a tiny (and grotty, ugh!) venue with a small audience. I dragged along an old high-school friend who lives in Toronto, and met some nice people in line who were huge fans of MTH. Once we got in, I went straight to the merch table. They had T-Shirts and Buiiki Kaesu CDs ($15 each! Cheap!). I grabbed a couple of t-shirts; they only had XL left, and those sold out almost right away (it is possible to get a t-shirt altered by a tailor? I'll have to find out). That's what always happens when you catch a show at the end of its tour like that.

The MTH members entered while we were waiting in line, and the Kathedral doesn't really have a backstage area, so Ryo, Nawo and Futoshi (OK, that's what I always call him: I'm really uncomfortable using Japanese suffixes and there's no way I can call a man I don't know ANYTHING-chan) were hanging around in one corner near the door, and Daisuke was wandering around the venue with a cloth held over his face. I was really struck by how short they were, especially Ryo and Daisuke. I know, that sounds terrible, but you don't really notice it with a girl, and Futoshi is so skinny it seems proportionate, but with the other two guys, they're so stocky they just seemed really brick-shaped, you know? Anyhow, for the first part of the opening band's performance (they were from Australia, called Late Nite Access. I thought they weren't bad, by the way), MTH were happy to chat with any fans that approached them, but eventually they seemed to go into a sort of preparatory mode, and their people gently waved off anyone who approached. Then the first band finished and we all moved up towards the stage.

Late Nite Access had some sort of promo going with little cards and condoms stuck to them which were all over the bar and the stage. As the band and crew set up, they picked these up and Futoshi was handing a few of them to the boys at the front of the stage with this goofy, not-quite-embarrassed grin on his face. Nawo was wearing some sort of shirt for an Australian rock festival (whether that was in support of the first band or somewhere they have played, I have no idea), and her hair was long, wavy and had a burgundy tint . Ryo had his usual shorts, short socks and flip flops (and some awesome dreads!), Daisuke shorts and a t-shirt, and Futoshi went shirtless and barefoot (which was brave; it was cold in there!). I tried to get as close to the front, left side because I love that bass-man, and ended up about 2-3 people back, maybe 3 feet from the stage, not too bad. Started to get really excited when I heard some familiar chords in the tune-up. I tried to take down the playlist. To the best of my knowledge, here it is:
What's Up, People
Rock Impo Goroshi
Zetsubou Billy
Louisiana Bob
Shimi
Koi no Megalover
The show was AMAZING. Very short, unfortunately, only about 30 minutes. HOWEVER, it was frenetic! If anyone reading this has seen Debu vs Debu, or any other live footage, you'll know that they are always super high-energy. Daisuke is like the Energizer Bunny! But seriously, they were even more hyper here. Maybe when you are only doing a half hour set you don't have to hold back AT ALL, because OMG, it was just that much faster and more intense. Maybe its partly the real live vs the taped live difference, I don't know, but it really seemed different to me. I was a little worried at first because Nawo's vocals in What's Up People didn't seem to come through that clearly at first, but after her first vocal they came through loud and clear and were really beautiful throughout. Even my Torontonian friend, who wasn't really into the band and stood smirking at the back, leaving me to my fate among the moshers, was pretty impressed with her. Speaking of moshing, I lasted until part-way through Rock Impo Goroshi before I had to pull back, but even then I was still about 6 feet from the stage. Given that they play to thousands in Japan, that's pretty cool! Daisuke was singing right up against the front row, almost with his chest right into the audience. Futoshi was running around like a madman-now the stage at the Kathedral is TINY; somehow they made it feel about 5 X bigger, with the amount of movement they brought to that stage. I don't really know how they accomplished that. Daisuke and Nawo were talking to the crowd a lot. Given that their English is limited (and their manager had warned me ahead of time that they didn't really speak the language) they actually did amazingly well in communicating. First of all, they are FEARLESS. I know when I try to speak in Hindi or French, I am so self-conscious I tend to freeze up. They just didn't give a damn: spoke in English when they could, Japanese when they couldn't, mixed them together with lots of screaming and smiling and body language. They led the crowd in a brief version of the hand-clap-bend-over-backwards routine they do in their concert videos, and it looked like at least a few in the audience knew the routine. I had planned to spend the last couple of songs standing a little farther back so that I could see the whole stage at once, but before I could it was over. Much too soon. But what a great 30 minutes!
After they left the stage, they went to an area at the back of the club and signed autographs and took pictures with fans. I hung out with the managers a bit, and then went up to get autographs. I had brought both my Buiiki Kaesu and Rock Impo Goroshi CDs with me, and since they were selling the Buiiki Kaesu CD there, I decided to get them to sign the other one. I was curious to see if they would notice that I had a CD that I would have had to import to get ahold of. And they did! First Daisuke signed it and asked me, really excitedly "Where you get this? Where you get this?" I said "HMV Japan" and he pumped his fists in the air. Then I went over to Nawo, and when she saw the CD she stared me in the eye, pointed at the CD and said "You? You? You?" At first I wasn't sure what she meant, but I figured it was probably the same thing as Daisuke, so I said" Yes. it's my CD. I got it from HMV Japan." She grabbed the arm of the woman behind her and said (what had to be, it was in Japanese) "She got this from HMV Japan." While she was turned away from me, I had this moment where I asked myself, "How shameless are you going to be?" I don't really like calling that much attention to myself, quite frankly, but what the hell. I pulled out a business card (college faculty, please read my profile), and when she turned back to me I handed it to her and siad, "Nawo, I am Angela. I'm a college professor here in Canada." She looked confused and I repeated myself. She turned to one of the bilingual managers next to her and asked (I think) "Did she just say that she is a college professor? The manager nodded yes. Nawo turned back to me, really excited, and said something like "And you bought our CD" I said" Yes, and in two weeks I will get Deco vs. Deco from HMV Japan!" Then she started laughing, grabbed Daisuke and told him something like "She's a college professor and is buying Deco vs Deco from HMV Japan!" They both laughed (in a good way, thank God. I never really know what people are going to think of me in these situations.). Then I went to Ryo, and got his autograph. He didn't say much, he seems like a really interesting character, for sure. Then I went looking for Futoshi, but he wasn't there. I asked Nawo, "Where's Futoshi" pointed to his picture on the CD insert. She started really laughing...only then did I notice that someone (almost certainly Ryo) had drawn little squiggly hairs sticking out of Futoshi's chin! I scanned the insert for you. Futoshi's signature is hard to see because I had to go find him in a different part of the bar and didn't have the sharpie, so its just regular black pen.



Anyway, I had my great fangirl moment (and my friend, who is one of those old high school friends who has seen me doing some pretty stupid stuff over the years and who has decided it is his life's mission to tease me mercilessly, will never let me live it down) and I have no regrets! It's not just ego operating here, however. I want to send a message to these performers that they have a fan base that they weren't aware of, and that some of us will go to great lengths to get their music and come to their shows. Hopefully they will remember that and come back. And if they were at all entertained in the process, that's even better. I was lucky enough to talk to quite a few Japanese music industry people at Canadian Music Week and with each of them I tried to get the message across that Canada is a viable market (and that they should consider Vancouver as well as Toronto). I hope some were listening, but I get the impression (this is not specific to MTH, but for Japanese performers in general) that a North American or "World" tour is still more of a tool for marketing bands back in Japan, "Just returned from America..." and less about tapping into the North American market itself. Maybe we can change that, ne?

Peace and love to you all. Thank you for reading my first ever journal entry!