Hello everyone. Belated happy new year! I’m so sorry! I understand it has been a while since I last posted here. I’ve been on a very LONG holiday and I needed to absorb every bit of its worth. Currently, I am back home and I shall resume writing about music again! I would like to kick it off with this oncoming journal entry about my recent concert experience, an overview of my favourite albums of 2017 and reviews of material coming from this year! I hope you enjoy what’s soon to be in store!

I wholeheartedly highlight this experience that I attended on the 16th of January this year as one of the most monumental concerts I’ve had the pleasure of attending. By pure coincidence, I had planned a family vacation in the Philippines without any knowledge that Tricot, my personal favourite math rock band from Kyoto, would perform in Manila at the same time! I was able to bring along a few friends from the Philippines to see the show. We arrived at the venue, 19 East, fresh from a six hour road trip involving a failed 5 minute burger challenge (Zark’s Burgers’ jawbreaker which I will conquer next time).

Prior to the main event, we were treated to an opening act that any math rock aficionado would love. Local instrumental band, AOUI, introduced themselves with a set of technical but emotive math rock arrangements. The band ensured to stay true to the math rock aesthetic by excelling in every instrumental component to formulate a clean and cohesive sound. Most importantly, they really looked like they were having fun performing which is always great to see. I really enjoyed tracks like White Water and For Now which drew comparisons to other notable math rock acts like Chon. Hopefully, AOUI continue to showcase more passionate instrumental displays and appease their growing fanbase. It was certainly a nice warm up ahead of the main act. You should definitely check them out on their YouTube channel which I have linked down below.

Eventually, the opportunity to see my favourite band was right before my eyes. Ikkyu (vocals, guitar), Motifour (lead guitar), Hirohiro (bass) and Yoshida (drums) were already on stage setting up. I did not think the opportunity for this to occur would happen too soon so I told myself that I absolutely needed to soak everything in. It was an interesting predicament since I was sharing the experiences with my brother and friends who had no idea who Tricot were. Needless to say, they were very impressed with the band’s expertise in instrumentation while managing to interact with the dedicated fans who were very sensible and as hyped as I was throughout the night. The band knew how to maneuver the level of excitement by accelerating the pace with energetically charged tracks sprinkled on the setlist from their new album, 3, such as TOKYO VAMPIRE HOTEL, 18, 19 and Setsuyakuka. In between, the slower tracks like Echo, Melon Soda and Slow Line allowed for the audience to reflect and absorb the emotive language whether it was through the angular guitar arrangements or the charming vocal delivery from Ikkyu. What could set Tricot apart from most of their contemporaries is that they are always willing to engage with their audience through crowd pleasing tracks and entertaining skits. Tracks like Yosoiki and Anamein match their studio counterpart’s ability in luring the crowd to amenable chants. The band also debuted a new song called Bumu ni Notte which was a positive sign that the band’s thirst to make more music still lives! The skits involved the band trying to learn words in Tagalog (native language of the Philippines) which made for entertaining dialogue. Collectively, we decided the slang word, lodi, (which is the word idol in reverse and a popular colloquial term in modern Filipino society) should be the word that the band should learn which they humorously played along with much to the delight and laughter of the fans. Personally, I was very pleased with their effort to communicate with the fans despite my preconceived notions of language barriers which were barely apparent during the night.

My personal highlights of the concert was being able to hear the first song that I had ever heard from them (E) and elaborately closing the set with my favourite song as the encore, Oyasumi. From start to finish, I danced and knew every word (even if I just mouthed it and pretended to know Japanese). I barely had time to record the show because I wanted to have time to wail my arms around like an inflatable man and enjoy every minute. Every member of the group had their shining moment. All the way through, Kida oozed so much charisma while playing the most complex guitar riffs. Hirohiro confidently stood center stage with a constant bass groove. Ikkyu possessed great control over her passionate vocals and adaptability to their wide variety of tracks. Not to mention the vocal harmonisation between the three girls was glorious as well! The newest member of the band, Yoshida Yusuke, impressed with his tight drumming skills and thrived in not only the latest tracks but the older and familiar tracks that the faithful have loved for years.

To be able to say that I was able to experience everything that was detailed when I thought it was not going to happen any time soon is still surreal to me. Putting the personal sentimental effect aside, I would highly recommend listening to this band’s studio and live material. If you’re in it for an introduction to math rock with an infusion of pop on the side, this would definitely make for a memorable concert experience. Tricot From the bottom of my heart, I thank Tricot for making this concert a damn real thing. Thank you to the great opening act AOUI, the fans I got to meet and see them have a blast and last but not least, Terno Recordings for making one of my greatest memories come true. By far, my most personal and best concert I’ve ever been to. Definitely the highlight of my long holiday in the Philippines.

Thank you for reading about my great experience. I’ll be sure to come up with more material as I move forward! Stay delish, homies.

Bonus round:

I also got to meet every member of the band! They were incredibly polite and were astounded by the fact that my brother and I came from Australia to see them. We could really sense that they were stoked to see a great turnout. Music is a great language and we deeply appreciated how they portrayed it to us. I really do hope you come to Australia, tricot.

Check out tricot!

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bakuretsurecords.tricot/

Twitter: @tricot_band

Check out AOUI!

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/aouimusic/

Check out Terno Recordings!

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TernoRecordings/

Twitter: @TernoRecordings