9/18 your gold, my pink presents “ザ・対決シリーズ” 「マイ・サタン・イズ・サッドマシーン」@下北沢SHELTER

ART-SCHOOL: SHELTER was packed with ART-SCHOOL fans and the entire room started to sway as they began their set, turning everything from the area in front of the stage all the way to the back wall into a giant pit. The atmosphere was completely different from any other show I’ve seen them play, there was no need to populate the setlist with singles or songs from their latest album so they just played. Rikki didn’t spend a lot of time on MCs, a fan congratulated them on their RIJF set and he chuckled, asking why there’s always one loud guy in the audience. It was a long set, but Toddy and Uno were constantly playing to the crowd, coming to the edge of the stage as they played. During their last song Rikki banged his guitar against the ceiling and then dove into the crowd, returning to the stage amidst waves of distortion for one final burst of noise before the band uniformly dropped their instruments and exited the stage.

your gold, my pink: I had been meaning to see ygmp for quite sometime and I’m really glad that I finally had the chance. Vocal and guitar duties were shared by Kozuka Takahiro and Itamachi Ryosuke (the former also handling the band’s various synthesizers), while Kitano Aiko provided the band’s unique rhythms with occasional assistance on percussion from bassist Kakimori Masayoshi. Kozuka did a great job of hyping up the crowd and Itamachi covered the stage, holding impromptu jam sessions with the other members whenever he wasn’t needed at his microphone. About halfway through their set they played a really pretty new ballad, 初恋, but the highlight came when they ended with Are You Sensitive?, an upbeat clusterfuck of awesome during which Kozuka gathered every available percussion instrument (tambourines, bongos, bells, etc.), handing them out to the crowd before taking his guitar and jumping down to the center of the floor where he finished the song. When they returned for the encore, Itamachi again thanked ART-SCHOOL and mentioned that they had named the event “My satan is SAD MACHINE” using a mash-up of the two bands’ song titles. Then after complaining that サッドマシーン wasn’t on the setlist that night (and being interrupted by Rikki, who was watching from backstage), they launched into a special cover version of the ART-SCHOOL classic.