Turtle Island were great last night during their pre-fest Red Marquee gig.  Today at Orange Court, they were even better.

Hailing from Toyota City, the 16-piece act opened the Orange Court with their high-energy hybrid of traditional Japanese music and rock.  Set up at the far end of the fest’s massive site, Turtle Island still managed to draw a good-sized crowd of early revelers who were eager to dance.  And with a half-dozen drummers on stage, the band gave them plenty of loud rhythms to happily move along too.

Positioned at the front of the stage, a pair of mohawked drummers thrashed around while beating on their instruments, adding a great punk edge to the set.  And not wanting to miss out on the fun being had by the drummers and the crowd alike, the group’s guitarist waved his guitar in the air and wildly danced when not playing.

A charismatic frontman, Yoshiki Nagayama beat on a pot, and occasionally played a horn and acoustic guitar while singing his ragged, almost chanted vocals.  He pointed at the band and then at different audience members and said “You are a survivor” before the band launched into “Song for Survivors.”  A mini most pit broke out early into the powerful cut and there were even a few dreadlocked crowd surfers emerging above the audience.  And despite the song’s lyrics being really tough to make out that didn’t deter many in attendance from waving their arms and attempting to sing along.

Turtle Island provided a very entertaining, and fun-filled start to Fuji Rock ’13!