“We’re Local Natives from Los Angeles. It took a very long way to be here today.”

The young guys from sunny SoCal are already festival veterans, having played here back in 2010. They have since come back 4 times to Japan, and their fan-base is ever-increasing.

Coming straight off an impromptu and unlikely acoustic performance at the MTV GanBan stage, the guys still had plenty of energy (guess that warmed them up?) for rocking the Red Marquee. And it was packed.

Apparently Taylor’s cousin Nathan lives in Japan, teaching English, so they shouted out a song to him. And, the track “Airplanes” where the lyrics go “I still have those chopsticks from when you taught abroad…in JAPAN” was a big crowd pleaser, of course. Smiles.

A young act like the Natives with just two albums under their belt (Gorilla Manor in 2009 and Hummingbird in 2013) they have an impressive energy and tight quality to their live act.

Better than the recording even, as their voices are just as sweet, obviously not tweaked or anything, and the live experience allows them to go nuts on hit tracks like “Sun Hands” that had everybody’s sun hands up in the air.

I was actually a little bit surprised to see them go off on a noise tangent like they did in one of the breakdowns. But it was welcome, and the crowd loved it. Even more than when Taylor humbly introduced the band in Japanese! That kind of simple gesture to bridge that gap between stars on stage and fans in the audience goes a long way.

You better believe this is not the last of Local Natives in Japan. You can definitely expect them back at Fuji Rock in future years, and probably on bigger stages with better time slots; count on that.