1…2…3…GO!

If I ever need a live music wake up call to get me up out of bed and super genki to boot, I’m going to call The Bawdies. Being first up on the Green Stage on Saturday morning, they made sure that everyone on that mountain top was ready to rock.

Ash-blond singer Roy tantalized and teased fans with word play and James Brown-esque vocals, thrusting the crowd headfirst into the second day of Fuji Rock with no return. Good ol’ rock’n'roll beats inspired by The Sonics, The Beatles and other golden oldies reverberated across the fields as everyone danced along as if it were 1969.

If I had to pick a crowd favorite, it would be “Rock Me Baby”, “Just Be Cool”, “Sha la la” and oh yeah, every song they played.

One especially notable track was “I Beg You”, which they played the first time they performed at Fuji Rock in 2007 on the Rookie A Go-Go stage. It was the only song they really had at that time and this was, according to Roy, the happiest moment of their career. That is until they returned in 2010 and appeared on the White Stage… And of course now, 6 years later, they are at the peak of happinessーthe Green Stage.

Regardless of time or stage, they had the crowd dancing in unison, swinging their hips, blowing bubbles and doing all sorts of things that would have been considered absolutely scandalous 40 years ago. Tsk, tsk.

They finished what seemed like a far too short set with “Sing Your Song” from their album released earlier this year, and the audience happily complied. Even after the band had left the stage, the crowd dispersed as quickly as the clouds, and continued singing and dancing, ready to take on another awesome day at Fuji Rock.