TICA feat.TOSHI-LOW & YOSSY LITTLE NOISE WEAVER & mabanua

Toshi-Low goes unplugged

Toshi-Low has been to Fuji Rock several times before as the frontman for the hardcore band Brahman, but this time around he’s in the midst of an acoustic phase. For the Japanese scene, this is not quite as dramatic as when Kurt Cobain and Nirvana recorded their unplugged album, but it is of major interest.

Toshi-Low has played twice at this Fuji Rock, once at Gypsy Avalon with Low-Atus, where he also took part in a public discussion on politics, and here at the Pyramid Garden with TICA, a sort of big collaboration with the vocalist Yossy, keyboard player Icchie and several drummers. If you’ve never been to the Pyramid Stage, the vibe is extremely mellow, especially at night. Most of the crowd is reclining in lawn chairs, and people are as likely to be drinking coffee as beer.

Here they were playing reggae, including a few Japanese originals and several covers. Toshi-Low sang Bob Marley’s “Redemption Song”, mangling the pronunciation badly but capturing the spirit of the tune reasonably well. There was also a reggae version of The Clash’s “Rock the Casbah”, but it was a soft one. In other words, no one got out of their lawn chairs to dance.