THE BACK HORN
Singing in the rain
The heavens had no pity for The Backhorn, as what started as a trickle soon turned into a flood. I know the band wasn’t happy with the diminished turnout but those who could seek cover did, and those who wanted to see the band braved it. A good crowd was the front of the stage to greet the band, oblivious to the heavy onslaught of rain, and they gave the band some energy to feed off of.
Begun in 1998 and mainly based in Tokyo ,the band are a hard rocking outfit which credit inspiration from both Nirvana and Radiohead. While this may confuse some, it is something that seems to work for this group. At a break out performance at Fuji Rock Festival in 1999, the band have been regular repeats, performing many times and always entertaining the audience with high energy and performance.
When the band appeared on stage, Masashi Yamada welcomed the onslaught saying he welcomes “the power of rain” but I think he was exaggerating. The rain did stop near the end of their set, giving the audience a chance to dry off as they went to well known songs in their catalog.
The band came together at mid stage for a type of rock pyramid, foisting frontman Masashi Yamada up in the air.
The Back Horn have long relationships with Fuji Rock and great performances during difficult situations like today have won them over some more fans and will make them frequent guests for many years to come.
