If you’ve been to a music festival in Japan, chances are you have seen clammbon. They are veterans in the truest sense, and for good reason. On an afternoon as rainy as Saturday’s it takes a special band to take it all in stride and help the crowd forget the rain and remember we are here for the music. Music works regardless of weather.

Singer and pianist Ikuko Harada asked the crowd early on to be careful not to catch cold and encouraged them to join her in a hooting cry to chase he rain away. It categorically didn’t work. But it set the mood.

Few bands are able to straddle the line between technical proficiency and experimentation as well as clammbon. The piano is flawless of course, but Mito’s bass is what propels the songs forward. That being said, clammbon is a band that can put on and take off the trappings of almost any genre like a quick change artist. Don’t like what they are doing right now? Wait a minute, it will change. They are one of the rare bands that can make an hour long set feel twenty minutes long, even in the rain.

Don’t believe me? Just ask the crowd. From the start the raincoats were bumping and arms outstretched to the opened heaven, weather be damned. Almost everyone was singing along almost from the beginning, like a choir in the church of clammbon.

When the band only had a few minutes of stage time left, they pulled a move to reward the patient despite the rain. They invited fellow legends toe to the stage to join them for the last song of the night, a quiet and introspective cello driven number. The reaction to this from the crowd was palpable. Clearly this band knows what they are doing.

Tonight clammbon proved that their grip on the crown of Japan’s best live band is firm, and I’m certain people are already looking forward to their next Fuji Rock performance.