Jamming out to late night downbeat melodies

At 1AM, Hopi took the stage at Rookie A-Go-Go with a colorful backdrop and the sort of downbeat musical arrangement that reminded me of early Massive Attack and other late 90’s performers. The crowd assembled in front of the stage this year was impressive, some 10-15 rows deep, all with a head down stare at their rain boots and an occasional lookup at the behind the stage projection.

This year’s Rookie format is more of a competition, with visitors allowed to vote for their favorite artist in a ballot box to the side of the stage. To garner support or more votes, full color posters tout the best aspects of each band along with a little history.

Hopi is quit modern in that they only seem to communicate through Twitter, and their only info includes the main band members, Junya Kishino, Yo Miyao, Shimpei Watanabe and their former association with past bands such as “the mornings” and “Thai Kick Murph”.

For a young band, they seemed to know their way around a stage, and were quite comfortable performing in front of large sized audience. The lead singer was pleasant and competent, holding her own at the center of stage. She did a fine job of leading the audience on a downbeat musical journey which resonated late into the early hours of the evening.