Macaroni Enpitsu (マカロニえんぴつ) is one of the biggest names in JPop/Rock in Japan right now. Formed in 2012, hailing from Kanagawa, Macaroni Enpitsu is made up of Hattori on the vocals and guitar, Tanabe Yoshiaki on the guitar, Takano Kenya on the bass and Hasegawa Daiki on the keys. All members graduated from music colleges, which is evident in their music ability.

They came on to their “Tamashii no Ibasho”, which is very popular as it was used in a car commercial. So people in the crowd who weren’t even major Macaroni Enpitsu fan’s recognized the jingle and vibed along.

Vocalist Hattori has a very strong and emotional singing voice, characteristic of most J-Pop bands.

Their electro pop-rock tune “STAY with ME” was a crowd pleaser. People hand their hands in the air to the rhythm of the song, in synchronization. Whenever I see a J-Pop band live, I always find myself so impressed by how synchronized the audience is. It’s almost as if they practiced their hand movements together before the show.

In the audience, I could feel the passion for music. Especially on the last song, which was titled “hope”, a calm and beautiful melody that resonated with the hearts of the crowd-goers.

I knew of the name ‘Macaroni Enpitsu’, but I couldn’t say that I knew of any of their music before attending their set. I have a couple friends who are big J-Pop fans, and they pretty much knew every song. One comment that my friend said was that they performed a lot of songs off their new project, which isn’t necessarily all the older songs that everyone in the crowd knew.

Red Marquee was packed to the brim. People were even situated along the sides, outside the stage to listen and catch a glimpse. Quite a stellar show and turnout for their first Fuji Rock!