Weird is good. Weird is the special spice that makes life tasty. Doubly or triply so in terms of festival life, which is why Ei Wada Electronicos Fantasticos was such a welcome breath of fresh, weird air on Saturday night at Naeba Shokudo.

Forgive me if this is hard to explain… but this is a breakdown of the musicians. Two wadaiko drummers using mallets on TVs. A percussionist using three TVs and bare hands like bongos. A performer using a barcode reader and a board of various barcodes (as an instrument). A TV shamisen and a TV guitar player. A fire alarm bell player. And a standing electric fan player. Sounds strange? It was!!!! Imagine the sound of a bunch of discarded electronic devices at a junkyard having a matsuri. Basically that. First time that during soundcheck I’ve heard someone ask to have the monitor lowered for the electric fan player.

The set started sloppy, the bar code reader player’s bar code reader wouldn’t work, but the honest truth is watching backstage music professionals try to sort out the technical problems amid this madness made the late start completely worth it.

Once the show got underway you realized that underneath all the weirdness there was some legitimate artistry. The TV guitar and TV shamisen worked remarkably well as instruments, and the noisy near-guitar solos from the electric fan were legitimately compelling. If you are still reading this I applaud you. Because these words are nearly nonsense, and we have just gotten to the point where the normal human bon-odori dancers joined.

After a member introduction (Ei Wada was playing a Tele-caster by the way, har-har) the group was joined by a legitimate Enka singer to teach us the bon-odori steps so we could all join in the madness. And join in we did. Hard not to at that point really.
The second song was Den Den Ondo, the lyrics all being based dead words and phrases mostly related to outmoded tech. And it had another dance to learn! This one sped up incrementally so by the end the whole crowd was frantically trying to keep up with a bunch of people playing TVs and fans. Beautiful.

Was this the weirdest thing at the festival this year? Yes. Was it the best? Quite possibly. Should everyone try to find a way to see Ei Wada Electronicos Fantsticos at some point in their lives? Absolutely.