It has been a big year for these Sapporo boys! Generally speaking they’ve blown up quite a bit, even releasing their first proper album, and specifically speaking they have made the not insignificant leap from Rookie a Go-Go to Red Marquee in a single year. Big jump!

Lots of bands as raw as TV Tairiku Ondo can get a bit watered down in all this transition, lose some of the spark that made them so compelling. I am, however, happy to report that the spirit of the byline for their Rookie Fuji Rock performance last year remains true – the greatest sets always make you worry that something expensive is going to break or someone is going to get hurt. They still have the feeling of reckless danger about them.

Lead singer Chiyotani and his crescent moon guitar were in a constant state of frantic motion, as were the songs. Always hard, always fast, always frayed and jerky, never predictable and never, ever stopping. Suzuki Kotaro’s wonderfully hypnotic atonal and nearly arhythmic guitar (perhaps the highlight of the show) combined with Togari Harea’s mean and forward drumming to provide a dynamic bed for the band to get comfortable in. Their style ranged between full-on hardcore, grungier sludge punk, post-punk chill vibes, screaming rap-rock vocals (think Triple Fire) and back again, taking all the detours and side roads they could along the way.

By the time they were finishing their set with ground shaking numbers like Ijiken no Kurashi it was safe to say that the audience was primed and ready for all the Fuji Rock action to come.

In the end, these youngsters have something going on, and it would be no surprise to see them back at somewhere like the White Stage in years to come! Keep your eyes glued to their screen!

Oh, and by the way, at the end of their set nothing had been broken. And nobody had been hurt. At least not this time.