Music can be art. Music can be political action. Music can be spiritual, it can be romantic, it can be many, many things. But one of the best, most powerful things music can be is fun. Just pure fun for the fun of it. Enter Fuji Rock veterans Kaisoku Tokyo.

They took to the stage with a mugging swagger that was instantly infectious. Imagine the ghosts of Mick Jagger, Gene Simmons, Ozzy Osborne and David Lee Roth all fighting for control of a basement crust punk vocalist (yes, half of them aren’t dead, but the point stands). That should give you some idea of vocalist Tetsumaru Fukuda’s vibe. A lot of knowing looks, rubber boned flailing and a nearly inappropriate amount of tongue wagging. But the fact that he can command a stage is undeniable. After all, he is also a creative director and designer, so his understanding of the visuals of rock and roll isn’t surprising.

Musically it really was like a smoothie where butt rock, classic rock and punk rock were thrown into a blender, with the punk flavor ultimately dominating. To be honest, the resulting concoction smacked a bit of punk farce somehow circling back on itself to become legitimately punk again. An interesting flavor. That being said, it all went down just fine! Short bursts of kinetic punk bombast, some just long enough to get little bits of tame slam pits started in the Naeba afternoon.

All in all these boys lived up to their name, an express punk rock set that left a smile.