austin reports
brush square park tent (sxsw asia japan bash). 3.17.2005. by flyp.
So, I arrived at the venue about an hour early, and was surprised by its humbleness, it was just a large tent out in the open, no chairs, no baricades in front of the stage… and there was no seperate area for the bands; I just looked through the gate (we weren’t allowed in until 5pm) and sitting at a table was Sawao and Manabe, just chilling. Later Suzuki and Sato joined them. Noodles were on stage doing a sound test. And I was all “omg, there’s Sawao RIGHT THERE NOT MORE THAN 30 FEET AWAY!” I was trying my best NOT to lose my f**king mind! There were only 5 people ahead of us in line, and we (David and I [THANK YOU DAVID FOR GETTING THOSE TICKETS :D]) talked to them and became friends, they’re big pillows fans as well.
Then they let us in. To avoid looking like obsessive stalkers (heh), we made a point to stay a bit away from them. We grabbed a bit to eat (free BBQ), and ran up to the stage when noodles started playing (Hush Bell). We made a beeline to the front. I pulled out my phone and started taking pictures. Their show rocked, from Hush Bell to She, Her… can’t remember what else they played… but it was great. When noodles went off stage, we decided to go over to the pillows and have them sign our invitations.
I now have the autographs of all 4 of them :D 
And not only that, I got to hold Sawao’s drink while he did it :D After much “domo arigatos,” We headed back to the stage, in shock. Me going “OMG I HELD HIS DRINK!!!11one” and enjoying the Titan Go Kings. Then… the pillows. David and I went as FAR FORWARD AS POSSIBLE. This means our feet were against the damn stage! I could reach out and touch Sawao or Manabe if i wanted. We were front and center, really close and personal… I was about to die and they hadn’t even come on stage yet. Then, they came up and started setting up.
OMFG it rocked! Even tho Sawao’s mic was too quiet, we were so close we could here him without it! Plus, I was singing along at the top of my lungs. Sawao constantly looked at me in my moment of pure ecstacy and grinned at me :D
Most die-hard fans wouldn’t say their set was the best, but it rocked anyways. Sawao said “Good evening Austin! Do you know us?” at which point the whole crowd screamed at the top of their lungs. “We are the pillows!” and went into their first song, Dead Stock Paradise, which rocked. Then they played Freebee Honey, which is one of my favorite songs, which rocked. Then Sawao said “Do you know FLCL?” again, huge crowd cheers. “This song is called… RIDE ON SHOOTING STAR!” which rocked :P Then they went into Walkin’ On the Spiral, which rocked. Then they said “This song, is last song.” To which the whole crowed was going “NOOOOOO!” And they went into the JAZZ VERSION of Rookie Jet. BUT, after the first bit (yes feeeeeeeeel so good and i sing with YOU!) they went right into the rock version! So, THAT kicked ass. During the non singing parts Sawao jumped on the monitor and rocked out! At one point, the monitor tipped forward and David caught him, essentially saving his life :P When it was all over, they left… but not before
SAWAO GAVE ME HIS GUITAR PICK! ITS ALL BROWN AND HAS BUSTER-KUN ON IT AND SAYS ‘SAWAO’ ON THE BOTTOM!
So, that was awesome. We waited about 10 minutes after their set before approaching them again, at which point David and I got a picture with Sawao (you’ll get it SOON, i PROMISE :P) And we chilled with Sawao for a good while, after which he said “I’m hungry, do you want to go eat with us?” I nearly died.
SAWAO YAMANAKA JUST INVITED ME TO EAT DINNER WITH HIM!!
So, we went to Sullivan’s. Just the pillows, noodles, and about 5 other fans. In our own private room. Talking for HOURS on end (thank god one of the fans we met in line was with us and could speak Japanese). So much awesome stuff happend at that table, I was sitting right across from Manabe and almost right next to Sawao… OMG, it was just so… O_O
I F**KING ATE DINNER WITH THE PILLOWS
It’s all overwhelming to say the least…
Well, we talked for awhile, a lot of which im still remembering. I remember Sawao talking about a t-shirt he saw downtown.
Sawao: Faaku yaaru, aimu furamu tekusasu! (Fuck Y’all I’m From Texas!)
At which point we all laughed. We started to explain the meaning of “y’all” to him and Manabe, and Manabe became very interested in “texas-ben” (texas dialect) so we taught him “Howdy Y’all.” Ciid made my day today when he told me that Manabe was saying “Howdy” for his mic check in New York! :D
Manabe (as he was entering this into his cell phone for later recall, whist sawao filmed with his digi cam): Haa, haadee yaa! Haadee yaer? Howdee yarr! *he smiled*
We talked about our favorite bands. Sawao LOVES the breeders and Kim Deal, as well as The Cure. Manabe loves Pantera.
Sato was pretty silent, he looked tired/scared/stoned/drunk/any combination of these. And Jun was too busy flirting with Yoko and Ayumi from noodles to bother with us xD.
Sawao said his English “not very good, but my brother, my brother english good” and I said “aa, Hidetoshi-san?” and his face lit up. I quickly followed with “Spiky Brothers!” And I swear, Sawao nearly squealed when I said that, he was happy that I knew about that. I also mentioned Coinlocker Babies, and Manabe was impressed. Sadly, the rest of my pillows knowledge went FFFSSSSZZZT out of my brain, because, you know, i was sitting across from Manabe and next to Sawao of the GODDAMN PILLOWS AAAAAAAAAH!
Lesse, random recollections:
Sawao doesnt own a computer, nor does he have a cell phone.
When mentioning pot to sawao “no no, not me. Maybe other member *eyes manabe* but not me.”
When the check came for the meal, all us gaijin were pooling our money together to pay, but sawao refused to let us, “i very rich rock star!” he said XD And he paid, something close to $200 for us fans, total bill was $610!
many many MANY MANY “domo arigato gozaimashita”s from us fans and lots of deep bowing.
I turned the Carnival mp3 i have into a ringtone for my cell phone. And my mom called me during dinner. It was awesome, the whole table looked at me, and i got grins :D
caribbean lights (sxsw japan night). 3.18.2005. by indivi.
At first when I’d heard about the concert, I was disappointed because there was a 21+ age limit at the venue. I’m 19. I emailed SXSW about it, not really expecting much more than a “sorry, nothing we can do about it” sort of response. I was blown away when I recieved the following response:
“Your wish has been granted. Caribbean Lights has agreed to let
you in but of course you will not be allowed to drink. I forwarded your
name and email to Elizabeth, the owner. She will be expecting you.”
After exploding in excitement, I planned my trip and left on Friday morning. I live in Baton Rouge, LA and the concert is in Austin, TX so it was about a 7 hour drive. I arrived at the hotel at about 5, took a shower, got something to eat, and headed to the concert.
The music festival was pretty crazy. The sidewalks were packed with people. After finding a far-away parking spot and searching on foot for Caribbean Lights, I found it at about 7. There was a huge line for it, but when the Caribbean Lights people moved the line to the other side of the building, I managed to slip up to about the 20th place in line.
People with badges and wristbands got priority, which means that people who want to pay cash to get in (like me) would have to wait until there were openings. At first they said the first 35 people will probably get in and anyone after that should just leave, but after 30 minutes or so they re-announced that only maybe the first 10 people would get in due to the immense crowd and the relatively small size of the club. They then announced that no one under 21 would be getting in. My outlook was becoming bleaker by the moment.
Mustering up some courage, I walked to the door and told them my name and said Elizabeth was expecting me. They looked at me skeptically and said that if that was the case, I should speak to the manager who was behind me. After talking to her briefly, she said there was nothing she could do because badge-holders had priority and I was underage.
I felt defeated, but I certainly wasn’t giving up. I waited for about 15 minutes as she handled other people and was generally busy, and when there was another lull in activity I approached her again. She asked if I was alone, and told me that if I tried to get alcohol or something, I would be thrown out (which I enthusiastically ensured her would not be a problem). Then she brought me forward and let me in, with a cover charge of only $25 (of which I paid $23 since I had only a few twenties and three ones). I felt incredibly relieved, to say the least.
The crowd liked all the acts pretty well. However, I think most of them were there for the pillows, because that’s when they really got going. As soon as Sawao walked onto the stage, everyone cheered, and he walked to the middle and stretched his arms out. Then they cheered as Manabe and Shinichirou walked out. This wasn’t the beginning of the concert, though – they were just setting up and adjusting stuff. Then Manabe and Sawao walked off again, and Sawao made a gesture to the crowd. Shin-chan was leaving, too, but he got stuck on a part of the drum set for a moment and then squeezed between some cymbals to get out.
The concert was fucking fantastic. They rocked hard. They were incredible, end of story. Sleepy Head was awesome. I was surprised that they didn’t do any Good Dreams, I was expecting Sono Mirai wa Ima. So it was just FLCL plus the two Penalty Life songs, which I had pretty much expected (though I still called for Kanojo wa Kyou and heard someone call for She is Perfect).
Sawao technically did the same ‘buy our stuff’ plug as the other bands, but he did it way better, very short and sweet. It was something like “We have CDs for sale, if you are rich man, please buy me.” He did something funny with his arms when he said “please buy me” and the crowd liked it.
I was one of the guys in the mass of fans jumping up and down and pumping their fists and screaming the lyrics. I managed to touch the tip of Sawao’s guitar when he leaned close to the crowd and he grabbed my hand a couple of times while he was doing the same to the rest of the nearby audience at the end. I was unfortunately too far away from him at the time during Advice when he tried to crowd-surf, and the crowd wasn’t really expecting it and just sort of threw him back onto the stage.
I’m insanely jealous of those who got to eat dinner with them, but I scored a few points myself. After the concert, I was terribly dehydrated and had to get a drink (the bartender asked me if I had been at the front, I said yeah, and he went “Man, those guys fucking rock”). Afterwards I went back to try to get an autograph — I’d brought Please Mr. Lostman in hopes of getting it signed. They were coming back and forth from the stage, packing up, and I mustered the courage to catch Shinichirou and I said “Shin-chan!” and he turned to look at me and I said “Onegai!” (no, I don’t know any Japanese) and offered the CD forward. He took it and smiled and took the pen, and tried to write with the wrong end of the pen (presumably joking around, it made me laugh anyway).
Next, Manabe came by. “Manabe-san, onegai!” I said, and he came over. When he saw PML, he took it and smiled, saying something like “Ooh, Lostman”. Then he signed it and I thanked him. The band had gone backstage to an outdoor area of some sort, and I couldn’t tell whether we were allowed to go back there, but then a fan came out of there and told us that the band was just sitting there, chilling. A few fans and myself went back there and found them with noodles having a drink.
By this point I was tingling all over. I thought I might faint. There I was, standing right in front of them, feeling awkward, not quite sure how I could get Sawao to sign since he was talking to Yoko. I sheepishly walked closer to them and tried catching Sawao’s eye, which I succeeded in doing. He came over and signed it then, and shook my hand.
I bought all the pillows swag there (three t-shirts and the Buster-kun/pillows logo keychain) and decided that I should try to get the white t-shirt signed, as well. First, Shin-chan signed it, writing “the pillows” and then his name. Then came Manabe and then Sawao. As Sawao handed the pen back to me, I asked “Suzuki?” This made them all laugh and call out “Suzuki!” and say some things in Japanese. Suzuki smiled, and got up and came over and signed it.
Then, the picture. I had purchased a throwaway camera and had taken about 20 pictures until about halfway through the pillows’ concert I stopped caring about taking pictures and focused on rocking out. Unfortunately, it must have fallen out of my pocket, and someone must have found it and taken it because I searched everywhere afterwards and asked the employees and couldn’t find it. Fortunately the other fans had digital cameras, and the four of us wanted to get pictures with them. So, after they approved the idea, we took turns taking pictures with the four of them. I had my arm on Sawao’s shoulder and we were giving a thumbs-up. I probably look pretty goofy, but I was trembling with excitement and could hardly keep myself from grinning stupidly. I got to shake their hands after that. I did a lot of bowing and “Arigatou”s. Then, as we reluctantly pulled ourselves away and left, I yelled out “the pillows rock!” and put my hand in the air with the “rock out” sign, and they returned it.
Complaints? Well, I do like to complain, so I do have a few. The first guitar lick in Dead Stock Paradise sounded really off-key to me; not sure what the problem was, but I think they fixed it for the second time that the lick is played. For some reason, that off-key guitar sound seemed to come from Suzuki, even though that makes no sense. I wish they would have played a few more songs… I mean, the next band wasn’t even part of “Japan Nite”. They were pretty good, but I think everyone just wanted the pillows to stay and play more (the crowd almost entirely disappeared after the pillows). I would have liked it if they’d played some slow songs to let everyone rest, because I was incredibly tired after yelling and jumping and pumping my fist for 45 minutes. I would’ve liked to hear Another Morning or Midnight Down or Stalker or… well, pretty much everything.
Yeah, that about does it for bad things.
In summary, I had a freaking awesome time. The trip cost me about $180 with food and gas and hotel and ticket, which I think was a sweet deal. I’ve not yet been to a concert anywhere near as awesome as the concert that night (of which the pillows were clearly the most awesome performer).
san francisco reports
studio z all ages meet and greet. 3.27.2005. by terra.
most of the venues on the u.s. tour were unfortunately 21+ only, and studio z, among others, bore a great deal of pleading and begging from underage fans. with less than twenty-four hours notice, studio z and the pillows were gracious enough to organize a special meet and greet for fans under 21. it was a rainy, nasty day, and probably no more than twenty or so people showed up. a nice fellow from geneon was acting as translator and started us off asking questions for the pillows, and the noodles as well.
random bits:
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+ jun suzuki is still considered a support bassist because he was not an original member. he has not been with them so long, thus he is ‘younger’ (kind of a japanese seniority thing).
+ they were very surprised at the response in america.
+ sawao says he is the pillows’ biggest fan, and he never stops working. but the others like vacation.
+ when asked how they write their songs, sawao said that he would come up with a melody line, and they would just get together and jam and come up with something without really writing it down.
+ favorite bands? sawao – the breeders. manabe – bob marley. shinichirou – the clash. suzuki – the pixies.
+ their name is indeed taken from the pillows and prayers album. manabe had a poster in his room.
+ sawao doesn’t really practice.
not many people had questions for the noodles. i did ask what they would do now that junko had left, and they said they intended to continue as a trio.
after we finished up with questions, everyone got to line up and get autographs and photos. <3
japan girls nite at studio z. 3.27.2005. by terra.
it had been raining on and off that day, and that evening it started to rain again. to make sure we’d have a good spot to watch the show, my friends and i lined up early and were lucky enough to be among the few crammed under the far too small awning set up in front of the entrance, which barely protected us from the rain and not at all from the wind and chill. at one point the canvas separated from the frame of the awning, and a tall guy was gracious enough to fix it. as we waited impatiently, we could hear the emeralds doing their sound check inside. we also saw the diminuitive girls of the titan go king’s scurry inside. we chatted a little with a girl who’d come with her boyfriend- she said she was not a huge fan of the pillows, but liked them well enough to let him drag her along to see them- and they lived a good few hours drive from san francisco.
at last our patience was rewarded, and we eagerly dashed inside to snap up merchandise and secure a good spot to view the show. studio z is somewhat dumpy looking, inside and sout, but when it’s dim and dark and good music is playing, it hardly matters. since there were a total of six bands playing that night, the sets were by necessity short but sweet. and though the other performances were quite enjoyable, i (and most likely plenty of other people in the crowd) kept thinking ‘hurry up! get to the pillows already!’
by the time the pillows finally took the stage, the crowd was more than ready. there was plenty of screaming and fist waving. as at other shows, sawao requested some crazy dancing after the first song or two- he told us the audience in japan was more exciting. not to say we weren’t enthusiastic, but the audience never really got moving until the end. though it was only seven songs, the pillows’ set was solid- they were all sweating and having a good time. sawao was high-energy throughout and pulled off a beautiful stage dive, running off the stage into the waiting arms of the audience, fists in the air. by the last song, the whole crowd was swaying back and forth to ‘little busters’.
after this show i came to a conclusion: i can’t get enough of the pillows. i want to see them again.
