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For those that don’t know, Japan’s Summer Sonic is a massive music festival, annually taking place over an early-August weekend in two different cities at once – Osaka and Tokyo.
Last year I was lucky enough to travel with one of my best mates to a few Asian countries – Japan being our major adventure, and Summer Sonic in Tokyo being the focal point of our trip.
Now, each year Summer Sonic acts as almost a sister-festival to our Splendour in the Grass, in that the line-up for Summer Sonic is usually indicative of who will play at Splendour (well, maybe except this year), but there are still some very big names on Summer Sonic’s line-up that don’t make it over here.
Last year’s massive bill included: the legendary Jay-Z; the immortal Stevie Wonder; A-Ha; Pixies; Black Rebel Motorcycle Club; the amazing A Tribe Called Quest; Sigur Ros' Jonsi;
The guys behind Summer Sonic must have enormous pull in this industry (and a lot of money) to consistently bring some of the biggest names in almost every genre imaginable to play their festival – so no matter what the year, you are guaranteed to witness one of the best lineups an annual festival has to offer.
Day 1
On the first day of Summer Sonic we were criminally late to the venue because of a bit too much to drink the night before. In fact, on the train to the venue I was sick multiple times, so I had to stop off at a shopping mall and buy myself a new shirt – I bought a yellow shirt that said ‘banana’ on it in large letters, with a picture of a banana (why I’m describing this will become apparent soon, be patient!). With that sorted, it was off to the festival.
As soon as I entered Summer Sonic it was clear that this would be different from any festival I have ever been to. We walked into the foyer of one of the main buildings and made our way down to the HUGE food court, which included a few small stages (including young girls pole dancing on one stage, and some Japanese comedians on the other) and clothing stores.
Exploring the building further, we found the ‘dance’ stage, which was set up in a medium-sized space (maybe half the size of Sydney’s Royal Hall of Industries), where Calvin Harris and Uffie were keeping the crowd jumping.
In the next, much larger room, one of the main stages played host to the likes of A-Ha, Passion Pit and Orbital – A-Ha wasn’t so great but Passion Pit and Orbital’s sets were top notch.
Thinking that we were in the main area of the festival was a bit rash, as a ten minute walk outside brought us to an overwhelmingly large area in which there was a huge stadium – where the biggest stage was – a large variety of food stands (with a bit more of a western feel than in the aforementioned building), some smaller stages surrounding the stadium and a pathway which lead to a beach! Yes, there was a beach stage, which also neighboured a skating ramp where talented skaters put on quite a show.
The beach stage was a perfect hangout (and unlike Shore Thing – it’s actually on the beach) and where I saw the wonderful Girls and a bit of Eels.
However, it was back to the stadium for the day's headliner – Jay-Z – and having not seen him post-Blueprint III, I was more than excited as we shuffled into the massive crowd. What you notice about a Japanese festival crowd is how very polite they all are, and just generally happy – which is infectious! As Jay-Z progressed through an awesome set, the crowd seemed to be a bit more subdued than say an American or Australian crowd – which isn’t necessarily a bad thing – it just creates an environment which is much different from what I’m used to.
Towards the end, Jay-Z seemed to notice the quietness, and tried to rile us with a ‘make some noise!’ but rather than a loud crowd-scream, Jigga was met with a polite round of applause.
With the headliner of the day wrapping up, you’d expect the festival to be over – far from it actually. The first day went until 5am!
Struck with thirst, my mate and I headed to one of the food stands outside the stadium – we picked a ‘banana juice’ stand. I rocked up and asked for a delicious-looking banana smoothie, but all I got in return was silence, and staring. Repeating my request didn’t help as the workers stared at me open-mouthed. One of the workers pointed at me and said “banana!” (referring to my aforementioned yellow banana shirt) – I nodded and repeated my request which only made them smile and deem me “the banana king” while smiling, nodding and laughing to themselves. They asked me about my history with bananas and stated “you must really love bananas.” They then tried to make me their mascot for the day, and each of the workers took turns taking photos with me – I still hadn’t gotten my shake! After about 15 minutes of them begging me to be their mascot, they gave me the shake and I left to the dance stage.
Steve Aoki and Busy P, amongst others, took us into the morning, but not before we discovered that they had a pop-up casino in the building, with a pretty good marketing strategy. You would buy a mixed drink and receive some chips which you would then gamble on either roulette or blackjack to win either more drinks or some pretty sweet prizes (like VIP tickets to this year’s Summer Sonic). My mate seemed to settle down at the black jack table for a good few hours while I explored the authentic Asian food stands that served some of the best Asian food I’ve ever had. They even had fusion Asian burritos which were very tasty, and cheap.
There was a large mat of fake grass where many people opted to take naps between acts (a bit like the hammock section at Lollapooloza), and many people seemed to have the idea to just sleep at Summer Sonic instead of going home – unfortunately, security didn’t allow that and we ended up getting home around 7am.
Day 2
Arriving around mid-afternoon, we immediately immersed ourselves into a legendary set from A Tribe Called Quest, just catching the start of "Can I Kick It", which started off a string of classics – "Scenario" and "Award Tour" being the most energetic, with the crowd showing much love for THE greatest hip-hop group to ever do it. Q-Tip even brought out a translator to tell everybody in the seated area to let loose and jump around.
Throughout the day we saw some of the weekend’s stand-out acts, including Black Rebel Motorcyle Club, and Jonsi, who was just awe-inspiring. However, moving away from the mellow-ness, we ventured to the dance stage to bear witness to the quirky Die Antwoord, and they put on a spectacular set which consisted of (very) deep bass, awesome lighting, and a lot of sexual references.
Our headliner activity was shared between Stevie Wonder and Pixies. Catching the first half of the iconic Stevie Wonder proved difficult, as the line up to get in the stadium was massive. Thankfully, it was well-organized, and we all managed to get into the stadium without any pushing or shoving. The singer dazzled us with his full band and well-improvised set, giving off a really laid-back vibe and proving very different from most sets, as it all seemed unplanned and unstructured – instead of this being a bad thing, it turned out great as Stevie did pretty much whatever he wanted, from singing happy birthday to serenading one of his dancers.
Having seen Stevie Wonder before, I wasn’t too fussed about leaving to see Pixies which was a great decision as they put on one of the best rock performances I have seen, the well-known "Where Is My Mind" and "Debaser" being the highlights.
With this day of the festival only going till 12am (still later than most other festivals!) I was thankful to be able to get some proper sleep after the festival, but not before re-visiting the banana juice stand (in a different shirt of course) and as soon as I approached them the workers began cheering, clapping, and chanting ‘Banana! Banana!’ The manager even came out, shook my hand (said congratulations – I have no idea why) and took some pictures with me. It was hilarious.
This festival was undoubtedly one of the most unique and fun experiences I’ve had, and I would not hesitate to recommend this to anyone. From the fun-loving locals, to the huge acts, to the variety of food on offer – Summer Sonic is quite different from your typical music festival, and a must for lovers of music around the world!
The festival seems to be going ahead this year despite the recent disaster, and it being a few months away now you can be sure it will be a safe and enjoyable adventure. This year's huge line-up is being headlined by The Strokes and The Red Hot Chilli Peppers, and includes stand-out acts like: OFWGKTA, Death From Above 1979, Primal Scream, The Mars Volta, James Blunt, Friendly Fires, Two Door Cinema Club, Beady Eye, The Ting Tings, Bow Wow Wow, and... Simple Plan.
You can be sure I will be going again this year - you should come!
