Introduction Class was in session Saturday evening at Nihon University. The course? How to rock like a champ. The school's weeklong bunka-sai festivities culminated with The Back Horn and the band apart giving students (and the general public) the best lecture Nihon U. will see all year. back to features		The Back Horn/the band apart @ Nihon University The Back Horn and the band apart seem like an incompatible pair, which makes bringing them together an unlikely move. But from the start, Nihon University was gunning for an unconventional setup. The chosen venue was the gymnasium, and rather than fill it to capacity, the school elected to limit tickets to 2000 and set up dozens upon dozens of rows of folding chairs in the center of the gym. While no one sat down during the actual concert, the chairs severely restricted movement in the audience. A subtle method of crowd control, perhaps. Playing the teaching assistants to visting professors The Back Horn, the band apart opened the show. Their two studio albums are replete with complex guitar interplay and deceptively challenging arrangements, but the band faithfully executed their set down to every note and rhythm. Can you guess who the most popular member of the band is? Not their frontman. Not the guitarist, and not their drummer. It's their chubby bassist, Hara, who the fans love, as evidenced by the screams and standing ovation he received from his two-word introduction and his short joke that he warms up before a performance by bench-pressing. This reaction, however, comes as no surprise, as Hara takes over the entire stage with his unpredictable playing. One minute he rocks out with a wide, self-satisfied grin, and the next he suddenly crouches down and sneaks around the stage to find another place to rock out, all before rushing back to the microphone to add his backup vocals into the mix. This is all while playing his basslines, which themselves are nothing to scoff at. Kogure Eiichi, their drummer, shines much brighter during the band's live performance as well. On the albums his playing was challenging, yet slightly understated. In person, Kogure immediately grabs more of the spotlight, especially during the band apart's newer material. His eager style shows tendencies of evolving towards Urayama's (of Acidman) one-man percussion blitz. Expect great things from him on their next recording. While the band's newer material held the crowd's attention sufficiently, it was undoubtedly the selections off K. And His Bike that won over the audience. The bouncing between jazzy and rocking verses during "fuel" made it the most exciting number of the set, and its closely interwoven guitars floored the onlookers. "Eric.W" became a coup for guitarist Kawasaki as he not only executed his fast, funky riffs flawlessly, but during the final verse concocted new lines that approached near-virtuosity. And as the final touch, singer Arai gave their old material an extra melodic punch. During the many harmonized vocal sections with Hara, Arai moved his vocals up an octave for a pleasant effect that would have made K. And His Bike even better. Clearly, the band apart pulled off a superlative performance, but to say anything other than they were overshadowed by the day's headliner would be a lie. The Back Horn made themselves on hard, loud, emotional rock, and they stretch their onstage dramatics as far as they can. At the very onset, the band members slowly emerged, bathed in dark blue light and accompanied by a creepy minor-key electronic dirge. This alone electrified the audience more than anything during the previous set. They knew what was coming. The Back Horn opened with "Requiem." For anyone desensitized to nu-metal riffing, "Requiem" is unlikely to hold much appeal, and the song progressed as a slightly disappointing opener. Until the instrumental section that is, where the band suddenly flipped out, Suganami Eijun shredding on his guitar violently while it literally looked like bodies were flying across the stage. As much as some followers of Japanese music may scorn visual kei bands, image still plays a major role in conveying the band's message to the audience. Unlike visual rockers, The Back Horn does not slather on makeup nor play dress-up, but when it comes to image, the band is stacked. Frontman Yamada Masashi takes over center stage like a warlord, and with no guitar to get in his way, crawls over amplifiers and leans out over the audience to deliver his intense vocals with unbridled passion. During instrumentals he feeds off Suganami's guitar as he spastically dances around like a man possessed. Meanwhile, Suganami and drummer Matsuda Shinji wear the kind of ferocious gazes that could pierce concrete. This band does not joke around. Okamine Koshu usually plays the cool foil to the other members' heated personalities, but even he gives in to the fever when the performance reaches boiling point. If this all sounds over the top, it is. But it makes for a spectacular display, dropping even more intensity onto a band known for its fierceness. "Ikusen Kounen no Kodoku," what should have been the obvious choice to kick off the show, followed "Requiem," providing the proper introduction to the band. The fiery first track off Ningen Program had no less than double the impact live, especially when the reintroduction of the guitar and vocals exploded into the start of the bridge with the impact of an impressively potent backhand to the face. "Hikari no Kesshou," up next, was the peak of the performance. Neither the original recording on Ikiru Sainou nor the live track on Ubugoe Chainsaw properly convey the magnitude of this song. Suganami turned up the melody on the guitar several notches and matched the intensity of Yamada's voice blow for blow for the duration, and the transcendent moment when the key riff collided with the haunting vocals of the chorus absolutely defined the show. Two songs later, "Seimeisen" hit the second home run of the night. The original single from 2003 was few cc's of adrenaline short of fulfulling its potential, but here too The Back Horn turned it around, opening the floodgates with a tremendous buildup into the chorus as Yamada unleashed the song's best hooks with his tremendous pipes. "Black Hole Birthday," the newest entry into the band's catalog, made an impressive debut as well. The verses, sparse and reminiscent of the band's Ningen Program-era songwriting, are punctuated by Matsuda's heavy double-time percussion and periodic dissonant chords from the guitar. The lighting work was well thought out as well; pairs of bright white lights flared in time with each release of jagged guitar noise. The chorus literally turned a 180 on the song, jumping directly into one of the most anthemic and sweeping arrangements The Back Horn has ever played. "Cobalt Blue" was the only slight disappointment of the show. The most exciting track off Headphone Children does not throw any suprises; it commands the same intensity as in the studio and not much more. The selection of "Cobalt Blue," interestingly, shocked much of audience. The lyrics about kamikaze pilots may have made it a dubious choice for a performance at a learning institution. Regardless, whatever momentum (if any) the band lost was quickly regained during their encore of "Sunny." At the conclusion of the song Yamada spirited himself away as Suganami took center stage and started improvising wicked riffs to close out the show. That The Back Horn have managed to maintain this amount of fire in their music and performances for over seven years is a major feat. Looking at Yamada's pained face as he belts out the lyrics, the wicked smile that emerges on Suganami's face just before every explosion into a song's chorus, Matsuda's frantic mouthing of the lyrics while beating the drums and Okamine losing his cool during the most impassioned moments, one thing is extremely clear: this is still a very, very hungry band. the band apart Set List: 1. coral reef 2. violent penetration 3. from resonance 4. higher 5. amplified my sign 6. fuel 7. Eric. W 8. real man's back 9. K. and his Bike The Back Horn Set List: 1. Requiem 2. Ikusen Kounen no Kodoku 3. Hikari no Kessho 4. Hachigatsu no Himitsu 5. Seimeisen 6. Black Hole Birthday 7. Cobalt Blue 8. Kizuna Song Encore: Sunny - James Route, concert held 2005.10.29
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