OzzFest Japan 2015

Yesterday, my wife, our daughters and I went to OzzFest Japan 2015!
It was great!

OzzFest Japan 2015

Two years ago I went to OzzFest Japan 2013 with my friend.

Sign outside the Makuhari Messe venue for OzzFestJapan 2015.

It was a long day. We were there for twelve hours!
Here’s the line-up of bands we saw:

OzzFest Japan 2015, day-2, morning line-up	OzzFest Japan 2015, day-2, afternoon line-up
OzzFest Japan 2015, day-2, evening line-up

I bought an Ozzy Osbourne T-shirt and sweatshirt:

The Ozzy T-shirt I bought.

The Ozzy sweatshirt I bought.

All of the bands were very entertaining! But the bands that we were really looking forward to seeing were on from 2:50PM til the end.

At 2:50 were the Japanese band “9mm Parabellum Bullet” (called “kyuu-milli” for short).

“9mm Parabellum Bullet” took the stage.

My second daughter has been a big fan of this band for years. She’s seen them in concert a number of times. This was the first time that I’ve seen them on stage…though, I’m familiar with their songs since my daughter is a fan.

“9mm Parabellum Bullet” (© ozzfestjapan.com )

“9mm Parabellum Bullet” (© ozzfestjapan.com )

“9mm Parabellum Bullet” (© ozzfestjapan.com )

“9mm Parabellum Bullet” (© ozzfestjapan.com )

After that was Black Label Society! I’m a fan of this band! After they played, my daughters said that Zakk Wylde is “cool”.

“Black Label Society”

“Black Label Society”

“Black Label Society” (© ozzfestjapan.com )

“Black Label Society” (© ozzfestjapan.com )

“Black Label Society” (© ozzfestjapan.com )

“Black Label Society” (© ozzfestjapan.com )

And then the Japanese “horror rock” band 人間椅子 (Ningen-Isu) played. I saw this band before at OzzFest Japan 2013. They were inspired by the Japanese horror writer Edogawa Ranpo (who took his pen-name from his inspiration: horror author Edgar Allen Poe):

人間椅子

「人間椅子」 (© ozzfestjapan.com )

「人間椅子」 (© ozzfestjapan.com )

「人間椅子」 (© ozzfestjapan.com )

And then the loud, energetic band Hatebreed took the stage!

“Hatebreed” (© ozzfestjapan.com )

“Hatebreed” (© ozzfestjapan.com )
The guitarist wore a KISS T-shirt!

Next was Baby Metal. Do you know about the Japanese band Baby Metal? They combine heavy-metal with J-pop. (Click here to read my post about them.)
I don’t really care for their music…but they have many dedicated fans! In fact, Baby Metal were the only act at OzzFestJapan to have a rule limiting the number of their T-shirts that fans could buy, and they were still the only act to have their merchandise completely be sold-out!

“Baby Metal”

“Baby Metal”

“Baby Metal” (© ozzfestjapan.com )

At 6:50PM, Jane’s Addiction took the stage. This is another band that has many fans but I don’t really care for.
I had heard that Yoshiki would be performing a song with them…and sure enough, before one their songs, the singer announced their “friend Yoo-shee-kee” (a very non-Japanese pronunciation of the Japanese name よしき).

“Jane’s Addiction” with Yoshiki of “X-Japan” on piano. (© ozzfestjapan.com )

And then…it was time for Ozzy Osbourne & friends!

“Ozzy Osbourne & friends”!!

“Ozzy Osbourne & friends”!!

In addition to his current band members, Gus G., Rob Nicholson and Tommy Clufetos (who is a very cool drummer!)…Geezer Butler (“Black Sabbath”) played bass on all Black Sabbath songs that Ozzy played, and at times the guitar position altered between Zakk Wylde (“Black Label Society”), Dave Navarro (“Jane’s Addiction”) and Tom Morello (“Rage Against The Machine”).

For the final encore, the Black Sabbath song “Paranoid” was played and all members (Ozzy Osbourne, Gus G., Rob Nicholson, Tommy Clufetos, Geezer Butler, Zakk Wylde, Dave Navarro and Tom Morello all took the stage together…and then, as Ozzy promised, the popular Japanese mascot character “Funassyi” (who represents Funabashi, Chiba, Japan) was invited onstage to get hosed down by Ozzy Osbourne. (Throughout his show, Ozzy sprayed the front row of the audience with a foam hose, as he often does at his concerts).

“Let the madness begin!!”

Ozzy Osbourne and Gus G. (© ozzfestjapan.com )

Ozzy Osbourne!

Ozzy Osbourne (© ozzfestjapan.com )

The legendary Ozzy Osbourne!

Tom Morello turned his guitar around to reveal this message.(© ozzfestjapan.com )

Zakk Wylde on stage with Ozzy again.

Ozzy spraying Funnasyi

Funnasyi being hosed down by Ozzy.

Funnasyi is a fan of Ozzy Osbourne

Ozzy on stage with Gus, Tommy, Rob, Adam, Geezer, Zakk, Dave, Tom…and Funnasyi!

Ozzy & friends

Ozzy & friends

Ozzy & friends…final bow! Thank you for an excellent show!

(All photos in this post were taken by my wife, my daughters and myself…except for the 19 that are from the official OzzFestJapan website (and labeled as such)).

The setlist that Ozzy Osbourne & friends played:

1. I Don’t Know
2. Mr. Crowley (with Tom Morello)
3. Bark at the Moon (with Tom Morello)
4. Suicide Solution
5. Flying High Again
6. Shot in the Dark
7. Guitar solo / Bass solo / Drum solo
8. Iron Man (with Tom Morello and Geezer Butler)
9. N.I.B. (with Tom Morello and Geezer Butler)
10. Snowblind (with Geezer Butler)
11. Behind the Wall of Sleep (with Geezer Butler)
12. War Pigs (with Geezer Butler and Dave Navarro)
13. Fairies Wear Boots (with Geezer Butler and Dave Navarro)
14. I Don’t Want to Change the World (with Zakk Wylde)
15. Crazy Train (with Zakk Wylde)
16. Mama, I’m Coming Home (with Zakk Wylde)
17. Paranoid (with Geezer Butler, Tom Morello, Dave Navarro, Zakk Wylde and Funassyi)

OzzFest Japan

Yesterday (2013 May 12), my friend and I went to OzzFest Japan.

It was great!

We went the second day of the two-day heavy metal festival. There were bands on the first day that I would’ve like to see…namely Slipknot, but I mostly wanted to see Black Sabbath.

Here’s the line-up of bands that I saw:

Black Sabbath played:
“War Pigs“, “Into the Void“, “Under the Sun“, “Snowblind“, “Black Sabbath“, “Behind the Wall of Sleep“, “N.I.B.“, “Fairies Wear Boots“, “Symptom of the Universe“, “Iron Man“, “God Is Dead“, “Children of the Grave”
and the encore was “Paranoid“.

Here’s a photo that I took of Ozzy Osbourne:

(A bit blurry…)

 

OzzFest!

First of all, today is November 3rd…the Japanese holiday 「文化の日」(“Culture Day”).
If you went to the 浅草 (Asakusa) area of Tokyo today, you would have seen the interesting 「東京時代祭り」(“Tokyo-Era Festival”).

I’ve been to that festival a couple of times before. Click here to see the photos and videos I took of it in 2008.

Anyways, I found out yesterday that the godfathers of heavy metal, Black Sabbath will come to Japan in May 2013!

Ozzy Osbourne will bring his metal festival “OzzFest” to Japan for the first time!

Click here to visit the official OzzFest Japan website.

On Saturday, May 11th 2013, Slipknot will headline.
On Sunday, May 12th 2013, Black Sabbath will headline.

The venue will be the Makuhari Messe not far from Tokyo.

“Star Wars Celebration Japan” (post #2)

Yesterday I went to the 幕張メッセ (Makuhari Messe Convention Hall) in 千葉県 (Chiba Prefecture) for the Star Wars Celebration Japan.

Star Wars Celebration Japan poster.

This event was to mark the 30th anniversary of the premiere of the first Star Wars movie in Japan in 1978.

Last week, I wrote a post about this convention.

You can read that post here.

I didn’t have tickets for the “Star Wars Celebration Japan“…but I wanted to take some photos outside the venue for my friend who is a big Star Wars fan, but was unable to attend this event.

But, there wasn’t much outside the venue to photograph (inside the venue was a different story, I’m sure).

Anyways, here are the photos I took of the 2008 Star Wars Celebration Japan:

Darth Vader	Stormtrooper and a fan.
Stormtrooper with more fans	Another shot of him

And I took four videos and uploaded them to my YouTube Page.

Like I mentioned though, there wasn’t alot for me to film since I wasn’t able to go inside the venue.

That said, here are my videos of the Star Wars Celebration Japan:

*****

After I left there, I met up with my wife and daughters and we went to watch the movie 「ゲゲゲの鬼太郎 (千年呪い歌)」 (Ge-Ge-Ge-No-Kitarou (1000 Year Cursed Song)).

「ゲゲゲの鬼太郎」 movie poster

It was a pretty good movie. I liked the first 「ゲゲゲの鬼太郎」 (Ge-Ge-Ge-No-Kitarou ) movie better though…but this sequel was still good.

One main difference between 映画館 (movie theaters) in Japan and those in America is that it’s perfectly acceptable to bring your own food and drinks into the theaters in Japan (rather than being forced to buy something at their snack counter).

(Another difference is the things that are sold at the counters in the theaters….in movie theaters in Japan, the snack counters sell programs and souvenirs for the movie, as well as sandwiches and beer (in addition to popcorn and cola)).

Anyways, we bought our food at a supermarket near the theater and carried it in.

We had 寿司 (sushi) and beer (the kids didn’t drink beer, of course! They had お茶 (Japanese green tea)).

寿司 (Sushi) in a supermarket

Star Wars Celebration

Next weekend (Friday, July 19 – Monday, July 21 (July 21 is a holiday in Japan (Click here for my FAQ about it)), is the Star Wars Celebration in 千葉県 (Chiba prefecture), Japan.

It’s being held to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the release of the Star Wars movie in Japan.

For this event, Pepsi Cola is giving away small bear toys designed to look like Star Wars characters with purchases of their “NEX Zero Calorie” cola. These bears are made by Be@rbrick.

I’m not much of a cola drinker…especially “zero calorie” cola, but I bought a few bottles just so I could have the Star Wars souvenirs. They might become valuable one day!

I got the Yoda one (even though it’s the ugliest one), as well as Darth Vader, Darth Maul, and a Stormtrooper (because I’ve always liked the villains!).

It turns out, though, that the only ones that are exclusive to Japan are “Wicket” and “Paploo“.

I’ve never heard of these characters (I like the Star Wars movies…but I’m not a huge fan), but I’m gonna try to get them both (since they’re “Japan only”)!

My friend from high school is a huge Star Wars fan and wants to come to Japan to attend this event. If he does come to Japan, then I’ll go to the Star Wars Celebration with him…otherwise it’s unlikely that I’ll go.