せんしゅうまつの おんがく まつり。

So, a couple of weekends ago we took two days off and went to Osaka for, Summersonic 2007, which was damn fine.

Here's photos:

OK Go rocking out.

Some guy not really rocking out very much.

um, Motörhead doing their Motörheady thing.

Bron and Laura and Yuki and Nicky.

Cansei de Ser Sexy, being about as fun as they look (which isn't sarcastic).

LCD Soundsystem being considerably cooler than they look (they were awesome).

The Polyphonic Spree looking dangerously like they'd become a little bit hardcore...

...until they changed into their old white garb, and looked all happy and wholesome and scary cultish again.

The Cornelius Group being as cool as they were at last year's Meredith, only with more Japanese people listening.

This is (a small part of) the (enormous) crowd for Cyndi Lauper.

Yes, Cyndi Lauper.

Cut Chemist...

...and DJ Shadow.

Very cool show. It's a new one (I don't think it's out on CD yet), called The Hard Sell. Wicked visuals too.

And they finished off by scratching 7"s on portable turntables.

Nice.

So, it was pretty much like the Big Day Out, or whatever other equivalent; 6 stages spaced out nicely, food stalls and stuff, except over two days. And, the venue being on a kind of island-ish area down by the bay, there were shuttle buses to take people back to the train station at the end of each day (music finished at 9pm, which isn't by any means unusual in Japan).

The bummer part was, it took (no exaggeration) 2 hours to wait for a bus, then about another 45 minutes for the bus to make it to the train station. We managed to get on the last train into the city; I don't know what the thousands of people behind us had to do.

So, as a result of the difficulties of transport logistics, we left earlier on the second day (also, we had to get all the way back to Nagoya that night). This is the reason that amongst the above photos you don't see the shining headliners from day 2: Gwen Stefani, Black Eyed Peas, and Avril Lavigne.

So what I should have said is that it's kind of like the Big Day Out, only it contains groups that are even more alternative, and others that are considerably less alternative. Oh well, one does have to appeal to the masses, doesn't one?

All in all, a ripping good time. Made me realise weirdly I missed the feeling of breathing dust while being burned to a crisp in the summer sun.