ENFORCER – LOUD PARK 13. Saitama Super Arena, Tokyo
I had two bands of interest at this years Loud Park festival and the first and main one, KING DIAMOND (also the reason I was about to visit the festival this year), got cancelled:/ We were supposed to hang out a few days before Loud Park and I was already in Tokyo when I got the message from Livia. All the KD stage gear being on a boat which got stuck in some Chinese harbour due to terrible weather, and couldn´t make it in time for the festival. So the KD show got cancelled in last minute when they were supposed to leave for the airport. A couple of guys from the band/crew already left so they at least got to have some days in Tokyo.
The second band of interest, ENFORCER, were great, tho!!! Awesome performance infront of a huge cheering crowd. They also got great reviews and response after the gig. Really happy for them! Well deserved!:))
Thanks to Akira (Spiritual Beast) who again took care of my passes!
The Loud Park festival is the biggest metal happening in Japan with mostly bands which are frequenting our part of the world. I did see SLAYER and ROB ZOMBIE there a couple of years earlier, tho, but mostly it has been fun just to hang around and see how tings are done at a huge Japanese indoor festival. Extremely organized:)))
Besides the gig, there were also a nice LP afterparty at From Dusk Till Dawn bar in Kabukicho,Shinjuku. Conviniently very close to where I was staying, but it was still a bit of a struggle to find the way late at night, not totally sober:)) So many small alleys in the neighborhood.The day before we had a day out with BEHEMOTH (Nergal, Orion, Michael from Season of Mist & some of the crew. Pumpkin & Bunny ftw!!) with shopping, dinner and some beers & shots at the Train Bar in Roppongi. One of the days I also went to Yokohama to see Ryo´s (COFFINS) doom band GUEVNNA and met up with all the COFFINS guys at Tama Center in Tokyo where they played an afternoon outdoor gig. Good times:))
So quite a lot of metal stuff anyways on this trip. And I do love Japan & Tokyo, so time there is never wasted![Edit 2024: Should and will at some point make new edits of the small and shitty pictures:) Just need to take the time and find the originals]
SNAPSHOTS FROM THE VENUE, THE HOTEL AND THE LP AFTERPARTY IN SHINJUKU
»MORE PICTURES
I can´t really understand why I didn´t take more (and more serious) video while in Japan…just some very few, really sucky clips which I tried to glue together. Probably they´re just fun for us but I´ll share with you anyway:) Got one more, just have to send it on YouTube. The first clip was over 8 minutes but YouTube cut it in half!!!!! Don´t know why…So you miss the Slayer finale. Some from the backstage bar with the labelguys (Spiritual Beast) and the Brasilian band Hibria, our friends Takashi & Miho from Hiroshima and some (short) clips of Rob Zombie & Slayer (live that is..).
Earlier when my friend Takashi asked if he would buy us some tickets to the Loud Park festival, we said no. It was quite expensive, most of the bands play in Sweden all the time (except ROB ZOMBIE!!) and most of all, we thought we had far too little time to spend in Tokyo anyway, so a whole day on a festival…naaahhhh. Why we even discussed it, was mostly because we thought it would be so cool to go to a Japanese festival with a JAPANESE audience:) Then we thought it could be nicer to go to some small metalclub in Tokyo instead.
