I watched the best show I’ve ever watched in my entire life. When I walked out of Concert Hall at Esplanade, I felt as if I could be knocked down by a car right that very moment and I’d be satisfied. I’d die without regrets, even if I had not achieved anything in my entire life.. I’d go without a second thought.
Maywa Denki. According to the website:
“Maywa Denki is an art unit produced by Nobumichi Tosa. It is named after the company his father used to run in bygone days. The costume is designed as a typical working uniform of Japanese electric stores, symbolising small/medium-sized enterprises that had once supported Japanese economy during its high-growth period. It’s unique style is indicated by a term he uses, for example, each piece of Maywa Denki’s work is called “a product” and a live performance or exhibition is held as “a product demonstration”. The products produced so far include “NAKI series”, fish motif nonsense machines, “TSUKUBA series”, original musical instruments, and “ARCLASSY series”, proposal of a lifestyle with Maywa Denki. Although Maywa Denki is known and appreciated as an artist, its promotion strategies are full of variety: exhibitions, live stages, performances, producting music, videos, writing, merchandising toys, stationery, and electric devices.”
The performance tonight was so full of fun, laughter, energy and absolute quirkiness that 1.5 hours just flew by as if only 5 mins had passed. It was that enjoyable. Ours was the “TSUKABA series” so we saw a whole lot of DIY music equipment.. There were “Automatic Tap Dancing Shoes”, “Maywa Denki Dancers” from Taiwan who can only do the punching dance, “Singing Robot”, “Automatic Guitar” etc etc. There was a bass, an acoustic guitar, drums, electric guitar, saxophone/trumpet combination.. And everything is DIY. It’s all made up of parts here and there from all sorts of places. And the sound that these machines make, sound just like the real thing!!!!!
I was so impressed with the whole performance, with the commitment and the effort put into every single one of their machines. And that amidst that Tosa can still inject lots of humor into the entire performance to make it even more enjoyable. His charm and his charisma and his vibe of easy-goingness that totally endeared the entire thousand odd audience. I couldn’t take my eyes off him, cos everything that he was doing was so captivating, so… magnetic.
I’m not very good with words so it’s very hard for me to describe the concert. Just that FANTASTIC is a gross understatement.
A video montage of the TSUKABA series:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hnx3P2V4pRQ&hl=en&fs=1&]
And I bought this:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nxBK2EdRvh4]
In pastel blue. Spent S$80 on it.
Horrendously expensive, time is only told in Japanese and almost practically useless as a real watch.. But it’s just damn cool.
BUT. I think the total experience was absolutely worth it. Concert tickets = S$35. Zihotch = S$80. Total = S$115. 1.5 hours of pure entertainment. How can it not be worth my dough?
I’d pay double to watch it again.
Some youtube videos to let you experience!
They did this too at the concert!
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2q1hMe9hDrI&hl=en&fs=1&]
A music show:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Gd4lc045ns&hl=en&fs=1&]