sukekiyo at O2 Academy

Yesterday afternoon, I got the train to London in order to meet up with my friend Kei (Doing a Thing & Unfortunately Oh!), so that we could then go to see a rather excellent band, sukekiyo, live at O2 Academy Islington (I just wanted to go and enjoy the show, rather than to take photos, so the above picture of my ticket will have to do, sorry!). Whilst waiting in the line outside, Kei ran into a friend of hers & we also got talking to a German girl who had won tickets to the concert and was extremely excited about it. Her enthusiasm was great and I'm so glad that someone like her won those tickets, as opposed to someone totally indifferent to the whole thing! Anyway, we entered the venue after a short while and waited whilst various unrelated songs played, before the show began at around 8pm. 

Unfortunately, I don't remember the set list in order. I do, however, know that they played the whole of their first album, plus a new song too, which made for a decent length of set. Kyo, sukekiyo's singer, had impressive vocals live, with a great range, even staying (mostly) in tune when screaming/grunting. That may not seem impressive, but it is, believe me! The rest of the band also gave solid performances, with Takumi, Yuchi, and Uta switching between different instruments - Takumi from guitar to keyboard, as well as doing the programming via laptops,  Yuchi from bass to upright bass, and Uta from guitar to taishougoto to Japanese zither - and drummer Mika not missing a beat. The result of such diverse talent on one stage was unusual and interesting music executed incredibly well.

Although music rather than theatrics is very much the focus of sukekiyo's performances, there's still something strangely captivating about the atmosphere they create and the stage presence that they have as a collective whole. I would highly recommend going to see them live should you ever have the chance to do so!

EDIT: If you want to listen to some of their music / watch some of their videos, sukekiyo now have a YouTube channel: sukekiyo on YouTube