B'z - Livegym 2003 "Banzai in North America" "BEFORE & AFTER" interviews with Tak and Koshi Don't forget to read some articles about Banzai tour from US newspaper/site

THE "BEFORE" INTERVIEW

Question Since debut, B'z who has kept on running on top position is welcoming 15th year anniversary. When this is mentioned to local Seattle fans, they get very excited. Starting with Los Angeles last year, this time you are going to many more cities on this North American tour. Please tell us more about it.

Tak Last year's Los Angeles and San Diego was the first time of such live shows for B'z. We have always been wanting to do shows in America since long time ago. We had discussions about this. Koshi Not limited to America, if there are people who wish to see B'z lives, I think we would love to try many different places as well. Question What does it mean to the both of you, starting this North American tour?

Tak I think it's a very wonderful thing that there are people who like B'z music. I feel really great when I can see the faces of these people who have been listening to our music. Aside from that, I discovered many things about myself and my performance from last year's concerts.
Koshi Regardless the size of the venue, I think for us, to be able to do concerts is such a big thing. We get our energy from the audience and it becomes our motivation to move into new things. After doing last year's concerts, I felt that we were given courage to go everywhere we want and perform.
Question You have just released a new album, will the tour focus on it this time?
Tak We will do songs from "Big Machine", but we will also perform many songs that everyone knows well.
Koshi I think we will focus on things we have released so far.
Question You performed with Aerosmith on World Cup's stage last year. What will you expect from your abroad concerts from now on?
Tak We will of course consider releases. If there are people who want to hear our music, if the condition permits, we would love to do more concerts.
Koshi Being able to perform together with Aerosmith, just standing on the same stage with those amazing musician was the greatest happiness for me. From now on too, if there's possibility, I think we would like to try more challenges for B'z.
Question Is this your first time in Seattle? If you have free time, what would you use it for?

October 2004

Tak If the time allows it, I would like to pay a visit to Jimi Hendrix's grave. Koshi This is our first time to Seattle. Music, food and people. I wanna get the feel of it all. Question Please give your Seattle fans a message. Tak Ride on the Big Machine! Koshi Just like the title of the tour, I'd like for the concerts to be successful and banzai to the end. I look forward to singing to my heart's content in front of you all.

Tak-shacchou bossing everyone around him

Tak Shane and Barry said 'We will be able to play all songs on the first day', so they rehearsed very seriously to achieve that. It was very helpful of them. Be-with How long was the rehearsal period? Koshi About 1 week? Tak It was exactly 1 week. But I think if we hadn't rehearsed that long, we would have been alright too. Be-with There wasn't party during this year's rehearsal? Tak There wasn't a party, but in L.A. we had dinner, right? Koshi Gyukaku! (Japanese restaurant in West L.A.) Tak Aa, yes! Everyone went to Gyukaku (laugh). Be-with In L.A.? Tak Un, Beverly Hill's Gyukaku (laugh). I've never been to Gyukaku in Japan so I can't compare the price. Koshi Location location. Tak Un. Be-with During the last interview, you haven't decided on the setlist for this North American tour. When was it decided? Koshi We decided during rehearsal, didn't we? Tak Un. We decided some already and then the rest was during rehearsal.

Koshi's lone blues-harp practise at the carpark

Be-with Last year was your first time doing live in America, Billy and Shane gave advices then. Did you get more advice this time?
Koshi I don't think we got any this year.
Tak Shane has toured with us once, so he understands well the shows' atmosphere. So for example, he'd come up many ideas like 'What if we do the ending this way?' or 'What if we start the song this way?'
Be-with Was there any difference in the way you decide on the tour setlists in Japan and in America?
Koshi The countries may be different, but it mostly depends on the capacity of the venues. Because the North American tour's venues are mostly club-house size. Basically not much talking, the music is main point, patto non-stop, keep the interest going. I think everyone agreed on this.

LAS VEGAS: KOSHI & O-NIKU
Be-with Las Vegas was the first stop.
Tak It was "House of Blues" inside a hotel ne. Outside the venue, other places were all casinos.
Be-with We heard that you ate at the "House of Blues".
Tak I went there long time ago. Maybe last year? When we had photo-shoot for pamphlet, we stayed for quite a while there, so we went for Cajun meals together. You know, they had CM inside the restaurant, that 'B'z is playing'.

Be-with We also heard that Inaba-san went to eat a very big piece of o-niku (=meat) in Las Vegas.
Koshi (laugh) It is a meat country. So I thought 'let's all start with a hearty meaty meal!' It was too big... 600 gram? Am I wrong?
Rik 700 gram ne.
Tak In Japan, 700 gram is unbelievable.
Koshi Before grilling it, they brought lots of sample of the meat to us.
Tak Un, 'which one would you like?'
Koshi Konna... like this! (spreading his arms) And they took out the meat in the wrapper and explained 'kore deshou? kore deshou?' So I ordered 'Jaa, sore de'. When it came out, I tried as hard as I could... I thought I must finish all of it, but I left some (laugh). Rik ate all of it ne.
Rik Hai.
Tak Sasuga da ne!
Koshi It was one set with mash potato. I was thinking 'Wow, Americans are sugoi naa', then I looked around and saw that everyone couldn't finish either, even the Americans! (laugh)
Everyone (laugh)
Koshi 'I tried so hard to finish, what should I do!' (laugh) Plus there was no taste anymore in the end, I forced myself to keep eating. I had no idea whether it was umai or not anymore.
Tak They only put salt and black pepper in the US, right?
Koshi Un. It was oishii at first, but after half... (laugh) I lost all the taste.
Be-with It became like punishment game.
Koshi Sou! (laugh) Way too big.
Tak How much was it?
Koshi How much was it?
Rik About $20 to $30.
Tak That's quite cheap ne. $30 for 700 gram steak, right?
Be-with Is there any steak bigger than 700 gram?
Tak Bigger than 700 gram would be 1 kilogram! Nobody can eat so much, right!
Everyone (laugh)
Koshi No matter which table I saw, 'wow, everyone is eating, everyone is eating'. I kept looking back to check on them.
Be-with Las Vegas is a tourist attraction place, so a lot more tourists in the live?
Koshi Las Vegas is basically a sight-seeing city, so even the Caucasians are probably from some other countries. I think some of them came to the show with their Japanese friends. Only Las Vegas was kinda special in this case, I think.
Tak Un.
Koshi Las Vegas doesn't really have that many local people, right? Maybe some people came to the live from around San Fransisco.
Tak Gradually many more kinds of people come to the shows.
Be-with So it wasn't just the Americans and the Japaneses?
Koshi White people, black people...
Tak It was the first time that an African American came to attend our show ne.
Koshi Also many Asians.
Be-with I think for sure there are many Japanese living in the States. Anyway, this year is different from last year, you felt that the audience has broadened.
Tak Un. I think it really has. We really felt good about doing the tour. It's become more and more meaningful.

Getting the crowd to clap to the rhythm in "Taiyou no Komachi Angel"

LOS ANGELES & SAN FRANSISCO: TAK & ALCATRAZ
Be-with Last year in L.A., you had many VIP guests, did they come too this year?
Tak Who came last year?
Koshi To the changing room? Many of them.
Tak Are? Maybe not the musicians? Aa! Narada Michael Walden, the super drummer.
Koshi He came to see us both days (laugh).
Be-with Matsumoto-san went sight-seeing in San Fransisco.
Tak I have been to Alcatraz before, but I went again.
Be-with How was the inside? Did they have automatic guide system?
Tak Sou. I chose the Japanese guide this time, they really seriously worked on it. But no difference from the English, it says, 'Oirashaaai...' (=welcome) (laugh)
Koshi Really? Wasn't it weird in Japanese? (laugh)
Tak In a very solemn, Al Capone-ish pattern of speech 'Ano toki wa taihen dattan da zeee~ ... asshi...' (laugh) (=It was a very hard time... deathly).
Koshi 'Asshi...' (laugh), they didn't really say asshi, did they? (laugh)
Tak I guess they didn't (laugh).
Koshi No (laugh).
Tak But going there made me think that these people really existed naa.
Be-with It's a really small island, isn't it?
Tak Very. The island was very small so the jails themselves were even smaller.
Be-with Noone has ever escaped, right?
Tak But there was. I don't know if these people who got away are still living though.
Be-with So after Alcatraz, did you go and eat some delicious food?
Tak Aa, I had clam chowder at the sea-side.
Koshi Aa, oishii yo ne.
Tak Afterwards I went walking to Chinatown by myself. It was really nice.
Koshi The weather was good ne.
Tak Weather was good, I felt really good.
Be-with You also went to eat ramen.
Tak I went to the ramen-ya near the hotel, it was really delicious. The cuisine in S.F. is very delicious. Because it's not a car-city like L.A., lots of taxis available at night, I could eat dinner until very late there.
Be-with I heard you also ate catfish after the show.
Tak Aa--, hai. After the show, the staff told me 'Catfish here are umai'. I had them in Japan but they weren't umai at all. So I went to eat some but I think there was bitterness in the meat.
Be-with Bitter?
Tak What I mean with bitter is mud-smell. The staff said that's what's so oishii about it, they liked the taste. Simple sweet vinegar catfish. I ate one bite and was like, mud-smell... I couldn't like it.
Koshi In Chinatown?
Tak The place where we all went together last time in Chinatown.
Koshi Oh there (laugh).
Tak Un.
Be-with The place where you went to during the recording of "Brotherhood" ne?
Tak That's right. All of us including band's support members went touring the city. We went to this Chinese restaurant then. During our stay, we ate there 2, 3 times.
Be-with The live venue in S.F. was full of sparkling glittering lights, sorta moody feel.
Tak That's the cool part.
Be-with Among the venues you have performed in before, is there any that makes you go, 'this place is so weird'?
Koshi But in America, all the venues were different and special in their own ways. Maybe because they are mostly clubs.
Tak Un.
Koshi Therefore there's personality in each venue ne.
Be-with The lighting tends to be not as bright.
Koshi Darker, yes. The changing room was also dark.

Be-with The S.F. venue wasn't fixed properly, they had a 'happening', parts of the ceiling collapsed. Koshi I didn't know this. Tak During our live? Rik It collapsed on the area behind the stage. Tak When was this? Rik At Fillmore. Be-with Some dust flew around your equipments. Tak Hontou?

Tak's sensational solo in "Love is Dead"

SEATTLE: JIMMY HENDRIX, THE AUDIENCE
Be-with Hai. Next was Seattle. You both went sight-seeing there too.
Tak If you call it sight-seeing, our hotel was at a very convinient place, it was possible to walk anywhere ne.
Be-with Inaba-san went to Seattle Mariners' baseball field ne.
Koshi It was raining so the field was closed and there was no game. I thought 'I shall walk a bit more' but since there was no roof (laugh), I just looked around the field and went back to the hotel.
Be-with Matsumoto-san paid a visit to Jimi Hendrix's grave.
Tak Sou sou. I went there straight from the airport.
Be-with Was it near?
Tak It was nearer from the airport. The tombs in America are usually marble stone buried in the ground, right? The cemetery gets many visitors, but only the lawn at Jimi Hendrix's grave was worn out. And there's also a tower thing that stands as a monument. I bought some flowers and put it in the centre. The wind blew hyuuu... and it fell over and broke.
Be-with The flower vase was broken?
Tak Yes. When I bought the flower, I also bought a vase to put them in, that vase broke. I put it right in the middle of this gigantic marble stone, 'su... su...' (=peaceful/quiet).
Be-with You performed "Little Wing" in the Seattle's concert, right?
Tak In the end, I couldn't perform it nicely (laugh).
Koshi (laugh)
Tak And afterwards someone said to me 'Didn't you just paid a visit to his grave!' (laugh)

Be-with I heard that right before "Little Wing", the amplifier was broken. Tak Really? Was it broken? Kikuchi No. It wasn't because of broken amp. Koshi On "Little Wing", Shane was to blamed (laugh). Everyone (laugh) Tak Iya, it's the truth. Only on Seattle concert did I rehearse this song and planned to perform it. I don't know what Shane was thinking, he started to play in 3-beat rhythm. Everyone (laugh)

Emotional "MOTEL"

Koshi I heard it from stage's side and thought 'What's gonna become of this!' (laugh)
Tak Since I had always planned to play in 4-beat, I didn't realize it at all. But Barry realized it, he kept following the 3-beat. Barry and Matsuda kept stretching the chords to be longer ne (laugh). I still didn't know what happened until afterwards when they asked 'What happened there?' and Shane said, 'Sorry, man!' I was like, 'Omae! Sorry man jyanai yo!' (laugh)
Everyone (laugh)
Koshi He and Barry kept performing it with a forced smile in their faces 'it's too late' (laugh).
Tak Barry realized from the beginning, therefore it was all Shane's fault!! (laugh)
Koshi (laugh) But 3-beat was more difficult ne.
Tak Un. But not like it's impossible to play.
Be-with Hatayama-san, the guitar technician wrote in his notebook that right before "Little Wing", there was some trouble with the amp.
Tak Aa, so it was really something to make us perform much harder than usual, 'play seriously now!' Seattle especially gave me that impression. Also because the audience was sugoku yokatta (=really great).
Koshi Sugokatta ne (great). There was somebody who started a fight and got thrown outside (laugh).
Be-with During the concert?
Koshi Un. I think he was Japanese. Maybe the tension was too high, his outburst was of rather unusual level. The security guy went on him guwaaa and took him away (laugh), out of the place.
Be-with The concert itself was very successful, wasn't it?
Koshi Sugoi yo.
Tak Un. The concert itself was sugoku yokatta yo ne! Maybe because the 'happening' and other troubles (laugh). Seattle concert really gave me deep impression. Even with troubles and such, the live itself was really great, afterwards everyone including the staff said 'Yokatta!'.
Be-with They also made special poster for the concert.
Koshi Aa, they did.
Tak That was in Seattle?
Koshi Perhaps it was used for concert announcement.
Tak In Fillmore, there were also decorated posters ne.
Koshi That was great ne.
Tak It's a great traditional place.

"Do you know how to do Banzai? Here, I'll show you." From Vegas to Vancouver, it was Banzai all the way.

VANCOUVER: SHANE'S HOMETOWN
Be-with Last stop was Vancouver. Was it the first time in Vancouver for the both of you?
Tak First time in Canada.
Koshi Me too.
Be-with The flight was delayed, it was quite troublesome.
Koshi The staff's flight ne.
Tak Sou sou. Some people who were supposed to be on the earlier flight couldn't get on it, even though they still managed to catch the flight in the same day, they were very late. The schedule of the other staff might also have to change because of that, maybe?
Be-with On the night before the concert, Inaba-san went to have dinner at Denny's.
Koshi Un. Every place was closed already ne. Even the restaurant we reserved seats said 'We're closed'. So reservation didn't have any meaning (laugh).
Be-with Was Matsumoto-san's dinner alright?
Tak Fortunately I was taken to have Japanese that night. It was a very leisury city ne.
Be-with Was it different from America?
Tak Zenzen chigau ne (=very different). The city was very beautiful. It was Shane's hometown. He became quite nervous.
Koshi Sou da ne.
Tak He was so nervous that I was thinking 'Nande? Doushitano?' (=Why? What's up?). You know how Inaba would warm up his voice before the concert like usual, right, 'AAAA~'? And beside him, Shane was like 'do do do do do do do', practising real hard. Mou sugoi no (laugh). He said many relatives and friends were coming to see us so looks like he was nervous because of that.
Be-with So will you be including North America shows in the tour from now on?
Tak By all means, I'd like to, yes.

December 2003, Be-with vol.60