Fuji Rock Fest: 3 days of agonizing musical decisions

Read the first installment 'I wuz there!'

Day 1: Liam Gallagher kinda phoned it in; Stone Roses reunite after 20 years
Photographer Niña Sandejas and I began the first festival day with rather delicate temperaments and even more delicate legs: we arrived late afternoon the previous day with our friend Yuta Nomura and walked the festival grounds to map out the terrain.

(The Prince Naeba Hotel where we stayed, though firmly within the festival grounds, is 20 minutes by foot from the main entrance…IF there weren't any queues.)

We fueled up with vitamin water and trudged to the Green Stage in time to catch Ed Sheeran perform the first few minutes of his solo set. Sheeran was armed with just a guitar and a loop pedal, with stunning results.

We made our way towards the White Stage just as UK/Scottish band Django Django was performing. Owl City followed Sheeran on the Green Stage.

Still trying to recover from the previous day's legwork, we grabbed some sausages and drinks and sat near the New Power Green Field Avalon area a hundred or so meters away where the festival's No Nukes stance was pronounced (gently but firmly) with Detroit-based funk-and-soul band Third Coast Kings as our live soundtrack.

The beautiful thing about FRF is that the sound systems are consistently great; you really did not need to be near the stages to hear the music clearly. Finding a good spot sonically was hardly a problem.

I decided to brave the queue for band merchandise and ended up in line for an hour-and-a-half. Japan's The Birthday was playing an awesome set. I couldn't see them but there it was: their aggressive tuneful tunes ringing loud and clear despite the distance. By the time I got a couple of shirts, Boom Boom Satellites were onstage with their jaw-dropping mix of electronica and heavy metal.

Beady Eye went onstage at 7:20; Liam Gallagher sounded like he had a cold, smearing together the syllables to every song from the beginning ("Four Letter Word") to end although he and the band did play quite consistently though a little pedestrian in feel.

He dedicated a song to "the one and only Mr. Noel Gallagher" (the brothers reportedly have made some amends) and played Oasis' "Rock n Roll Star." Whatever the case, Beady Eye knew they merely warming up the crowd for the night's headliners: the reunited Stone Roses.

The Stone Roses played WITH time as John Squire launched into long exploratory guitar solos, anchored by Reni's superb drumming and Mani's elastic bass lines. Ian Brown, ego-less and ever charismatic, gladly let Squire have the spotlight.

If the Madchester scene had a resident jam band, the Roses are it. As elder statesmen who helped birth Britpop (whether they acknowledge it or not), they had nothing to prove. From "I Wanna Be Adored" to "I Am the Resurrection," they had the entire audience in their hands. The Roses ended with a group hug, a poignant moment for fans who waited 20 years for a reunion that Squire insisted would never happen.

Day 2: Toots & the Maytals and The Specials monkey around
Japanese shoegaze/post-rock band Mono's set with the Holy Ground Orchestra at the White Stage overlapped with Seun Kuti and Egypt 80's muscular Afro-funk on the Green Stage.

The relatively lighter traffic between both venues allowed for a leisurely walk and glimpse of both acts; I bridged the travel with a takoyaki late lunch. While Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds were the headliners on that day (preceded by a reformed The Specials that featured Terry Hall and Lynval Golding), one of the highlights was clearly Toots and The Maytals.

"Toots" Hibbert is credited as one of the originators of reggae but clearly he defied genres. With his gospel/classic r&b vocals, plus cuing his band to launch into tempos that blurred the lines between ska and a Baptist church service, his set exuded joy.

The Specials and The Maytals both performed "Monkey Man" during their respective sets. Though written by Hibbert, the song remains a signature piece for both acts and Lynval Golding naturally dedicated the song to Toots. Golding also dedicated a song to the Japanese Female Football Team and Amy Winehouse.

Day 3: Elvis Costello vs. Refused vs. Radiohead

Japan's math-pop-post-rock band Toe played the Green Stage at 2:00pm on Day 3. On their recent Manila visit, they played for 2,000 dedicated fans in a comfortable air-conditioned tent. In Fuji Rock, that number is multiplied by ten, as is the enthusiastic response even if the mid-day sun sandblasts your skin (the Naeba rain never came save for a few scattered and all-too brief drops).

Japanese legend Yosui Inoue followed after Toe's set and filled the main grounds to capacity, the response even more enthusiastic. This is another inspiring aspect of the festival: the Japanese love music whether it's from a local superstar or a gaijin artist. They sang along with as much fervor with Inoue as they did with foreign songs.

Jack White, armed with a Telecaster and prettiness that rivaled even his beautiful all-female band The Peacocks, took to the stage after Inoue.

Exhaustion and a bladder full of piss however took the better of me and I had no choice but to truncate the experience as I also wanted to catch Explosions In The Sky in another area of the resort.

The traffic however was non-stop: I saw a bit of Explosions and resorted to just rely on the efficient sound system while walking back to catch Elvis Costello and The Impostors. Two songs into his set and I head back to the White Stage (while gleefully singing along to Costello's "Radio Silence" and "Everyday I Write The Book") to catch reunited Swedish hardcore legends Refused.

It truly is frustrating to make decisions like this: classic and still-inspired genius (Costello) or raging progressive hardcore one-off reunion band (Refused)? I stayed for most of Refused ("Summer Holiday Vs Punk Routine" straight into "The Deadly Rhythm" being a highlight for me) until I again had to consider the pilgrimage back to the Green Stage for Radiohead.

Save for "Karma Police" and encore/closer "Paranoid Android," Radiohead picked songs from "Kid A" to "The King of Limbs" for their two-hour set that thrilled the 40,000-plus in attendance. Thom Yorke was in a jovial playful mood, imitating Beavis (!) briefly, and shrieked "IRASHAIMASE!", eliciting laughter from the packed FRF crowd. Guitarist Ed O'Brien also smiled at length and the levity is most welcome: Radiohead never were a party-hardy band now, yeah? With all due respect to the reunion acts, Radiohead's dad-rock retrospective future will still be a ways off…if at all.

Looking back, it is amazing that my Fuji Rock Experience was filled to the brim with a lot of activities yet there was a lot more that I missed: The Palace of Wonder (where you could party after the last notes of the headliners have died down), The Rookie Ago-Go Stage (powered by Strummerville which supports young bands in the name of the late Joe Strummer) and I never even made it to The Orange Court.
Well, there's always next year.

Special thanks to Johnnie Moylett/Smash, Yuta Nomura, Hayato Bo of Arbus and Owen Vidallon.