Great ending of 2009 business days

Most of my co-workers were at a club to party yesterday evening - some of them formed a band or two to entertain their colleagues. That's a tradition of my company to do on the last business day of the year, which was all forgotten for years and revived last year.

Unfortunately (more likely fortunately for me ;)) I skipped it last year at the last minute. But this year, I had a great excuse to skip it again. Going to Budokan to see Josh Freese play with Kazuya Yoshii. I saw Josh 3 times in a couple of years at interviews but had never seen him play live. And it was the very first time for him to play live in legendary Budokan, which he said a week ago it would mean a lot to him. You know, all the great "live at Budokan" albums we listened to when we were younger.

I actually don't know much about Yoshii-san's music but it was awesome to see all those people standing, singing and dancing to his songs from the arena to the 3rd floor! The venue was literally packed! It was truly overwhelming! My seat was in the 2nd row right in the middle on the 1st floor where you can see Josh at the front. I know it's one of the best seats but... was a bit uncomfortable to sit right behind some well-known musicians. Japanese popular musicians generally wear this 'closed atmosphere' around them and don't even speak to anyone who they don't know. It's totally different from all the western musicians I have worked with. I knew it but it looked weird to see it in my eyes. Aloof and cool... in a way. A couple of guys in front of me, I don't know who they are, wore a big white mask for disguise throughout the show... Hmmm, I will never understand their mentality.

Anyway, Josh was awesome! My eyes were totally glued to him all the time. The way he moves his arms is unique and he is good at making everything look easy to play. But you just hear his incredible techniques through his performance. A professional drummer I was with said right after the show that he wanted to go home and hold the sticks to shadow play how Josh plays. I don't play drums but I understood how this drummer felt. If you were a drummer, you would definitely want to try how he moves his arms and hit the drums and cymbals. He can be an inspiration for all the drummers for sure!

I never thought I would spend my last business day of 2009 like that. It was certainly a great experience and so much fun. I somehow feel my 2010 will be a great year now. And I wish everybody out there a new year starting with joy and happiness from the very first minute of it!!