A Head Full of Wishes is a site for Galaxie 500, Luna, Damon & Naomi, Dean & Britta and Dean Wareham. With news, articles and lists of releases and past and future shows.
My record collection
[363] - Damon & Naomi - Shibuya O-Nest, Tokyo, Japan 2005 (DVD)
This was the first of two Japanese shows that Damon & Naomi released on limited run DVDs - this was filmed in June 2005 and released at the end of that year.
The video is very much of bootleg quality, one camera, show-lighting, no camera movement (just zooms and pans) but is a lovely record of Damon & Naomi’s live show with Masaki Batoh, Michio Kurihara, and Bhob Rainey and a guest appearance from Mikami Kan on one track.
What is it about last shows on a tour? The band is exhausted, but at its most together; the mood can be loose, but intense because it's the last night; the feelings are celebratory, but also melancholy.
The Galaxie 500 live CD, "Copenhagen," was the last show of a long European tour; the D&N with Kurihara "Live in San Sebastian" CD was likewise recorded at the end of an exhausting tour. And earlier this year, the last show in Japan of The Earth Is Blue tour turned out to be a similarly special night for us.
First of all, we had a dream band on stage with us: Kurihara, of course. But also Masaki Batoh from Ghost, fingerpicking an acoustic guitar. Bhob Rainey, on soprano sax. And we asked the legendary singer Mikami Kan - who had opened all our shows in Japan - if he might join us on stage for an encore this last evening. He honored us by saying yes . . .
We put together a set list that reflected the group we had assembled - the band's choice of our touring material, from the new album and otherwise; plus a song by Ghost ("Awake in a Muddle"); a song by Kurihara drawn from his remarkable solo album ("The Wind's Twelve Quarters"); and, for the encore with Mikami Kan, an improvised medley of our song that is dedicated to him ("Ueno Station") with a traditional Japanese "enka" tune that he recorded on one of our favorite albums of his ("Sendou Kouta"). At the end, because the crowd asked for a second encore, and because we always get a bit sentimental in Japan, we played the Galaxie 500 song "Blue Thunder."
And then we packed up and went home. There's always so much to attend to on coming home from a long tour, and somehow the last echoes of the trip fade first.
So some months later, we were surprised and delighted when a package arrived from our friend Hiroo Ishihara in Japan - Ishihara (who directed the great Ghost DVD released earlier this year) had filmed that night's show in Tokyo, and edited it for us as a souvenir on DVD.
We're pressing a limited run of these DVDs, to share the souvenir with anyone who might have come to one of our shows this year, or wanted to but couldn't. Thanks to Ishihara and all the friends we had on stage, it's a show we will always remember from our tour of the world.
Damon & Naomi release announcement (3rd November 2005)
It’s bootleggy origins make it something that doesn’t really reward repeated viewings, the image are very murky… sometimes you can barely make out the performers, particularly Kurihara who stands in the dark towards the back of the stage making his majestic sounds. The sound however is beautiful so it can reward repeated listenings!
It came in a beautiful sleeve designed by Naomi.
- Catalogue Number: AHFOW 13/001
- Artist: Damon & Naomi
- Title: Shibuya O-Nest Tokyo Japan June 24, 2005
- Format: DVD
- Bought direct from Damon & Naomi for $12 plus postage
Previously in my record collection: