Tag Archives: Events

Koshi Inaba News

Koshi Inaba and Stevie Salas will reform their CHUBBY GROOVE band for a few limited engagements this fall amidst Koshi’s B’z commitments. First, they will appear at SUMMER SONIC 2017 on August 19th and August 20th, performing with the Foo Fighters, All Time Low, Man with a Mission, and Royal Blood on both dates in Osaka and Tokyo, respectively.

Days later, the band will team with visual kei artist Miyavi and rock outfit Made in Asia for a special event at Toyosu PIT in Tokyo. Made in Asia is a band whose roster includes Duran, who has appeared with Koshi on his solo tours in 2014 and 2016.

The return of INABA/SALAS has been teased by Salas on numerous occasions on social media, and if recent posts are any indication, there could be something more on the horizon as well:

“Tonight we announced 4 HUGE rock concerts coming in August INABA SALAS on stage with some bands like the Black Eye Peas and The Foo Fighters will rock in August in Japan AND…????? Stay tuned! I live for the big shows…100 thousand plus suites me fine.”

The fourth show mentioned by Salas has not been officially confirmed but, if occurring, would be expected to take place in August or September as well.

UPDATE: Stevie Salas has clarified his post and confirmed that another date is coming soon, and that it will be in a country outside of Japan:

3 concerts in Japan in August plus another country added sooooon??!!BUT I can’t say where just yet

News

The third wave of artists to perform at this year’s ROCK IN JAPAN FESTIVAL has just been announced. Among them is B’z, who will perform on August 5th. For the band, this marks the second festival appearance of the year, followed by the appearance at the RISING SUN ROCK FESTIVAL in EZO on August 11th. B’z is making an appearance at both festivals for the first time—possibly with the goal to expand their fanbase.

In the past, B’z has performed at festivals like SUMMER SONIC in 2007 and 2009. These two festivals gave fans pre-release glimpses at “SUPER LOVE SONG” and “MY LONELY TOWN” respectively, before they later became singles. In more recent years, the band has performed at the TV Asahi Dream Festival in 2011 and 2015. A special festival was also conducted together with American rock band Aerosmith in 2013, called AEROSONIC.

News

It has just been revealed that B’z will appear at the RISING SUN ROCK FESTIVAL 2017 to be held in Hokkaido at a special outdoor site of the Tarukawa Wharf in Otaru city near Sapporo. The festival is to be held on August 11th and August 12th, 2017. The day B’z is going to be performing will be announced in the near future.

Fans have expected more of the first announcement, but it clearly shows that B’z is gearing up for a couple of live shows this year! As for the CLUB-GYM, dates are probably going to be announced with the B’z PARTY website renewal, which has now been pushed back. The renewed website is now set to go live sometime between mid and end of April. Further information is expected to come with the new Be With! issue coming in the next weeks.

News

On August 23rd, a joint statement signed by 116 Japanese artists was released which strongly voices the need to prevent scalpers from selling concert tickets at a premium. The campaign’s aim is to save the future of music, as ticket scalping hurts the industry and fans alike. Fans who want to buy tickets usually find that the tickets are already sold out because scalpers have already bought the remaining ones, only to resell them at a high price elsewhere.

B’z tickets are very hard to obtain because they are usually sold through ticket lotteries. Tickets in general sale are hard to come by, as well. As such, with every live tour, be it solo or B’z, Japanese auction sites are flooded with B’z fanclub tickets, although their resale is not allowed. Furthermore, general sale tickets are also sold for very high sums.

To counter this, B’z also recently started tightening measures, requiring photos of the attendees to be uploaded in the case of very exclusive concerts, such as the fanclub-exclusive SHOWCASE last year. Upon entry, the ticket holder will be identified and matched to the information stored in the system. This system may even someday be extended to the use of facial recognition software, as already employed by bands such as Arashi.

Via: Tenbai NO

Tak Matsumoto News

Details regarding the special campaign for Tak Matsumoto’s upcoming solo album 「enigma」 have been revealed. A show dubbed “Tak Matsumoto Special Live” will take place amidst his solo tour on May 2nd. The show takes place at “Mt.RAINIER HALL SHIBUYA PLEASURE PLEASURE” in Tokyo. People who buy his new album will find a special code within the package that allows them to enter a lottery for tickets for the special show.

Instructions on how to apply are written on the card that comes with the code. Application deadline is April 11th, so make sure you get your copy in time.

Feature

At the recent 58th Annual Grammy Awards held in Los Angeles, Tak Matsumoto appeared during Japanese broadcaster WOWOW’s live coverage of the event as a guest. Actor-musician Johnny Depp and Aerosmith guitarist Joe Perry appeared in the preceding segment to promote their supergroup Hollywood Vampires and were photographed by the staff with Tak as he emerges for the interview.

Today, the full ten minute interview is now available to be viewed below, complete with subtitles.