GEt youR caFFEinE Fix in thE city - Metropolis

Metpod
AGENDABy
Dan GruneBaum
nightlife
maDchesTer niGhT 2012
� In case you hadn’t noticed, it’s Japan’s year of
Madchester. The Stone Roses are headlining Fuji
Rock, and Peter Hook just performed Joy Division
songs at the Hacienda Oiso festival. But Japan also
responded to England’s late ’80s ecstasy-fueled,
rock-meets-dance-music revolution with its own
Second Summer of Love. For one night, nostalgic
fans and the merely curious can witness two of
those bands, Venus Peter [pictured] and Secret
Goldfish, on stage together for the first time in 15
years. DJ Yoda and co. will be on hand to spin classic
tunes of the era.
Unit, May 26. See club listings for details.
exhibition
Goya anD spanish
painTinG in The louvre
� Imagine if you could enjoy a famous artwork
in solitude. Entered only w ith reser vations,
Gotanda’s Louvre DNP Museum Lab is a collaboration
between the landmark Paris museum and
Dai Nippon Printing that brings this dream to
fruition. For its current show visitors get to examine
at close reach one of Spanish master painter
Goya’s finest works, The Boy in Blue. Viewers not
only get to enjoy the painting in peace and quiet,
they can also take in advanced multimedia
materials explaining the canvas’s significance—
including a life-size video introduction by Louvre
curator Guillaume Kientz.
Louvre DNP Museum Lab, until Oct 28. See
exhibition listings (other areas) for details.
© photo Dnp / philippe fuzeau
Courtesy of unit
Francisco de Goya y
Lucientes Luis María de
Cistué y Martínez 1791
Musée du Louvre, Paris
(RF 2009-5)
art
Thomas DemanD
� Is it real or fake? Should we care? At first glance,
German artist Thomas Demand’s photographs
of nuclear control rooms and presidential offices
look real. On closer examination they yield small
clues that they are in fact cardboard constructions
of Demand’s making. In the conceptual artist’s
first major exhibition in Japan, viewers are asked
to question their perceptions of key places and
events in recent history. Says New York Times art
critic Michael Kimmelman: “The reconstructions
were meant to be close to, but never perfectly,
realistic so that the gap between truth and fiction
would always subtly show.”
Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo, until
Jul 8. See exhibition listings (other areas) for
details.
festival
Taicoclub ’12
© thomas DemanD, VG BilD-kunst, Bonn / apG-Jaa, tokyo
Control Room, 2011
photo By taka imamura
� The outdoor festival season gets into high gear
with Taicoclub. Each year since 2006 the event has
“curated” a connoisseur’s selection of electronic
and post-rock acts at a mountainside setting in
Nagano. This year’s lineup is by far the most ambitious
yet. With a new album rumored to be in the
offing, New York’s Animal Collective [pictured]
make their first Japan visit in three years. Japan’s
own Boredoms and Sakanaction offer their own
takes on post-rock, while Africa Hitech, Ricardo
Villalobos and Josh Wink hold things down on the
dance floor. Advance tickets are selling quickly
and door tickets will not be available.
Kodama no Mori, Nagano Pref, Jun 2-3. See concert
listings (popular) for details.
dance
sTanD alone Zone
� French multimedia performance troupe
Systeme Castafiore makes its debut in Japan to
perform Stand Alone Zone, a fantastical mélange
of computer graphics, dance and music. Garbed in
bizarre alien costumes, dancers simultaneously
on stage and screen enter an “unknown zone,” a
kind of futuristic universe that leads the viewer
befuddled as to where the stage ends and a digitally
conjured cyberworld begins. Formed in 1990,
Systeme Castafiore takes its inspiration from the
music and stage direction of Karl Biscuit and choreography
of Marcia Barcellos.
Saitama Art Theater, Jun 23. See dance listings
for details.
gig
booTsy collins
© karl BisCuit
� “Bootzilla” used to steal the show when he was
the bassist for Parliament-Funkadelic, and proved
he’s still a show stealer at last year’s Summer
Sonic. Now those with a yen for funk can experience
Collins up close when he settles into Tokyo’s
poshest dinner club for a three-night engagement.
Born in 1951, William Earl “Bootsy” Collins cut his
teeth with James Brown before hooking up with
George Clinton’s P-Funk in 1972. The bassist has
had a storied solo career since parting ways with
Clinton in 1980, and at Summer Sonic was one of
three bassists on stage along with a pair of psychedelic
soul go-go dancers.
Billboard Live, May 31-Jun 2. See concert listings
(popular) for details.
photo By miChael weintroB
#948 • www.METROPOLIS.CO.JP • 19