Report from "One" Release Party Vol 2

Oak is always a treat to see live, and tonight’s show was no exception. Unlike previous lives, the 2nd release party for their album, One, featured a new member. To find out who this enchanting female guitarist is, read our interview with Oak after the show Kaoru Miura fooled around on his effect board and laptop to commence starting rocking out on his bass once all the pieces were in place. Once he had coordinated all his instruments, he would usually stick to playing the bass. The guitarist was an interesting addition who really stole the show. She was dancing and going crazy on stage and featured a bright pink bohemian getup. During some songs, the music was a chill electronic feel, only to be erupted into thrashing guitar riffs with her on her knees wailing out notes. Her guitar playing was fresh and was unique. For instance at one song while thrashing on her guitar, she started punching/stomping on the foot petals with her hands. With the addition of the guitar, the songs sounded completely different than the album and added a new flavor to Oak’s music. Sounds on the album that were synthesized, were played on the guitar using heavy distortion and a range of other effects.

The drummer, Naoki Hirai took the backstage in the show and banged out quiet beats that accompanied the music, and at other times was the main attraction of the music. Overall the drums were perfectly aligned with the music and for a band with only 2 members, did not feel saturated with drum beats. The live performance was an interesting implementation of a seemingly electronic group into a live set. At some points it sounded as if it was exclusively rock music. The crowd clearly dug it and everyone in the front was dancing to the grooves.

As always Naoki Hirai, had a cool composure to him the entire concert while the bassist seemed content behind his machinery and would bob his head to the music. Normally the bassist is going nuts and head banging and jumping around. For this show, he only left the reaches of his console for one song to rock out for the audience. I suppose the addition of the super hyper guitarist let the two main members focus on playing while the guitarist was left to perform. For another portion she seemed to just fall on herself and laid on the ground for an entire song. It seemed spontaneous and added a flavor of humor to the concert.

For the encore, they couldn’t figure out what song to play, but finally decided on a song. The bassist taught the drummer how to use the Console which took some time. Once she understood the innerworkings of the machine, they started the song. There were definitely some mistakes in the song, but what can you expect from a band this spontaneous that they just hand off an instrument to someone who has never played it before! If you have the opportunity to see them live, you should definitely treat yourself. For a preview of one of their previous concerts, watch this clip (track 3 from their newest album):