Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra & Takeshi Hosomi get Mexico excited

As the Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra and Takeshi Hosomi took the stage at , their next stage was in Mexico. We will deliver you the live report sent from their official page.

As the first Japanese artist to do so, Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra (aka Skapara) stood on the main stage of . Takeshi Hosomi (the HIATUS) made quite an impact on Japanese music listeners when he came out on Skapara’s stage with a suit matching with Skapara. But the impact did not stop at Coachella. The day after Skapara and Takeshi Hosomi had their joint performance, their stage crossed the border to the second largest city in Mexico, Guadarajara. The relation between Skapara and Mexico goes back to April of 2011 when they were invited to the largest festival in Latin America . That was the first time they set foot in Mexico where they made tens of thousands of enthusiastic audiences that came to the stadium dance wildly and getting many cheers.

On April 20th, 2000 people gathered at the outdoor stage in Guadarajara to watch Skapara perform. The opening performance bands were way behind schedule pushing back their performance time to 1:00 am. Even with such a time, the audience waite with excitement while cheers echoed through the night sky of Guadarajara craving for Skapara to come out and perform. When Skapara appeared on the stage, the audience’s excitement reached its peak. At the opening MC, Atsushi Taninaka (B.sax) talked in Spanish, which heated up the audience even more. The audiences called out, “Ole, ole ole ole, Tokyo, Tokyo” making them forget that they were in a foreign country.

In the middle of the concert during an intro with Atsushi Taninaka’s call, Takeshi Hosomi appeared on stage. Just as Skapara did, he receives an enthusiastic welcome from the audience.

The members of Skapara and Takeshi Hosomi unfolded a powerful performace with smiles, heating up the audiences with their energy.　Even after Takeshi Hosomi left the stage, the audience’s heat did not cool down and the enthusiastic stage finally came to an end at 2:30am.

The following day, April 21st, they performed at the capital of Mexico, Mexico City. People lined up at the venue Salon21 before the doors opened. There were many street stalls surrounding the venue selling illegal Skapara goods showing Skapara’s popularity in Mexico.

5000 people showed up for this day’s performance at Salon21, selling out all the tickets. After the opening band finished their performance and during the stage conversion, the audience erupted in a non-stop “Tokyo” call filling the concert hall with rumbling cheers so loud that conversation could not take place. With such a strange atmosphere, few staff expressed their concerns, “This could even be dangerous.”

With the opening sound effect playing, the Skapara members full of sprit appeared on stage where they were struck by the roaring sound of the audience’s simmering cheers. To not be outweighed by the power and the energy, the Skapara members performed their first song “Shot In The Dark” in top gear. The next song “Hijyosen Toppa”, NARGO’s firing trumpet blasted the audience and Hajime Oomori (Per) agitating　the crowd. For the third song “Skyaraban”, the members on the stage and the audience came to a climax as if the live was coming to an end.

Just like the previous day, Atsushi Taninaka excited the audience by MCing in Spanish. He finishes off with his signature phrase in Japanese, “Have fun as if you are fighting” bringing the crowd’s spirits up. Exactly as stated, the audience screamed with cheer as if they were in a fight as well as having fun with lot of smiles. Skapara members are filled with excitement the intense call of “Ole, ole ole ole, Tokyo, Tokyo” that surpass the energy they got in Guadarajara the previous day. In the middle of the performance when “SKA ME CRAZY” was being performed, just like the title, the audiences got into a “CRAZY” state.

When Takeshi Hosomi appeared on stage with Atsushi Taninaka’s signal, the 5000 people in the crowd welcomed him as well with great excitement. Takeshi Hosomi’s vocal echoed with power and coziness even more in Mexico City exquisitely merging with Skapara’s ensemble. Takeshi Hosomi had the biggest smile out of the three days, jumping around on the stage attracting overflowing smiles from the members of Skapara. After Takeshi Hosomi finished singing the first song, he introduced the second song ”Pride of Lions” with his fluent English, fascinating the members of Skapara as well. With the introduction of the song from Takeshi Hosomi, the audience heated up even more.

Even after Takeshi Hosomi left the stage, smiles still remained on the stage and the audience, and an exciting and raging stage was unfolded. When “One Step Beyond” was played, Takeshi Hosoi came back on stage and started dancing with the members of Skapara. The last song was “All Good Ska is One” completing their performance. With cheers for an encore from the audiences, Skapara members were encouraged to come back on the stage and played “5 days of TEQUILA” guiding the audiences to a higher excitement. At the member introduction, each one expressed their gratitude to the audience and Takeshi Hosomi was called up on stage once again at the end where he expressed his emotions.

The last number of this day was “DOWN BEAT STOMP” where the members of Skapara, Takeshi Hosomi and the audiences danced crazily. After the performance, the members thanked the audience for the energy they exchanged and left the stage.

With this, Skapara members and Takeshi Hosomi’s raging three days came to an end.

Skapara will be performing　 in May after they return from Mexico. Maybe the kind of miracles that happened at Coachella and Mexico will happen at one of these venues…..?

Official Website: http://tokyoska.net/index.html
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/TokyoSkaParadiseOrchestra
Twitter: http://twitter.com/tokyoskaj
YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/tokyoskanet
iTunes: http://itunes.apple.com/artist/tokyo-ska-paradise-orchestra/id73969372

Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra