I am somewhat of a big fan of Asian Kung-Fu Generation mainly due to my interests in the bands Manic Street Preacher and Feeder, which is how I discovered them. I think that their latest album 'Hometown' was an all-around, good album and I think that Sol-Fa is an album you must listen to in its entirety. My favourite albums have been Fanclub and the Can't Sleep EP. When I heard that they were coming back to England all the tickets had sold out already and only the VIP tickets remained. As I felt I must to see them live, I burned a hole in my pocket and conjured up some train tickets.
![]()
As I live a while away from London, I needed to go on a train journey. As I didn't have a lot of money, I wanted to get the cheapest train tickets, meaning I would be travelling early in the morning to get there and early in the morning to get back. I set out in the rain, down in into city to the train station and made my way to London. I spent most of the day anticipating the gig, reading some books and grabbing food. The time went quickly. When it got to about an hour and a half before the concert I decided to head down to the venue. It was a short walk to the venue, so that was a bonus. I thought that the venue looked lovely. I hadn't been to this venue before, so it was a nice surprise. It was along a canal right next to a lock. The nightlife was quite lively. All the food stores around the lock collectively had a lovely aroma. The lights reflecting on the water was also a pretty sight.
The venue was quite small, but that in my opinion makes for a more intimate concert. The type of crowd waiting for the gig wasn't really, typically my type of audience. They were typically anime fans and a mix of Japanese people. You see I typically go to metal-based concerts, so the room is full of mosh pits and circle pits. Everybody is wearing battle jackets. I found it quite humorous because unfortunately Asian people are typically small and European people are noticeably tall so it was a mix of people running around trying to find a good place to see the stage because all the tall people were blocking the view. Fortunately, the room settled to a point where everybody could see alright.
![]()
It wasn't much of a wait for the band to come on, and when they came on it was one good song after the other. Predominantly the setlist was oriented towards songs off the Hometown album as well as the Sol-Fa album which was to be expected. They did play a couple of songs off Fanclub and a song off Can't Sleep which made my evening. I think that Waltz in Codebook is one of my favourites, if not my favourite AKFG song so getting to hear that live was damn cool.
When a song that was used, that was used in an Anime came on, the room went into hype mode. It was exactly what I wanted to see, it's just a shame it wasn't like that for all the songs in the setlist but I’m not complaining. A jam-packed room when Re: Re comes on. Perfect. I’m pretty sure everyone and myself included nearly lost our voices singing every lyric to the songs. When a room comes alive like that, you know that it’s a good night.
Unfortunately, the encore then came and went and before I knew it, the night was over. It was for sure a night not to forget though. If they ever come back to the UK I for one, will be in that crowd. Leaving the venue, I felt really content. Was it the best gig I had been to all year? Nearly but I knew for sure that was one for the books. I also had a cool, signed poster to show for it as well as all the memories. I was going to buy a CD but skimmed out on it though. I’m still down I didn’t grab one at the time.
Setlist:
01. Clock Work
02. Hometown
03. Angou no Waltz
04. N2
05. Siren
06. Easter
07. Senseless
08. Standard
09. Circus
10. UCLA
11. Kouya wo Aruke
12. Whatever/Wonderwall (oasis cover)
13. Maigo Inu to Ame no Beat
14. Re:Re:
15. Yellow
16. Rewrite
17. Seija no March
18. Ima wo Ikite
19. Kimi to lu Hana
20. Boys & Girls
Encore:
21. Kaigan Doori
22. Blood Circulator
23. Haruka Kanata
At the end of the night, I needed to go back to the train station because, I needed to catch my train home. The only issue was that the train wasn't going to even arrive till twenty minutes to one. If that wasn't bad enough, the train would stop at a station at three in the morning so I would need to wait for another train to come at half five in the morning, to get me back to my city. Due to this, I brought cans of monster to get me through the night. It was a tough game staying awake but thankfully it was so cold that I was forced to.
By the time I made it back to my city, the ground was covered in rain and the sun was yet to still come up, so it was still pitch black with the streetlights still on. I was surprised by the amount of people that happened to be awake at this time in the morning. Nevertheless, I was just happy to get home and get in my bed. Was it worth it though? Hell, to the yes and I would do it all over again.
↧